A whois query for the kumo.com now shows the following authoritative DNS servers:
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.USWEST.SEARCH.LIVE.COM
NS.USEAST.SEARCH.LIVE.COM
NS.ANYCAST.SEARCH.LIVE.COM
Created on..............: 30-Apr-08
Expires on..............: 19-Jul-18
Record last updated on..: 20-Nov-08
When discovered yesterday by LiveSide.net, the change prompted widespread speculation that after years of debate, Microsoft would finally rebrand LiveSearch. The term "kumo" reportedly means either "spider" or "cloud" in Japanese, which sort of fits for a search engine.
Another pundit has dared to dream even bigger. Over at our sister site,
Microsoft-Watch, Joe Wilcox says he thinks Kumo could represent a new super-secret mobile operating system aimed at enabling Windows Mobile to better compete with Android and the iPhone. Such an OS would integrate with the Zune content and Skywalk application delivery services, offer a browser that's actually usable, and avoid time-to-market problems miring down Microsoft's other mobile efforts. Wilcox writes, "The time has come. It's inevitable: Either Microsoft has a secret phone project, or it's mobile strategy is collapsed."
Windows Mobile shipments
grew almost 43% in the most recent quarter, to a 13.6 percent share of the smartphone market, according to Canalys figures. On the heels of the 3G model release, iPhone shipments grew 523 percent in the same quarter, to a 17.3 percent share. Meanwhile, the first Android phone,
T-Mobile's G1, shipped last month, with
Motorola Android phones also in the pipeline. And, Nokia has promised to
release Symbian under an open source license over the next several years.
Meanwhile,
Windows Mobile 7 has been delayed, with Microsoft recently confirming an interim
6.5 release of Windows Mobile.
Wilcox's story on
Microsoft-Watch can be found
here.
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