That was quickly followed up with this:

Not to be outdone, SAP Australia chief Tim Ebbeck replied with the same poor spelling:

Oh dear.

Microsoft has promoted local executive Pip Marlow to a role leading its Australian subsidiary, in the wake of the bump upstairs of its former local chief Tracey Fellows to Asia-Pacific responsibilities.

Marlow was previously Microsoft Australia’s public sector director, and also held the role of Enterprise and Partner Group director, reporting to Fellows before her departure. Fellows’ departure was revealed in early December, with the executive being promoted to the position of area vice president for the software giant’s Asia-Pacific operations.

At the time, Delimiter named Marlow as one of several high-profile executives at Microsoft Australia who could potentially be a candidate to replace Fellows.

Marlow has been with the software giant for 15 years, after joining in 1996, when she held responsibility for anti-piracy efforts, and the company’s system builder channel and distribution strategy. In 1997, she transferred to Microsoft’s US operation, holding what the company today described in a statement as “key roles” relating to its OEM, distribution, channel and partner programs.

In 2004, Marlow returned to Microsoft Australia to lead its small and medium business team, before she was later appointed to lead the company’s public sector and enterprise and partner businesses. She has previous helped found a large Australian storage distributor – Agate Technology – and has also worked for Samsung.

The executive has an international background, having been born, raised and educated in Palmerston North, New Zealand, but marrying a Scottish man and now living in Sydney with two daughters.

Fellows said she was both “confident and proud” handing the reins over to Marlow, stating today that she had contributed much to the company and deserved the appointement. “Pip’s local experience gives her many strong customer and partner relationships that will continue to grow in this new role,” she said.

For her own part, Marlow said she was “excited” by the opportunity, and noted it was a period of significant change in the industry as businesses and consumers adopted cloud computing solutions. Microsoft has recently unveiled a marketing push in Australia aimed at promoting awareness of its cloud solutions.

Marlow might have had an illustrious career in the technology sector – but that doesn’t mean the executive doesn’t need to let her hair down. According to what appears to be the executive’s Twitter profile, she recently attended the Oprah Winfrey show when it hit Sydney, with Marlow posting a number of photos of the stage using the Twitpic image sharing site.

“Getting ready for a cocktail party with Oprah – what to wear!” she wrote on 11 December. And on 7 December, to Fellows, “I had a disco light happening in one room.” And on 4 December the executive congratulated Fellows on her appointment. “She will be missed here!”, she wrote.

On 30 November the executive wrote she was “out at party with cool chicks”, and earlier it appeared that Marlow had climbed Mt Kosciuzko as part of a charity effort for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation. “Made it up and down Mt Kosi,” she wrote. “Snow fight a moment I will never forget.”

And previously: “Made the summit. Missing champagne!”

Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft has promoted Tracey Fellows, the long running chief of its Australian division, to run its Asia-Pacific operation; but without immediately clarifying the identity of the executive’s successor or whether a direct replacement would be appointed.

Fellows (pictured above receiving a massage at a Microsoft promotional event for women) has led Redmond’s Australian operation since January 2007, when she was appointed to replace the company’s former local chief Steve Vamos.

In the role, she has overseen some of Microsoft’s largest launches in Australia; Windows Vista, for example, and Windows 7 — and recently, the company’s extensive partnership with Telstra to launch its new Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. The executive joined Microsoft in 2003 in its Marketing division, first overseeing the company’s server products, then as its local marketing director, before the MD promotion in 2007.

In the role, Fellows has frequently been cited in public as a strong example of a female executive rising to the top of her profession in the Australian corporate space; alongside others such as Telstra’s group managing director of business, Deena Shiff. Fellows is originally from Canada — having migrated to Australia during her high school years, and has also worked for Dell and IBM.

In a statement today revealing the promotion, Microsoft said Fellows would succeed Emilio Umeoka in his role as area vice president for the company’s Asia-Pacific region, overseeing sales, services and marketing for 12 countries in the region and reporting directly to Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International.

Umeoka will leave Microsoft in late December to pursue “a new career opportunity” in the US closer to his family. Fellows will step up into the role in 22 December and will relocate from Sydney to Singapore.

“The Asia Pacific region is incredibly diverse and dynamic,” Fellows said in a statement. “It is also a place where we can do much to deliver on our mission to make technology available to the next generation of users, and I am keen to make the most of the opportunity to work with our partners and governments around the region to deliver on that commitment.”

“I am passionate about education and the role that technology can play in developing skills and improving learning, as well as advancing the role of women in the IT industry. We have a track record supporting these goals, and I am keen to ensure we build on these very strong foundations.”

There is a strong history of executives in the IT sector stepping up from Australian leadership roles to take on wider Asia-Pacific responsibilities, often from Singapore. Former SAP Australia and New Zealand chief Geraldine McBride, for example, was promoted to lead the company’s Asia-Pacific operations in January 2007 before leaving earlier this year.

However, Microsoft could not today say whether Fellows would be directly replaced or who would take her position locally if so.

One executive who was seen by some parties as an eventual potential successor was the company’s former director of business and marketing operations, Tony Ward, who had wide-ranging responsibility within Microsoft Australia under Fellows. But Ward resigned in July and was replaced by Nigel O’Rorke — who has now only been in the role for a few months.

Out of the rest of Microsoft Australia’s senior leadership team, one of the most high-profile executives is Pip Marlow, the company’s public sector director.

Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft and Telstra have scheduled in a ritzy Sydney launch next Tuesday morning to unveil their mutual plans to start selling phones with the software giant’s Windows Phone 7 platform.

The event will be held at Sydney’s Luxe Studios, an exclusive state of the art development facility which is also used for events. In attendance will be Microsoft Australia chief executive Tracey Fellows and Telstra chief marketing officer Kate McKenzie.

So far, the pair have not revealed any details of the handsets, plans or bundled content and applications they will go to market with for Windows Phone 7, which was first unveiled back in February.

In a briefing in August, Telstra would only say that there would be a number of different handsets available to consumers at launch, and the devices were slated to go on sale before Christmas, and that its Hub application would be featured on Windows Phone 7.

The software constitutes a news, application and entertainment portal, although Telstra is still working on the video streaming aspect and is being developed by local startup development house Xamling. Fairfax is also developing software to run on Windows Phone 7.

The news comes as competition in the smartphone market is running white hot. Telstra this morning released what it called its “Smartphone index” — a piece of research put together by Nielsen that showed Australia was currently obsessed with the multi-function devices.

A wave of smartphones based on Google’s Android platform is currently hitting the market in time for Christmas, and Apple’s iPhone 4 has suffered stock shortage problems due to demand over the past several months. Nokia, too, is refusing to be left out, with its flagship N8 handset soon to launch in Australia, although the company has not yet said precisely how the device will launch in Australia.

Nielsen’s research suggested that 36 percent of Australians with mobile phones owned a smartphone, with that number to grow to more than half within the next 12 months.

And there were some surprising usage patterns — more than half of smartphone owners admitted to using their phone in bed, one third have used their phone to surf the web while on the toilet, and one in five Australian drivers admit to surfing the web on their smartphone while driving.

“Over the past 12 months we’ve seen huge growth in the popularity of smartphones and they now make up more than half of all Next G™ handset sales in Telstra Stores Australia-wide,” said Telstra Consumer executive director Rebekah O’Flaherty.

Image credit: Microsoft

The Labor leadership spill events of the past 24 hours that have led to the swearing-in of Julia Gillard as Australia’s first female Prime Minister have been an emotional roller coaster for the Australian public — it has an been an attention-grabbing blockbuster of Hollywood proportions.

The implications of future change due to the leadership spill to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector could be huge — especially if Communications Minister Stephen Conroy loses his portfolio. Major players in the ICT industry were contacted by Delimiter today to gather their thoughts on the political earthquake that shook this southern nation’s breaches off.

Telstra was positive in its feedback regarding Gillard’s rise to Prime Minister and is already taking proactive steps to cement an amiable relationship with her office. “The CEO and the chairman will be writing to Ms Gillard to congratulate her on her elevation to the Prime Ministership. Telstra looks forward to working with her and her government,” the company said in a statement.

Communications giant Optus was not phased by the changes and remained fixed on the fact that Gillard will continue to stand by the National Broadband Network scheme.

An Optus Spokesperson said, “Optus looks forward to continuing to work with the Federal Government to implement the National Broadband Network and put in place important regulatory reform in the telecommunications sector.”

Internet Industry Association CEO Peter Coroneos was hesitant in predicting any changes at this early stage but, remained confident that the NBN would go ahead as planned.

Coroneos said he would like to see a cabinet reshuffle but that would unlikely due to the looming election. The CEO stated that the IIA supported the NBN and E-Security National Agenda (ESNA) — the Australian Government initiative created in 2001 to secure public and private Australia fromany electronic nasties. However, he added that the IIA does not support the ISP filtering policy and that he doesn’t think we will see any changes regarding that this year.

“It is too early to tell what the implications will be. She did restate her commitment to the NBN so we don’t see that changing, though the prospects of further enabling legislation passing before the election is remote,” he said. “There is the need for a cabinet reshuffle but the extent would likely be minimal given the proximity to the election.”

“The IIA has supported the policies of this Government in two out of three major areas: NBN and their eSecurity agenda. We differ only in our view on the mandatory ISP filtering policy, the effectiveness of which we question. But again we will likely not see legislation in that area this year.”

Tracey Fellows, managing director of Microsoft Australia, gave Gillard props for her new role as PM and encompassed the implications such a powerful female role model will have on Australian women.

“Julia Gillard’s appointment as Prime Minister is a historic moment for Australia and for Australian women. Having a female prime minister provides a strong role model and will inspire young women to pursue their dreams and aim high in their careers. Microsoft is committed to supporting and celebrating opportunities for women in the workplace and public life, and we congratulate Julia Gillard on becoming the first woman Prime Minister of Australia,” she said.

The Australian Information Industry Association’s CEO Ian Birks said the AIIA believed that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had a a good understanding of the ICT sector and how important it was to the future of Australia and that Gillard would keep on that path.

However, Birks also called for the Government to appoint a chief technology officer as some other national governments have done.

“AIIA believes that Kevin Rudd was a Prime Minister who did understand the broad positive impact that ICT can have in driving economic, social and environmental benefits — this is manifested in his support for the NBN, the Digital Education Revolution, smart grids and other projects. AIIA is broadly confident will Julia Gillard will be of similar mindset.”

“At this moment the leadership change will most likely not have a substantive effect on the sector, certainly not before the election. The only likely change we anticipate is very clear messaging on the benefits of the NBN and the difference in position between the Govt and Opposition on this major project.”

“AIIA would like to see the PM give some consideration for the appointment of a new Chief Technology Officer, who – in a similar fashion to the Obama administration appointment, would provide an over-arching view of the positive transformational impact of ICT can have on all major portfolios and related policies/programs.”

“AIIA strongly advocate the need of a CTO for a modern government. ICT is game changer and will be the key underpinning for the future success of Australia. We are keen to see the technology sector identified as an area of specific economic focus for Australia.”

“This is a pivotal year for the technology sector. Australia is at a crossroads around its digital future – and the decisions we take around this area will have an enormous flow on effect within our economy. The NBN is Australia’s largest infrastructure project, and Australian business is recognising the importance of a technology framework to allow us to become more globally competitive. If there is a broad Ministerial restructure, we would be keen to see a separate junior minister appointed to the Digital Economy – given its impact on our economic future.”

“As the Minister responsible for both Education and youth, Julia Gillard would recognise the growing importance of technology in our schools – allowing us to successfully compete with other nations who are heavily investing in this area of education.”

Bruce Lakin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Computer Society talked of the importance of training up the older age bracket in the workforce with emerging technologies and that he would like to see this take place as a new initiative under Gillard.

“Another important issue requiring urgent national attention is skills and in particular the impact of an ageing workforce,” he said. “Prime Minister Gillard’s work in the area of social inclusion provides important background in this important topic. Employer incentives for ICT training and retraining are needed to address skills gaps. We are keen to see national programs encouraging mature workers to stay in the employment market, and addressing ageism.”

Image credit: Adam Carr, Creative Commons

Image credit: Microsoft

Western Australia’s Curtin University of Technology and ANZ Bank have both flagged plans to deploy Microsoft’s Surface multi-touch tabletop system, which went on sale in Australia today.

The platform — which was first announced in May 2007 — has been available internationally for some time, and has been used for purposes as varied as military tactical overviews and in restaurants. It provides a computer screen as large as a small table that acts as a touch screen that users can interact with.

Curtin chief information officer Peter Nikoletatos said the platform would foster new collaboration opportunities and provide “an engaging educational tool”, in a statement issued by Microsoft this morning, although he did not reveal exactly how the university would use the technology.

ANZ group general manager of innovation and former CIO, Peter Dalton, said the bank would use the experience gained from using Surface to work out how it could use touch and surface-based technologies to make managing money simpler and more exciting. The bank had already showed off two Surface units at the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne last month.

Four Australian partners have signed up build applications and solutions on top of surface. They are local digital marketing agency Amnesia Razorfish, IT services outfit Object Consulting, software firm nsquared and digital product design agency Automatic Studio.

Microsoft Australia managing director Tracey Fellows said the software giant had received “strong interest” from Australian organisations in Surface, including from developers that wanted to create applications “not possible with other technologies”.

In the statement, Microsoft did not disclose Australian pricing for Surface, however technology site techAU reported a retail Surface unit would sell for AU$21,000, compared to US$12,500 in the United States, with the developer unit selling for A$24,000 locally and US$15,000 in the US.

Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft will start selling its Surface tabletop multi-touch system in Australia next week after a formal launch.

The platform — which was first announced in May 2007 — has been available internationally for some time, and has been used for purposes as varied as military tactical overviews and in restaurants. It provides a computer screen as large as a small table that acts as a touch screen that users can interact with.

The software giant has issued an invitation to Australian journalists to attend the launch event Tuesday, with a spokesperson confirming the system will be on sale in Australia after that date. A number of local partners have been gathered for the occasion.

Microsoft lieutenant Robbie Bach — the head of the company’s entertainment and devices division (including the Xbox, Zune and Windows Mobile products) will make a trip Down Under to launch the device, flanked by Microsoft Australia managing director Tracey Fellows.

Surface devices have already been turning up in Australia in small demonstration cases. For example, in August 2008, local digital marketing agency Amnesia Razorfish (then owned by Microsoft) posted photos of what the agency said was Australia’s first two Surface tables.

And in January this year, ANZ Bank showed off two Surface units at the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne.

Image credit: Microsoft