Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was hung out to dry back in 2002 when the U.S. government slapped it with all kinds of fines and limits based on its anti-competitive behavior in the PC market. Although Microsoft financially overcame all that was set against it, the company has not really wilted in terms of its software products or even the use of its market-leading internet browser, Internet Explorer.

When Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) released Google Docs a few years back, it may have scared software competitor Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) just a bit. Office is one of Microsoft's largest cash cows and the company knows many previous software applications are being ported to jut the web -- not to your local PC. Google's entire existence is based on this. So, when will we see Microsoft Office for the web?

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has hit an initial home run with its Bing "decision engine" that it has been advertising like crazy. But, with over 60% of the search market share in the U.S., should leader Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) be worried about the newer competitor?

Does Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) really continue to believe that it can grab internet search market share away from giants like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)? The software company, which time and time again has said it intends to continue competing in the race for search market share, is about to release its latest effort -- Bing.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) took many of the chin when it released Windows Vista over two years ago when it received as many panning reviews as possible for the world's largest software company. Since then, the software behemoth has been planning a Vista successor that is leaner, safer, and doesn't require the latest PC to provide optimum performance.

That being said, the rumor is that the new Windows 7 will be available for sale and on new PCs sometime at the beginning of 2010. According to one of Microsoft's chief Windows engineering leads, the world could see Windows 7 sometime this summer.

Verizon Wireless, a division of Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) may be partnering soon to take on the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. The iPhone, which has re-defined the mobile handset and has racked up huge sales worldwide in the 22 months in existence, needs a strong competitor. So far, all the iPhone "killers" have been anything but.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is putting the final touches on Windows 7, and by all accounts it will be Microsoft's best operating system product in nearly a decade when it's released. But that's not the only cash cow the software giant has -- its Office franchise is hugely profitable as well. Could that piece of its business ever be in jeopardy, though?

The OpenOffice.org full software productivity suite is, in an odd way, Microsoft Office's largest competitor. Largest in that it's unknown in almost every corporate circle I've seen, and significant in that it provides -- for free -- almost everything the costly Microsoft Office does.

If IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) really does go ahead and buy Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) for a cool $6.5 billion or more, the two former adversaries could be joined into a powerful computing combination. One of its -- no, its largest competitor would be: Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). With many powerful players challenging Microsoft's dominance these days (Google in the consumer space), here's another one. That is, if the merger speculation turns out to be true.

Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system was publicly marketed as a mobile operating system when it was released. The first wireless handset it was available on was the G1 smartphone offered by the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, T-Mobile USA. But, you can't keep an open-source operating system developed by the Google behemoth down to just one platform.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has had troubles recently trying to convince customers to use its Windows Live services over the competitor's products, namely those produced by Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Although Windows Live is a fine collection of services, Google gets all the glory just because of its name and because its products are no-frills and work very well. Microsoft's software doesn't exactly have the same reputation, unfortunately.

But Windows Live just got way better. Microsoft, as of late, has opened itself up to collaborating with other services, websites and partners to allow customers a "one-stop shop" for doing everything in one place. AOL did this recently by allowing all the popular email services (Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Google's Gmail) to be accessed from its custom homepage.

As these companies are now figuring out, the world does not revolve around just themselves. Customers use services from multiple companies and sources and making it all accessible under one brand or roof is now what all companies are trying to make available to their customers. Microsoft's attempt here with Windows Live includes integration of popular social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace) as well as instant messaging and email from many popular sources.

This is a great move from Microsoft. Instead of forcing customers to play in its own sandbox, the software giant has figured out that perhaps more of its customers will come to it and stay there if it offers a connection to non-Microsoft services and products that complement its own (not compete).

When the first Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld television commercial was released about three weeks ago, there were mostly negative reviews of it. After all, the spot was odd, didn't mention Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) products at all, and really did not have any connection to what Microsoft was all about. Most likely, this was by design. This was Microsoft's attempt to fend off those cute (but now, annoying) Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ads that have a "hip and cool" actor portraying the Mac PC while a geeky, nerdy actor portrays the Windows PC. And this was Microsoft's comeback? That was the question many asked.

The second commercial in the series was much better -- but it seemed more like a sitcom mini-episode than anything. The editing and writing was admirable, but still -- the connection with Microsoft's products, vision and former leader and founder was small and light at best. Where was Microsoft going with this? Was the company trying to re-invent Seinfeld's own award-winning sitcom that aired on NBC until 1998? Who knows? Throughout both commercials, though, Microsoft was generating a buzz. Although much of the best-covered buzz was negative.

Although there are reports that Microsoft is "dumping Seinfeld," perhaps he was just a way to generate initial buzz about Microsoft's campaign to position Windows Vista and other Microsoft products as helpful lifestyle tools. Although the company says that a move away from the Seinfeld-Gates shtick was a planned move, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. Regardless, Microsoft does have an enormous challenge to really get consumers convinced that a Windows PC can be just as cool as an Apple PC. Maybe a rotation of stand-up comics throughout its spots could do the trick.

When Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was seen as a monopolist in the 1990s, governments all over the world hit it with antitrust lawsuits. The world's largest software company saw its kingdom under attack even as it continued selling operating system software (and later, internet browsers) to all the world's PC manufacturers.

Microsoft is still the king when it comes to software these days, but an old nemesis, Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is shaping up to become the next monopolist in the PC technology arena.

Apple's iPod/iTunes ecosystem could be called a monopoly. It commands the lion's share of the digital music player and downloading market and customers just can't stop buying the hardware and software. Does that make Apple a monopolist? After all, by some measures, Apple's market share is now larger than Wall Street darling Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Does Apple's 11% share of the PC market make it a monopolist? Does this smaller market share even suggest that? On the surface, no. But Apple's influence extends way beyond that hardware market share figure. Its control of entire market segments would suggest Apple may resemble what Microsoft looked like 10 years ago.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will be building its fourth data center in Des Moines, Iowa at a cost of $500 million, the software maker said yesterday. The reasons give for Iowa as the site for such a large project were tax breaks as well as low energy costs. The data center will be located on a 42-acre plot of land just outside Des Moines. Fifty to 75 workers are expected at the new data center, with an average salary of $70,000 annually.

Microsoft must think adding large data centers will help its online efforts compete against Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Perhaps the company is right -- because right now, no company can touch Google's online search market. However, there are more Microsoft Hotmail and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Mail users than Google Gmail users. Google's market share lead doesn't extend into all its online product offerings, but don't think for a second that the Mountain View-based company doesn't want to steal as many users away from Microsoft's Hotmail as possible -- plus grab customers of other Microsoft online services.

The new data center will take a year to 18 months to compete, although company officials were mum on how many servers would reside there, as the company is still designing the data center. It did say that its data center servers would be contained in shipping containers instead of the standard server rack to allow more transport and setup flexibility. The state of Iowa is expected to give combined tax breaks to Ole' Softie of about $3 million per year. Not to be outdone, though, Google is building a $600 million data center just 122 miles west of Des Moines. At last, two of the largest forces in computing will be neighbors soon.

A week from today, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will no longer allow computer manufacturers to sell Windows XP.

That's right, "Ole Softie" is basically stating that new PCs must come with a flavor of Windows Vista. Although Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) will let customers keep a pre-installed version of Windows XP for a fee, the general consensus is that if you want a new PC with Windows XP on it from the factory, you better order it this week.

Windows XP will still be available from those generic "beige box" system builders until January of next year, so all is not lost. But from major computer manufacturers, it's gone next week.

Windows Vista has gotten a ton of bad press in the last year though hundreds of millions of the system have shipped already thanks to it coming pre-loaded on desktop and laptop PCs from all the leading PC makers. Still, there are some "keep it simple stupid" customers that have written off Windows Vista as being a slothy hog of an operating system and only want Windows XP on that daily-driver PC that may be a few years old, but works perfectly and is very stable.

Moral of the story -- if you've been waiting to order that new laptop with pre-installed Windows XP get that order in now or get ready to use Windows Vista.

Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Tellme Networks launched a new service this week geared at mobile phone users who would like to purchase movie tickets from their handsets -- using only their voices. Partnering with movie web site Fandango, Tellme announced that the new service would allow movie information, playing times, driving directions and even ticket purchases to be accessed by pressing only a single button on a cellphone and then using voice commands. This is the first really useful customer product that has come out of the Tellme acquisition, and it looks to be a decent one -- but it's curious that a Microsoft product will work first on BlackBerry devices -- one of its heaviest mobile competitors.

From a customer adoption perspective, this sounds fantastic. The mobile carriers in the U.S. have no clue how hard they've made the standard cellphone to use. Packing so many functions into a standard phone these days makes them a jack of all trades but master of none. Try going to a regular web site on your phone's web browser, if you can find out how to even get to the web browser, for example.

As said previously, the Tellme/Fandango product will initially be available on BlackBerry handsets and devices and will utilize GPS technology inside these handsets to determine where customers are calling from in order to provide the customized, voice-guided movie information and ticket-purchasing experience. This appears to be a perfect solution to give cellphone subscribers a foolproof and easy way to access services without having to use complex cellphone menus, browsers and other tools. The partnership said the voice-movie service would become available in GPS-enabled cars soon as well.