Taipei Times: Could you give our readers some background about Ulead and why your company decided to focus on digital imaging/photographic software?
Danielle Liao (廖信伶): Ulead Systems (
We thought there would be a market for color image-editing software for use with Windows so we released our first products, I-Pallet and I-photo. Then we had our first professional digital imaging software, Photo-Styler, that we launched at Comdex in 1989 and then we entered the market.
So it's been about 12 years since we began developing ourselves into a digital media software provider. Our channel covers the world, including the major markets -- Japan, the US, Australia and Europe. Dataquest ranks us number three in digital image software and I think we are number one or number two in digital video. In all the markets we enter into, digital video, digital image and 3D Web prophet, we are in the top three.
TT: Your company teamed up with Intel at the recent Computex trade show. Intel seems to think photo and video editing software like Ulead's will be a market mover for their latest high-speed chips. Are you working on co-branding?
Liao: We have been working with Intel since 1998, so when they release a new CPU, our software is able to take full advantage [of the power]. But also, I think, like last year when they released their new Celeron series, we were one of 10 worldwide software partners that they promoted as working best with their CPU. So, we are in their worldwide program. Intel not only likes our software, they also know we have the worldwide distribution network to market it through.
TT: Have you seen a rise in demand for your software since higher-speed processors began entering the market?
Liao: As you know, the market is in a recession and most companies are trying to keep sales from dropping and just keep them steady. We are a little bit lucky. ... I think we will be able to maintain steady growth. I think primarily that Web page and digital video applications are the areas that have primary interest to consumers right now.
The users' attention has been dispersed from just the computer and into different areas such as Web sites, mobile phones and Palm Pilots. So, our intention is not only to look at the PC platform and make it more powerful, but also to look at providing server solutions like server tools and also we are developing Windows CE based photo organizers.
The most important thing when a user has multiple computing platforms is to have solutions that make the three platforms all work together and make their experience easier.
For example, if a person has a photo album on their PC, they have the ability to upload a picture onto their server and into a Web site, for all their friends and family to take a look at. They are also able to download photos to a pocket PC and show it to anyone on the road. Our job is to make these tasks easier. That's one of our strengths, we will be able to provide a full range of software for all of those [electronic devices].
TT: Most analysts recognize Ulead as one of the top software providers in Taiwan, can you tell our readers what it takes to build a competitive software firm in Taiwan?
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