Windows 8 Coming in 2012. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Monday confirmed that Windows 8 will be available in 2012. 

Microsoft denies Intel statements about Windows 8 on ARM‎. Microsoft last week denied statements made by Intel executives about Microsoft's plans for Windows 8 on ARM processors, calling them “factually inaccurate.” 

Rackspace offers hosted virtual desktops from Citrix‎. Rackspace announced Monday that it is offering hosted Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp, hoping to make using virtual desktops easier. 

Jive buys OffiSync to deepen links with Microsoft apps‎. Jive Software has acquired OffiSync, whose technology links Microsoft desktop applications with cloud-based enterprise social collaboration suites. 

ARM chases server opportunities for low-power processors. ARM Holdings is seeking the support of software makers for its plan to put its low-power processors in servers. 

Fusion-io is going public. Fusion-io, the company that makes SSDs for companies like Facebook, is planning a bigger-sized initial public offering. 

Twitter acquires popular client TweetDeck‎. Twitter has reached an agreement to acquire TweetDeck, a Twitter desktop client preferred by many of the social-media service's most active users, for $40 million in cash and stock. 

Amazon adds electronics to Trade-Ins‎. Amazon last Thursday expanded its Trade-In program to include electronics, allowing consumers to ship gadgets to the online retailer for free in exchange for a gift card. 

Microsoft blasts EU antitrust fine in appeals hearing‎. Calling it "excessive," Microsoft this week criticized in an appeals hearing the 899 million euro fine imposed three years ago by EU antitrust regulators on Microsoft for failing to comply with a court order. 

ISuppli warns explosion at China plant may slow iPad production. iPad manufacturer Foxconn last week suspended operations at its facility in Chengdu, China after a fatal explosion, which could result in a production loss of 500,000 Apple’s iPad 2 tablets in the second quarter.

Here is the weekly IT news:

 Windows 7 passes new threshold. Microsoft last Friday announced it had sold more than 350 million copies of Windows 7 in 18 months, equal to 450 copies every minute. 

Windows 8 facial recognition moves closer to reality. Microsoft is reportedly building facial recognition technology into Windows 8, potentially offering a more secure way for customers to log into their computers. 

Microsoft opens up Office 365 Marketplace beta. Without a lot of fanfare, Microsoft last week launched the Beta of the Office 365 Marketplace, its online app store for Office 365. 

Microsoft brings Xbox Kinect to Windows PCs. In an effort to breathe new life into the faltering PC market, Microsoft plans to release software that will enable developers to create Kinect-compatible apps that can run on Windows-based desktops and laptops. 

Cloud market predicted to top $241 billion by 2010. The global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020, according to a report from analyst firm Forrester titled Sizing the Cloud. 

Amazon EC2 outage crashes websites. A major outage at Amazon's servers last week affected the services of numerous online companies that used Amazon's cloud computing services, known as Amazon EC2. 

VMware adds presentations to its suite of cloud services. VMware has acquired SlideRocket, a San Francisco-based startup whose flagship product is a SaaS application for building business presentations that are stored online. 

HP expands thin client lineup. HP has expanded its thin client product line with the addition of the HP t5740e, its first thin client to use the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Service Pack. 

Facebook tests social-buying program. Facebook began offering a deals program on Tuesday similar to the online bargains made popular by Groupon, LivingSocial and other companies. 

Google is firm on its stance on China. Google's new CEO won't change stance on China. Speaking at a business forum in Beijing, John Liu, Google's vice president for sales and operations in greater China said Google's stance on doing business in China isn't going to change because Larry Page has replaced Eric Schm

Hi, I’m the Market Research Manager with Diskeeper Corporation. I compile weekly IT news for our company’s executives and would like to share my work with you here.  

Microsoft announces Dynamics ERP for the cloud. Microsoft has finally come around to embracing a major shift in the ERP market toward Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud delivery. The company announced on April 11 at Convergence 2011 in Atlanta that the next version of its Dynamics ERP solutions will be available on the Windows Azure cloud platform. 

Windows 7 passes Windows XP as the top OS in the US. During the first 7 days of April, Windows 7's average daily usage share was 31.71%, besting XP's average of 31.56%, according to data from StatCounter. 

VMware steps up the developer war with its new PaaS offering. VMware has unveiled an open cloud platform called Cloud Foundry for developers to build applications for cloud computing.  That platform competes directly with Microsoft Azure or Google App Engine. 

Adobe introduces pay-as-you-go Photoshop, Creative Suite. Adobe has released an updated version of its Adobe Creative Suite (CS) software, Adobe CS 5.5, which for the first time will be available on a subscription basis. Individual users now can subscribe to parts of the creative package, such as the image editor Photoshop, for as little as $35 a month. 

Intel launches Oak Trail tablet processor. Intel on Monday launched a refreshed version of its Atom range and the first member of its Oak Trail family, the Z670, which is a single core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz with 512KB L2 cache and support for up to 2GB single-channel DDR2 memory. 

Cisco to close down Flip business as part of refocus. Cisco will curtail some of its consumer operations, including shutting its Flip video-camcorder business, in an admission that its campaign to build a consumer brand has largely failed. 

iPad to dominate tablet market through 2015. Apple's iPad will dominate the tablet market through the middle of the decade, though Google's Android will relentlessly nibble at iOS' market share, Gartner analysts said early this week. 

DOJ approves Google’s ITA purchase. Despite opposition from Expedia and other big online travel agencies, the Department of Justice last week announced that it would allow Google to acquire ITA, a company that makes software for travel search and reservations. 

Microsoft taking street photos in the UK‎. Microsoft has started taking photos in London for Streetside, its Bing Maps photo feature that will go up against Google Street View in the UK. 

Facebook in China? Facebook may have struck a deal with Chinese search giant Baidu to launch a new social network in China, according to reports from China. 

Top 50 contract manufacturers ranked. Manufacturing Market Insider, a paid-for newsletter focused on contract manufacturing, has ranked the top 50 electronics manufacturing services based on 2010 revenue in its March edition. Foxconn Technology Group, the company responsible for the manufacturing of Apple's iPod, iPhone and iPad, tops the list. 

Microsoft wraps Windows 8 in ribbon UI? Microsoft’s next version of Windows could include an Office-style ribbon, according to two prominent bloggers who supposedly previewed an early build of the OS. 

Microsoft releases Windows Thin PC public test build. Microsoft last week announced the availability of the Community Technology Preview of Windows Thin PC, a stripped-down version of Windows designed for thin clients. 

Microsoft is taking on Google in Europe.After spending years wrestling with antitrust investigations by the European Commission, Microsoft last week filed an antitrust complaint against Google with the very same regulatory body, accusing Google of taking technical measures to squeeze Microsoft and other competitors out of the advertising and search markets. 

VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization arsenal. VMware is officially entering the service provider market by taking over the operations of the Mozy cloud-based storage service from parent company EMC. 

Novell debuts enterprise Vibe Cloud‎. Novell has released to worldwide general availability its Web-hosted Vibe Cloud enterprise social collaboration suite, which adapts for workplace use a variety of social networking features made popular in consumer-oriented sites like Facebook and Twitter.

 Intel launches 10-core Xeon chips.Intel on Tuesday announced the Xeon E7 series of chips with 10 cores, which the company said could help cut power and maintenance costs in data centers while adding more processing power. 

STEC readies longer-lasting SSDs‎. STEC is shipping in sample quantities its Zeus line of longer-lasting MLC SSDs that carry a 5-year warranty. 

Acer CEO resigns amid PC sales drop. Acer announced last week that Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci had resigned as part of the company's efforts to reorganize its operations to tackle the rising challenge from Apple’s iPad tablet. 

Google product boss Jonathan Rosenberg resigns on Larry Page's first day as CEO. Google’s Senior Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg announced his resignation on Monday, the same day that co-founder Larry Page returned to the CEO post at Google, taking over from Eric Schmidt.