Microsoft Corp, the world's biggest software maker, is working on developing software with China's mobile phone companies, predicting a jump in sales once the government issues high-speed wireless network licenses.
"We're going to see dramatic growth," Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices unit, said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. "The launch of third-generation [3G] mobile services in China is going to require new services."
China, the world's biggest wireless market, may grant licenses for 3G services that allow faster access to the Internet and e-mail later this year, although the government hasn't set a timetable. Competitors such as Symbian Ltd, a maker of mobile operating systems that is partly owned by Nokia Oyj, and Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry device are also trying to tap the 400 million mobile phone users in China.
"The launch of 3G in China will give Chinese mobile users broadband and as a result rich media content applications," said Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based technology market research company. "Microsoft has a lot of experience in this area. But so does Symbian."
Symbian, based in London, leads Microsoft in the market for software for more advanced wireless devices such as hand-held computers and mobile phones that allow users to check e-mail, listen to music and transmit photographs. The market for such devices grew 75 percent in the third quarter to 13 million units, according to UK-based researcher Canalys.com.
China Unicom Ltd (
The service is available to mobile-phone subscribers, according to a statement on the Web site of Unicom's parent, China United Telecommunications Corp. The company chose the name because of its connection to Research in Motion's device, the statement said.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is working with operators China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd (
Makers of mobile phones and portable e-mail devices will introduce dozens of handsets that use Windows this year in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Horn said. The company works with 47 cellphone makers, many of them based in Taiwan and China, he said.
Last year, mobile-device makers around the world sold more than 6 million units that use the Windows operating system, Horn said, without giving a forecast for growth this year. Windows Mobile software enables phones to link to the Internet, run Office programs, read e-mail and play music.
Microsoft's mobile software business is its fastest growing, according to Horn. Microsoft said on April 4 that it won its biggest contract for mobile-phone software, an order from the US Census Bureau that covers 500,000 handsets. The company didn't reveal the value of the contract.
Sales of handsets with Windows will double to 20 million units next year as corporate customers opt for those devices instead of the BlackBerry, Pieter Knook, a Microsoft senior vice president, said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure