HELSINKI (Reuters) - Microsoft's Internet Explorer has lost market share in major European markets, such as France, Britain and Italy, after the U.S. software firm started to make it easier for European consumers to use competing browsers. Microsoft's pledge to allow easier access to rival browsers in Windows by the middle of May, ended a long antitrust dispute ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A small company that has opened the door for companies to quickly sign endorsement deals with top athletes is eyeing the music world as its next target market. Brand Affinity Technologies matches companies as large as Sony Corp <6758.T>, or as small as a Houston air conditioning, firm with athletes in two weeks or ...

Sales of desktop computers soared 30 percent in February defying talk that such machines are being made obsolete by laptops, smartphones and other mobile devices. "Desktops have been the surprise consumer technology growth category of 2010," said NPD vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker. Sales of personal computers running on Microsoft Window's operating systems and of Macintosh desktop ...

Norway's Opera said Thursday that downloads of its browser more than doubled after Microsoft Corp. was forced to give European users a choice of Web software to settle European Union antitrust charges. Microsoft started sending updates to Windows computers in Europe in early March that ...