More recently, companies have been trying to develop a useful and highly mobile computing device, one that is more powerful than a mobile phone, but less powerful than a laptop. Various products such as Tablet PCs and Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC) have been released but they haven’t been very successful because they are based on Windows XP, an OS that is not really designed to run on such a small device.

In October 2008, Steve Jobs entirely dismissed netbook computers, saying the company couldn’t develop a $500 computer that was “not a piece of junk”. Since then, Apple’s mindset seems to have actually shifted towards a super mobile computing device, with more and more indications the company is readying the release of such a device.

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Microsoft is set to completely retire Office 2003 on April 8, 2009 when the product is pushed out of the extended support phase.

Microsoft will no longer offer any upgrades for Office 2003, but will only provide security and bug patches to everyone as needed. Other upgrades and fixes will only be given to companies that have lasting technical support agreements already in place.

Microsoft lastly updated Office 2003 in September 2007 when the company released Service Pack 3.

Windows XP is also set to enter extended support on April 14, 2009, meaning Microsoft will no longer offer mainstream support for its most successful operating system.

Microsoft earns about more than 80% of its total revenue from sales of its operating system. In 2006, Gartner estimated about 239 million PCs were sold worldwide, with close to 90% running Windows.

Microsoft lastly updated XP on April 21, 2008 with Service Pack 3.