Local companies are expected to experience a boost in business thanks to the launch of Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 7 operating system last week, which will fuel replacement demand as corporate customers and consumers renew their computer hardware.
“There will be great momentum in replacement demand next year,” Jerry Shen (沈振來), chief executive officer of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), said on Friday.
“Vista has been on the market for three years, and it is indeed not very good [in terms of user friendliness],” Shen said on the sidelines at a Windows 7 debut event.
Windows 7 — the successor to Vista, which was launched in January 2007 — offers user friendliness, garnering it strong support from trial users around the world, he said.
With the boost from the roll out of Windows 7, global notebook shipments are projected to reach 190 million next year, up 30 percent from this year, Shen said, citing data from industry trackers IDC and Gartner.
Asustek is planning to achieve higher-than-average notebook shipment growth next year, and is moving toward becoming one of the world’s top three notebook brands by 2011, Shen said.
On Sept. 14, Shen said the company aimed to ship as many as 1 million notebooks powered by Intel’s ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors by the end of the year, bringing its total laptop shipments to between 11 million and 13 million units this year. Asustek is likely to ship at least between 14.3 million and 16.9 million units next year, based on the company’s latest forecast.
Bigger rival Acer Inc (宏碁), which unseated Dell Inc to become the world’s second-biggest PC maker in the third quarter, is also expecting a business boom from Windows 7.
“We are positive of the launch, which should help increase sales of personal computers as a whole,” Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said.
Scott Lin (林顯郎), president of Acer’s Taiwan operation, said replacement demand would first be generated by corporate customers starting from June next year.
“Many companies still use Windows XP and have not made a switch to newer operating systems for years,” Lin said.
Windows XP was launched in 2001.
DRAMeXchange Technologies Inc (集邦科技), however, said on Oct. 14 that corporate replacement demand for Windows 7 models would not be significant until the second half of next year after more applications, software and compatibility problems are ironed out.
Asustek and Acer will not be the only Taiwanese firms to cash in on replacement demand. Other companies, including contract computer maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), touchscreen panel maker Sintek Photronic Corp (和鑫光電) and chip designer PixArt Imaging Inc (原相), could all benefit from the launch, the Grand Cathay Investment Services Corp (大華投顧) said in a report released last Tuesday.
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