Microsoft Office 3. Google Apps for Business. Microsoft has launched its new cloud based version of the widely used Microsoft Office, in the shape of Office 3. Office, Share. Point Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online products. Charged for by what the company calls predictable monthly subscription, Microsoft claims that this release comes on the back of testing carried out by some 2. By submitting your personal information, you agree that Tech. Target and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers. You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. Whether Microsoft can take on Google Apps in the race to corporate adoption of these online services by real businesses will be decided by cost, usability and security. So who comes out on top How much is that cloud service in the WindowMicrosoft has been nothing if not complicated with its pricing structure for Office 3. A hot desking kiosk user who doesnt own his or her own computer can gain entry level access to Exchange and Share. Point for 2. 6. 0 per month. At the other end of the scale, a higher end enterprise user will need to shell out around 1. Office and the Lync Plus voice communications product. Note that prices quoted here are converted from US dollars at the exchange rate at the time of writing. Pricing plans for small businesses and professionals are covered in full on the Office 3. Microsofts P1 plan at 3. The P1 plan includes Exchange e mail, calendar and contacts, a 3. GB mailbox, Office Web Apps, a simple public website, desktop sharing, online meetings and a few other morsels. Microsoft then has four E plan pricing options for so called information workers, and the K plan for the kiosk worker family, where prices are pitched to reflect usage by workers Microsoft gauges to spend only 5 1. PC. The Google Apps for Business pricing plan on the other hand is more straightforward. Pricing on its Flexible Plan is a flat 5 3. Its official. Apples 10th anniversary iPhone is finally here and its called the iPhone X. The phones bezels have been basically eliminated, and its screen. Comcast has integrated its cloud phone service, Business VoiceEdge, with Office 365. The integration lets VoiceEdge subscribers make phone calls from Microsofts. Microsoft Office 365 is available in a variety of plans to best meet the needs of your organization. If youre looking for the differences between the. Annual Plan. Although Googles base figure of 2. Microsofts kiosk user price, Office 3. Plan E3 before they get the same e mail archiving, data export and publicly available status dashboard function available in Google Apps. Any distinguishing featuresGoogle is at pains to highlight what it labels as its other key distinguishing features, which it lists as the ability to provide mobile document and spreadsheet editing and the hundreds of automatically integrated third party applications that are available to Google Apps for Business users. You dont need to buy additional licences to work with others, or hope people outside your company have upgraded to the same software. If you have a Google account, you can collaborate, says Shan Sinha, Google Apps product manager in the companys official blog. Office 3. Windows based PCs and devices, which reduces your flexibility. Our applications are designed to work well on any device, on any operating system, he adds. Indeed, Office 3. Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft made much of this during its live launch webcast. Googles offerings, on the other hand, will work with desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones, plus they are compliant with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, Blackberry, i. OS and Windows Mobile. But then you would expect this because Googles apps are native to the web and not legacy desktop products per se. But Microsofts desktop on premise heritage is both a good thing and a bad thing. While Googles apps do a good job of existing in the cloud and proving a comparable online version of a desktop client, overall they are arguably less functionality rich than Office across the board. Microsofts domination in the productivity applications market Word, Outlook for e mail, Excel for spreadsheets, etc is the ace up its sleeve and the company will play on the comfort through familiarity line as much as it can. Googles Sinha argues the other side of this coin, saying that supplier lock in is precisely what the search giant is trying to avoid. By design, we make it as easy as possible for you to move off Google Apps if you want. We have a dedicated team of engineers whose sole goal is to help you get your data in and out of our products for free. You cannot just take legacy, desktop software, move some of it to a datacentre and call it cloud. Google Apps was born for the web and weve been serving hundreds of millions of users for years, he says. Look and feel. Sinhas last point is probably valid Office 3. That said, Microsofts installed base is massive and Windows focused IT administrators will find the core set up and operational options both familiar and fairly pleasing, if perhaps a little clunky and slower than they are used to at first. In terms of operational look and feel, Microsoft probably has the upper hand on Google. This is again down to the fact that most of us will be more familiar with typing e mails into an e mail client application and text documents into Word as opposed to any online equivalent. Google Apps makes a good attempt at integrating with Office and Outlook, but it is a bit like running Internet Explorer on a Mac or driving a car down a train track perfectly possible, but not exactly built from the ground up for compatibility and a snug fit. Google, for its part, points out that what it may lack in terms of Office related integration, it wins in document interoperability. It is important to notice that the use of WordExcelPower. Point 2. 01. 0 online is contained within Share. Point 2. 01. 0. So sharing privileges are inherent from this container. Users of Google Docs can invite users to their documents insideoutside the organisation independently of the permissions of the Google sites where they may be listed, said Google, in a press statement. Of course, if users want to edit these documents further from this point, they will need to install Office 2. SP1. Team collaboration then relies on check incheck out capabilities, which rely on client server replication mechanisms. This fact, from Googles perspective at least, is regarded as a negative whereas Microsoft is probably just as likely to spin it as a positive and harp back to its widely installed user base again. Security in question. So now we come to the 6. Office 3. 65s web forums. What about security Well, Office 3. Enterprise Plan users will be able to connect to Share. Point services using secure https SSL encrypted connections. The Secure Sockets Layer SSL protocol provides a cryptographic system for the secure transmission of documents over the internet. So thats all good then Well, not quite. Although enterprise users will get this protection, professional and small business plan users will not get SSL encrypted defences. For most small businesses and professionals for that matter there is always a need at some point to work with sensitive documentation, even if it is nothing more than the company accounts, which, in this instance, will not be protected. Explaining the companys decision to structure the Office 3. Microsoft senior product manager for Share. Point Online Mark Kashman provided the following statement We made this decision for simplicity and usability. In Share. Point Online for small business, there is user name and password protection security for intranet level team sites. Microsoft 2. 01. 4 Annual Report. Financial Review. Quarterly stock price information, issuer purchases of equity securities, dividends, and stock performance. QUARTERLY STOCK PRICEOur common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol MSFT. On July 2. 2, 2. 01. The high and low common stock sales prices per share were as follows Quarter Ended. September 3. 0December 3. March 3. 1June 3. Fiscal Year. Fiscal Year 2. High3. 6. 4. 33. Low3. Fiscal Year 2. 01. High3. 1. 6. 13. Low2. SHARE REPURCHASES AND DIVIDENDSShare Repurchases. On September 1. 6, 2. Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase program authorizing up to 4. The share repurchase program became effective on October 1, 2. This new share repurchase program replaced the share repurchase program that was announced on September 2. September 3. 0, 2. As of June 3. 0, 2. All repurchases were made using cash resources. We repurchased the following shares of common stock under the above described repurchase plans In millionsShares. Amount. Shares. Amount. Shares. Amount. Year Ended June 3. First quarter. 471,5. Second quarter. 53. Third quarter. 47. Fourth quarter. 28. Total. 17. 5 6,4. Of the 1. 75 million shares repurchased in fiscal year 2. Board of Directors on September 1. September 2. 2, 2. September 3. 0, 2. All shares repurchased in fiscal years 2. September 2. 2, 2. September 3. 0, 2. The above table excludes shares repurchased to settle statutory employee tax withholding related to the vesting of stock awards. Dividends. In fiscal year 2. Board of Directors declared the following dividends Declaration Date. Dividend Per Share. Record Date. Total Amount. Payment Date   In millions September 1. November 2. 1, 2. December 1. 2, 2. November 1. 9, 2. February 2. 0, 2. March 1. 3, 2. 01. March 1. 1, 2. 01. May 1. 5, 2. 01. 42,3. June 1. 2, 2. 01. June 1. 0, 2. 01. August 2. 1, 2. 01. September 1. 1, 2. The dividend declared on June 1. Form 1. 0 K and was included in other current liabilities as of June 3. In fiscal year 2. Board of Directors declared the following dividends Declaration Date. Dividend Per Share. Record Date. Total Amount. Payment Date   In millions September 1. November 1. 5, 2. December 1. 3, 2. November 2. 8, 2. February 2. 1, 2. March 1. 4, 2. 01. March 1. 1, 2. 01. May 1. 6, 2. 01. 31,9. June 1. 3, 2. 01. June 1. 2, 2. 01. August 1. 5, 2. 01. September 1. 2, 2. The dividend declared on June 1. June 3. 0, 2. 01. STOCK PERFORMANCECOMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURNAmong Microsoft Corporation, the S P 5. Index, and the NASDAQ Computer Index 60. Microsoft Corporation. S P 5. 00. 10. NASDAQ Computer. Business Description. Note About Forward Looking Statements. This report includes estimates, projections, statements relating to our business plans, objectives, and expected operating results that are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1. Section 2. 7A of the Securities Act of 1. Section 2. 1E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1. Forward looking statements may appear throughout this report, including the following sections Business, and Managements Discussion and Analysis. These forward looking statements generally are identified by the words believe, project, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, strategy, future, opportunity, plan, may, should, will, would, will be, will continue, will likely result, and similar expressions. Forward looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. We describe risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially in Risk Factors, Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk, and Managements Discussion and Analysis in our fiscal year 2. Form 1. 0 K. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. GENERALMicrosoft was founded in 1. Our mission is to enable people and organizations throughout the world to do more and achieve more by creating technology that transforms the way people learn, work, play, and communicate. We develop and market software, services, and devices that deliver new opportunities, greater convenience, and enhanced value to peoples lives. We do business worldwide and have offices in more than 1. We generate revenue by developing, licensing, and supporting a wide range of software products and services, by designing, manufacturing, and selling devices, and by delivering relevant online advertising to a global customer audience. In addition to selling individual products and services, we offer suites of products and services. Our products include operating systems for computing devices, servers, phones, and other intelligent devices server applications for distributed computing environments productivity applications business solution applications desktop and server management tools software development tools video games and online advertising. We also design and sell hardware including PCs, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, phones, other intelligent devices, and related accessories. We offer cloud based solutions that provide customers with software, services, and content over the Internet by way of shared computing resources located in centralized data centers. Examples of cloud based computing services we offer include Bing, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Office 3. One. Drive, Skype, Xbox Live, and Yammer. Cloud revenue is earned primarily from usage fees, advertising, and subscriptions. We also provide consulting and product and solution support services, and we train and certify computer system integrators and developers. We conduct research and develop advanced technologies for future software, devices, and services. We believe that we will continue to grow and meet our customers needs as the productivity and platform company for the mobile first and cloud first world. We will continue to create new opportunities for partners, increase customer satisfaction, and improve our service excellence, business efficacy, and internal processes. OPERATING SEGMENTSDuring the first quarter of fiscal year 2. As a result, information that our chief operating decision maker regularly reviews for purposes of allocating resources and assessing performance changed. Windows Xp Working And Tested With Sp1 For Windows. Therefore, beginning in fiscal year 2. Devices and Consumer D C Licensing, D C Hardware, D C Other, Commercial Licensing, and Commercial Other. On April 2. 5, 2. Nokia Corporations Nokia Devices and Services Business NDS. We report the financial performance of NDS in our new Phone Hardware segment. Prior to the acquisition of NDS, financial results associated with our joint strategic initiatives with Nokia were reflected in our D C Licensing segment. The contractual relationship with Nokia related to those initiatives terminated in conjunction with the acquisition. With the creation of the new Phone Hardware segment, the D C Hardware segment was renamed Computing and Gaming Hardware in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2. Our segments provide management with a comprehensive financial view of our key businesses.