With strengths in hardware peripherals and mobile computing, local vendors are well positioned to tap into the opportunities represented by the launch of Microsoft Corp's upcoming operating system (OS), Windows Vista, a company executive said yesterday.
"Taiwanese vendors have great integrated capabilities in entertainment peripherals, such as tuner cards, universal serial buses, high-definition DVD drives and high-quality displays," Will Poole, Microsoft's senior vice president of Windows client business, told a media briefing in Taipei.
Opportunities
Vista will create tremendous business opportunities in terms of hardware, software and content services, he said.
"There is also great potential for mobile computing products and infrastructure, for which Taiwan is a strong base," he added.
Poole was in Taipei as part of his Asian tour of major hardware vendors to promote and generate momentum for Vista.
"Microsoft engages broadly with technology companies, especially the computer leaders in Taiwan," he said, refusing to disclose which local firms the software giant was seeking to collaborate with.
The new Vista OS is expected to debut before Thanksgiving holiday in the US, with pricings yet to be announced.
The localization of the OS into the "Traditional Chinese" version normally takes about a month, said Christine Chen (
The company has high hopes for the new OS and announced last week that it will launch six versions of Vista.
Investment
"Vista represents a substantial investment. The new OS caters to the needs of large enterprises, smaller-sized businesses and consumers, making it different from previous generations of Windows OSes," Poole said.
Windows XP was geared to consumers, while the older Windows 2000 was more business centric, he said.
According to Microsoft, there will be two versions of Vista for businesses, three for consumers and a sixth edition, called "Starter," will be sold in emerging markets.
Separately, Microsoft Taiwan announced that its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference will take place at the Taipei International Convention Center on June 12 and June 13.
The technical conference will map out issues pertaining to the future of the personal computer industry, with a particular focus on sectors such as servers, connected devices, networking, storage and OSes.
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