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Tech giant Microsoft recently announced the retirement of its longstanding web browser, Internet Explorer, in favor of its newer product, Microsoft Edge. With support for Internet Explorer only set to last until June 15, 2022, its remaining users have just over a year to find an alternative. But of course, most web users already have. While the eventual downfall of Internet Explorer was seen as a foregone conclusion by those who monitor web trends, the news might come as an unwelcome surprise for those who are somewhat less up-to-date....

Why Microsoft’s self-driving car strategy is quietly brilliant Self-driving cars from the AI business perspective Self-driving cars can be viewed as a specialized case ofartificial intelligence business. Every company running on AI algorithms—namelymachine learning—must bring together a few key pieces to have a viable business model: Microsoft already has a solid AI stack and a full range of products that fit in this category. For instance, the company’scomputer visionservice runs on machine learning models developed by the company’s engineers....

You are not allowed to build a Windows Phone tablet. Microsoft will not allow it. Why? Because in the eyes of the company, a tablet computer must be a full PC. According to Microsoft, a tablet that does not fulfill that role completely is not worth producing. The followingMicrosoft quotefrom the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference is illuminating: “Now, a lot of people have asked me, are we going to produce a phone that is a tablet?...

Why mixing optimism with entrepreneurship can be dangerous for startups The downside of optimism Allowing for earnings while an employee, we find that business owners with above average optimism earn some 30% less than those with below average optimism – suggesting they would have been better off if they had made the prudent choice of remaining an employee. Marriage is in some ways like starting a business. As a further test of whether optimism leads to rash decisions, we found that optimists are more likely to divorce....

In most African countries, Facebook is king in the social networking arena and in many countries it is thenumber one or number twomost visited site. However, South Africa is an interesting exception. Its indigenous mobile social networking platform,MXithas more than twice the number of users as Facebook. Withabout 10 million or more active unique users, the network easily trumps Facebook’s 3.9 million users in South Africa. Founded in 2003 by Namibian born software developer Herman Heunis, MXit grew from humble beginnings as a mobile phone IM client to a full-scale mobile social network withabout 23-24 million usersin sub-Saharan Africa....