WinInfo Short Takes: Week of August 12

Here are some shorts that our good olde friend Paul has put together...

• Halo 2. Coming to an Xbox Near You. Next Year. Sometime.

  Only in WinInfo could we move from 64-bit computing to video games in the same breath, but what the heck. Microsoft announced this week that it will unleash the long-awaited sequel to its most popular Xbox game, Halo, sometime in the distant future. Sometime, in this case, is actually late 2003, which is an eternity in the gaming world.

  But it could be worse. Project Gotham 2, the sequel to the second most popular Xbox title, won't be shipping until early 2004. You know, two years after Xbox 3 ships.

• Licensing 6.0 Not Exactly Off to a Good Start

  So Microsoft unleashed its new Licensing 6.0 volume licensing program on its customers this month and the overall effect was predictably chilling.

  Giga Information Group says that 20 percent of the Microsoft's customers can't even afford the new program, which basically requires them to sign up for 2 or 3 year subscription terms, while a total of 40 percent of Microsoft's former volume licensing customers have simply opted not to sign up for Licensing 6.0.

  Gartner says the percentages are even uglier than that in some countries. In Australia, for example, up to 50 percent of Microsoft's customers have bailed from Licensing 6.0. Best customer quote? "For frickin' sake, [Microsoft has] $36 billion in the bank and they are trying to squeeze us."

• Apple Can't Use 'Jaguar' Name in Some Countries

  In a humorous note, Apple is apparently banned from using the 'Jaguar' name in certain countries, such as Australia, because the Ford Motor Company considers that name its intellectual property. Ford, of course, owns the Jaguar automobile line and Apple, of course, is using the Jaguar code-name for Mac OS X 10.2 in its retail advertising and packaging.

  This sort of reminds me of the time that the Pilot Pen Corporation successfully sued Palm for using the name Palm Pilot, as if someone might mistake a 39 cent pen for a $300 PDA. But that's what happens when you let corporations own vague product names (like, ahem, Windows), even when usage of those names in other markets couldn't possibly cause any consumer confusion. If Ford was smart about this, they'd launch a co-marketed ad campaign that would compare Jaguar cars to Apple's new OS and just avoid the bad press.