Microsoft Corp and manufacturing partner Acer Inc (宏碁) will strengthen their partnership to promote devices running the Windows 8 operating system, Acer chairman and chief executive officer Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said yesterday.
Wang said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came to Taiwan last week to meet with executives of two Taiwanese companies, including Acer, to discuss Windows 8 sales issues.
“We were discussing how to spur worldwide demand for Windows 8 and how to promote it more effectively,” Wang said on the sidelines of the general meeting of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會).
Wang is also chairman of TCA.
The two CEOs came up with “two or three approaches” for Windows 8 promotion in terms of products and marketing, Wang said, but gave no details.
Asked about the possibility of launching devices co-branded with Microsoft, Wang said Acer has no such plans at the moment.
Ballmer’s visit to Taiwan came amid weaker-than-expected demand for notebooks after the launch of touch-screen models running Windows 8 failed to spark buyers’ interest.
Acer also said the global touch-panel supply for notebooks running Windows 8 will remain limited in the short term because of a manufacturing bottleneck.
“It is unlikely that it will be resolved in one or two quarters,” Wang said, citing hurdles in the design, testing and mass production of the touch panels used in notebooks.
Touch-panel suppliers might need to invest tens of billions of NT dollars to expand their capacity, which is expected to take between nine and 12 months, he said.
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