Microsoft is dragging its feet in mobile race, with Ballmer to the rescue; Quebec’s single sourcing of Microsoft was illegal; and it’s time to get rid of XP.

Microsoft dragging feet in mobile race

At the All Things Digital D8 conference Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that Microsoft is number 5 in the mobile race, with a long way to go to catch the leaders. Ballmer is now in direct control of Windows Phone 7 – a clear sign that he recognizes something is wrong.

During the conference Ballmer and Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie were interviewed onstage. At one point the wide-ranging interview, Ballmer made a striking admission about Microsoft and mobile:

"We were ahead of this game and now we find ourselves No. 5 in the market...We missed a whole cycle. I've been quite public about the fact that I've made some changes in leadership around our Windows Phone software."

But is Ballmer the right man?

Many people think that Ballmer is “the right man at the right time”, primarily because he turned around another important Microsoft product: Windows. After blowing Vista, Microsoft got Windows 7 right, under Ballmer's supervision.

But mobility is now the platform, and Microsoft has multiple competitors who are well ahead of it. So, Windows may stay in charge of the PC, but the PC has become the horse and buggy – it is not where computing is going.

The failure may not be that Ballmer is taking charge, but that it is simply too late. He is a gifted executive, but he is no Steve Jobs. As one blogger has put it, “Windows Phone 7 needs the sales pitch of a lifetime”.

Quebec’s single sourcing Microsoft was illegal

The Quebec Superior Court has ruled that the provincial government broke the law by buying software from Microsoft without considering offers from other vendors.

The decision, in response to a suit filed by Savoir Faire Linux, a small Montreal-based open-source software firm, found that the government's procurement agency acted illegally in spending $720,000, beginning in the fall of 2006, on the migration of 800 workstations to Microsoft software, including Windows Vista and Office 2007.

The ruling, by Judge Denis Jacques, found that the government did not perform a "serious and documented search" for alternatives, which it must do with any expenditure over $25,000.

This is a blow to Microsoft, as it challenges two strong marketing messages from the company: one, that Microsoft software should be selected because employees are already familiar with it; and two, that Vista is an upgrade, not a purchase, and therefore does not need to be publicly tendered.

Savoir Faire Linux, which asked that the purchase be reversed, only won back the costs of its legal action.

Get rid of XP by 2012

Research company Gartner is advising companies to begin planning for and testing Windows 7 by the end of this year in order to be rid of XP before the end of 2012.

Microsoft's official support for XP doesn't end until April 2014 but Gartner said companies need to address migration to Windows 7 before then. This is in order to avoid compatibility issues as new applications increasingly fail to work with XP and independent software vendors end their support for apps on the OS.

The looming end to XP support is likely to be front of mind for many businesses, with Gartner research showing that 80% of companies have avoided deploying its successor Windows Vista.

And, according to separate research, many are going to make the leap to Windows 7 sooner rather than later: almost half of organisations say they plan to move to Windows 7 before the first service pack emerges later this year.