Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

Windows Phone 7 on 11

 

It's a date: Microsoft is planning a Hail Mary pass, er uh, I mean launch events in New York and London on October 11th to unveil its new Windows Phone 7. Joining them will be AT&T and T-Mobile, the two carriers who have so far signed up to offer a wide array of Phone 7 bundled smartphones.

HTC, HP, Samsung and Sony Ericson are just some of the handset makers who will be bundling in Phone 7.

That's the good news.

Here's the rest.

Just this week, Goldman Sachs downgraded Microsoft stock to "neutral" specifically citing its failure to position itself as a major player in the smartphone space. Microsoft currently lags behind Blackberry, iPhone and the Android in U.S. market share.

How bad is market share? It currently sits at 11% and falling. Killing the Kin, after only two months on the market, didn't help. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is reportedly getting a 50% cut in his bonus after that not- so- little fiasco, along with the failure to launch a tablet this year. 

One word: Wah! He still gets $670.000 on top of his annual salary of $670,000.

I digress; but I still say bring back Bill.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter @oricchio

 

 

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio