AMD said they expect less of an increase in Q4 revenues due to “the big build we’ve seen of PCs in anticipation of the Win 7 launch.” Read: most PC makers aren’t going to be ordering too many components from AMD for a little while. Apparently that comment has led investors to think this is an industry-wide phenomenon, that PC makers have all the inventory they need and more.

Without knowing how widespread the effect is, let’s assume there are a ton of PCs out there. In that case, what will likely happen is the manufacturers will just sit on their inventory longer, and component suppliers will receive fewer orders. Hopefully, though, they’ll feel the need to turn around that inventory quickly, which would mean some awesome deals could be on the horizon. [All Things Digital]

Image via Jfaneves

But analysts were well aware of Microsoft’s cage of not-quite-released hardware and software, and their revenue estimates were more than a billion dollars long: months that were supposed to see $US14.3bn pass through the company’s accounts ended with just $US13.1, which is a full 17% down from the same quarter last year. A section-by-section breakdown bears out the “give ‘em some time” theory: entertainment (Xbox and Zune), client software (Windows and Office) and Mobile products lagged, suffering a sort of lame duck lethargy as they wait for their respective next generation products. That, and the fact that everyone in the world is kinda poor right now, and therefore not buying Songsmith, et al.

So what did do well? Now wait, first answer this: What has Microsoft actually launched in the last few months? Online revenues actually exceeded expectations, albeit by a small percentage. Way to go, Bing!

Worst of all, if it’s the fact that a lot of Microsoft’s products are in hospice care that’s behind the poor showing, next quarter might not be much better: the company’s got plenty of stuff on the horizon, but none of it’s gonna land in time to save Q1. October 11 can’t come fast enough. [Business Insider, Techflash]

Ballmer’s been talking about search now for the last couple years as something Microsoft needs to put more money and effort into. The failed Yahoo deal last year was one play that didn’t quite work out. So they’re trying Bing.

What do you think? Is search Microsoft’s biggest mistake? If you ask me (you didn’t), I’d say Microsoft’s biggest mistake is the guy answering this question. [TGDaily]

The new device will be equipped with technology that is “really, really, close” to an actuality. The console, which was described as having a “natural interface,” will have a built in camera with the ability to recognise movement and voice.

This, of course, is referring to Project Natal—and it backs up earlier rumours that a new console would debut in the fall. But the question remains, are we talking an entirely new console here or simply some sort of bundle? Ballmer wasn’t clear, but we’re pretty sure it’s a bundle. It HAS to be. Right? [TG Daily via Crunchgear]

• Regarding Bing’s name and Steve Jobs: “We should have named it ‘BOOM’!”
• “The Web is designed for the PC … most of these mobile apps are substituting for the fact that the original app wasn’t designed for the PC,”
• I just think netbook is a funny brand … what is a netbook? Is it defined by its operating system, its memory, its screen size? They’re really just PCs. I bet if you asked people if they planned to buy a portable computer you’d get a much better response. … It’s a little hard to know what the heck the difference is between the netbook and the PC.”
• “Vista is faster than XP”

A pretty mild talk, otherwise.

[All Things D]

Steve Ballmer just confirmed rumours that Microsoft’s new search engine, previously called Kumo, has been christened with the wonderfully onomatopoeic, possibly stupid name, “Bing”. UPDATE: And it’s coming next week.

From the AllThingsD interview, a peek into Ballmer’s brain:

I’m not the creative guy, here …. short mattered … people like to ‘verb up’ … works globally, doesn’t have negative connotations.

Early word is it’s got a simple, minimalist, colourful interface, and boasts some Wolfram Alpha-like features though a function called “Instant Answer.” More as we get it. (Image courtesy of Ars Technica.)

UPDATE: Bing will go public on June 3rd. Ars has a hands-on, and Microsoft has posted an info page. Their strategy, it seems, is to provide direct answers to questions, sort of like Wolfram Alpha does, but with a focus on everyday queries like consumer product info, weather, local interests and even health questions. Ars’s conclusion:

Bing is a very good product, especially in the areas where Live Search differentiated itself. While bringing some new flavour to search, it’s not compelling enough to get me to leave Google behind. I will probably use it exactly like I use Live Search, as my fallback option when Google doesn’t turn up what I want. Give Bing a spin, but don’t expect anything revolutionary, just evolutionary.

Oh. Well, we’ll all get to try it soon enough.

Press release below. [AllThingsD]

Microsoft’s New Search at Bing.com Helps People Make Better Decisions
Decision Engine goes beyond search to help customers deal with information overload.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 28, 2009 – Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Bing, a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions. Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

The result of this new approach is an important beginning for a new and more powerful kind of search service, which Microsoft is calling a Decision Engine, designed to empower people to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions. The new service, located at http://www.Bing.com, will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.

The explosive growth of online content has continued unabated, and Bing was developed as a tool to help people more easily navigate through the information overload that has come to characterize many of today’s search experiences. Results from a custom comScore Inc. study across core search engines show that as many as 30 percent of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result. The data also showed that approximately two-thirds of the remaining searches required a refinement or requery on the search results page.

“Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don’t do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions.”

A New Approach to Internet Search

Based on the customer insight that 66 percent of people are using Internet search more frequently to make complex decisions,* Microsoft identified three design goals to guide the development of Bing: deliver great results; deliver a more organized experience; and simplify tasks and provide insight, leading to faster, more confident decisions. The new service, built to go beyond today’s search experience, includes deep innovation on core search areas including entity extraction and expansion, query intent recognition and document summarization technology as well as a new user experience model that dynamically adapts to the type of query to provide relevant and intuitive decision-making tools.
•

Great search results. Relevant search results are still a top priority for people, yet Microsoft studies show that only one in four search queries deliver a satisfactory result. Bing helps identify relevant search results through features such as Best Match, where the best answer is surfaced and called out; Deep Links, allowing more insight into what resources a particular site has to offer; and Quick Preview, a hover-over window that expands over a search result caption to provide a better sense of the related site’s relevancy. Bing also includes one-click access to information through Instant Answers, designed to provide the sought-after information within the body of the search results page, minimizing the need for additional clicks.
•

Organized search experience. More and more customers are regularly spending time with search engines, engaging in complex, multi-query and multi-session searches. Respondents also said an organized search experience would be twice as useful in helping find information and accomplishing tasks faster. Bing includes a number of features that organize search results, including Explore Pane, a dynamically relevant set of navigation and search tools on the left side of the page; Web Groups, which groups results in intuitive ways both on the Explore Pane and in the actual results; and Related Searches and Quick Tabs, which is essentially a table of contents for different categories of search results. Collectively, these and other features in Bing help people navigate their search results, cut through the clutter of search overload and get right down to making important decisions.
•

Simplify tasks and provide insight. Microsoft’s research identified shopping, travel, local business and information, and health-related research as areas in which people wanted more assistance in making key decisions. The current state of Internet search isn’t optimised for these tasks, but the Bing Decision Engine is optimised for these key customer scenarios. For example, while a consumer is using Bing to shop online, the Sentiment Extraction feature scours the Internet for user opinions and expert reviews to help leverage the community of customers as well as product experts in trying to make a buying decision. In Bing Travel, the Rate Key compares the location, price and amenities of multiple hotels and provides a color-coded key of the best values, and the Price Predictor actually helps consumers decide when to buy an airline ticket in order to get the lowest prices.

The new brand portfolio will include the following changes to existing Microsoft programs:
•

Microsoft’s mapping platform, Virtual Earth, will now be branded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. More information can be found here.
•

Technology from Microsoft’s April 2008 acquisition of Farecast is now a central part of Bing Travel. More information coming soon.
•

Microsoft’s popular cashback program, now dubbed Bing cashback, with more than 850 merchants and more than 17 million products available, will be fully integrated into the Bing Shopping experience.

Microsoft is committed to building better tools to help people find the shortest distance from their initial sear
ch query to the point of making an informed decision. Bing is an important first step toward this long-term vision and a strong indicator of Microsoft’s commitment to move search technology forward for customers.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

* Ipsos 2009; 1,156 participants

Audio clip courtesy NYT.

Audio clip courtesy NYT. First image courtesy Boing Boing Gadgets.

Check back soon for part 2.

Boing Boing Gadgets discovered the best way to tell whether you’re talking to real Ballmer or his (slightly more) evil Cylon clone. It’s in the eyes. [BBG]