Windows 7 will help users save on electricity bills, Microsoft Taiwan Corp (台灣微軟) said yesterday, with potential annual savings of NT$400,000 for a company with around 200 computers.
“Windows 7 RC [release candidate, the trial version currently available] contains most of the features that will be included in the final version of the OS [operating system], and has gone through extensive hardware and software testing with our vendors,” Jeff Liu (劉建宇), product marketing manager of Microsoft Taiwan’s Windows 7 Client Business Group, said at a briefing yesterday to announce the trial version’s launch.
By applying research conducted by British company PC pro Labs, “Windows 7 can save up to 11 percent in electricity bills compared with Windows Vista,” said Cathy Yeh (葉怡君), head of the company’s Windows 7 Business Group. “Taking as an example a company with 200 computers, this translates into NT$400,000 in savings annually.”
In addition to lower electricity bills, the new version offers safe upgrades without losing personal data and increased productivity in searches on the Internet and closed intranets, the company said.
Yeh said “businesses that rely heavily on ... e-commerce in order to service an extensive clientele” would benefit from switching to Windows 7, citing companies in the financial service, telecoms, public works, high-tech manufacturing, retail and import/export sectors as examples.
She said Windows 7 would allow average users to work without being in the office, corporations to be flexible and information technology personnel to respond quickly to critical situations.
After Windows Vista met with harsh criticism, Microsoft hopes its new OS version will attract corporate customers and private users alike to help it recover Vista losses and rebuild its image.
Market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said that by 2011, global PC shipments were forecast to surpass 322 million units.
Notebooks will increase from this year’s 54 percent of the total PC market to 61 percent by 2011, Helen Chiang (江芳韻), IDC’s PC and peripherals research manager, said at the same press briefing.
With a wave of hardware renewals expected in the second half of this year, consumers demand stability, security, mobility, performance, after-sales service and, most importantly, reasonable prices, Chiang said, adding that Windows 7 offered the same security for individual users and corporations.
“What [should be] even more attractive to local corporations is that this new generation of operating system does not even require a hardware upgrade, which really caters to companies with tightened IT budgets in this environment,” Chiang said.
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The nation’s foreign exchange reserves climbed back above US$600 billion at the end of last month, as investment gains, currency valuation effects and renewed foreign inflows offset volatility seen earlier in the month, the central bank said yesterday. Reserves stood at US$602.49 billion, up US$5.6 billion from the previous month, the central bank said. The rebound reflected returns on reserve assets, fluctuations in major currencies against the US dollar and the central bank’s market operations aimed at maintaining orderly trading conditions, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民) said. Financial markets were volatile early last month, with foreign investors recording net purchases
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