MS targets car software market

AP reports that Microsoft is aiming to put a "computer in every car". "We`d like to have one of our operating systems in every car on Earth," Dick Brass, VP of Microsoft`s automotive business unit, told a technology, tolls and transportation conference last week. "It`s a lofty goal."

The Microsoft platform is already in 23 different car models, including the BMW 7 series, Citroen, Daimler, Fiat, Volvo, Hyundai and Toyota. Brass said with around 50 million new vehicles produced worldwide every year, the market for car software was comparable to that for desktop computers. Cars with the software installed should be able to notify drivers of road hazards and maintenance issues, and could even pay tolls automatically.

TechWeb News reports that the worldwide server market grew by 2% in the third quarter, the second year-over-year quarterly jump. This increase followed nine straight quarters of decline. Market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) says the increase, which amounted to factory revenue of $10.8 billion, was one percentage point higher than it had expected.

IDC says the jump was driven mainly by demand for low and medium-priced systems. The results from the latest quarter showed that sales of small and midrange systems grew, while those of high-end servers dropped by 14%. IDC notes that sales of Linux servers showed six consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue growth.

The US`s "big switch" of wireless telephone numbers appears to be going well, report companies involved with the complex process. Some observers had predicted problems in the number switch, officially called wireless local number portability (WLNP), in which subscribers may now change service providers without changing their phone numbers.

TSI Telecommunications Service, which processes 80% of the switching orders, said hundreds of thousands of subscribers had moved to switch their numbers by mid-day on the first day of the WLNP switch. The WLNP is expected to be good news for handset dealers, but some observers predict that logistical problems could hamper the process. In Europe, thousands of mobile phone subscribers who tried to switch service providers waited months for the exercise to be completed earlier this year.

Toshiba and NEC say the DVD forum - the international association of electronics makers and movie studios - has approved their standard for next generation DVDs. AP reports that this helps them compete against a rival standard based on the Blu-ray disc format, which has a larger recording capacity. The rival format is advocated by Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial which makes the Panasonic brand and Phillips Electronics NV.

Next-generation DVDs will be able to record five times the amount of information current DVDs can. Toshiba and NEC say their format, called HD DVD, can be priced around 20% cheaper than a comparable Blu-ray model.