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 (
PHOTO: LIAO YAO TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
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 (
"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 (
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 (
"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 (
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.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS