Vista gets lukewarm response in Taipei

Despite the media hype and heavy promotional campaign, Microsoft's Vista operating system (OS) received a lukewarm response at its debut in Taipei yesterday.

Various incentives, such as free photo printers, projectors, or USB drivers, were offered to the first 200 buyers of Vista, but fewer than 70 buyers showed up at 6:30pm, 30 minutes after the official launch.

"The crowd is much smaller compared with the launch of Windows XP five years ago," said Jason Chang (張志遠), who used to work in the electronics industry but now runs a restaurant.

He arrived about an hour before the launch, and his queue number was only 34.

The 40-year-old had tested the beta version of Vista and found some software compatibility glitches, but was still keen to get the latest copy to take advantage of the freebies.

But for Hsieh Hao-cheng (謝浩誠), who was first in the queue, the wait was worthwhile.

"Consumers will be enthralled by the new Aero feature," said the 24-year-old engineer, referring to visual effects such as the glass-like interface elements.

He received a limited edition Vista box signed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, an Epson photo printer, as well as a portable computer running on Intel Centrino Duo processor worth NT$40,000 (US$1,200).

The consumer release of Vista, along with the 2007 Microsoft Office System, was held yesterday in front of Nova, one of Taipei's major IT shops located near the bustling Taipei Railway Station.

Despite the lower-than-expected turnout, Microsoft Taiwan remained upbeat on Vista's impact, which it predicted would be as big as that of Windows 95. Introduced in 1995, Windows 95 marked a milestone in the history of operating systems with its switch from 16-bit disk operating system architecture to 32 bits and introduction of graphics user interface.

"Taiwanese consumers were some of the first in the world to get Vista," Davis Tsai (蔡恩全), Microsoft Taiwan's chief operating officer, said yesterday at the launch.

Local buyers even beat their US counterparts in getting their hands on fresh Vista boxes given the time difference.

Tsai said the sales of Vista were expected to outpace its predecessors, as it boasts better features such as enhanced security to improve productivity.

Christine Chen (陳宣霈), lead product marketing manager at Microsoft Taiwan, said around 85 percent of the forecast 1.1 million computers sold in Taiwan this year would be equipped with Vista.

"General consumers are always the early adopters, and more people will buy the OS after the Lunar New Year and back-to-school period in summer," she said.

Microsoft Taiwan has pumped in lots of marketing dollars to ensure the success of Vista's launch.

In addition to setting up demo stations nationwide, it will hold a "Windows Vista Wow" concert on Sunday, with Mandarin pop stars Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and David Tao (陶吉吉) performing.

The advent of Vista signals the shift to 64-bit architecture from 32 bits, but it came more than five years after the release of Windows XP, making it the longest time span between major Windows releases.