Linpus Technologies Inc (百資科技), a local Linux operating system (OS) developer, expects Linux-based netbooks to reach 50 percent market share by next year, on a par with Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform, company general manager Stephen Lim (林政道) said yesterday.
“More and more chip suppliers such as Texas Instruments Inc and Qualcomm Inc are jumping on the bandwagon to adopt Linux,” Lim told a technology seminar hosted by the Industrial Development Bureau yesterday.
“We are also seeing more and more PCs bundled with Linux from Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Dell Inc and other computer brands,” he added.
As the Linux provider in Asia, the software company is targeting netbooks and affordable all-in-one (AIO) desktops to battle its Windows rival.
Linpus plans to introduce user-friendly interfaces that enable applications and technologies to be developed on its open platform while delivering commercial-level qualified Linux distribution and semi-annual upgrade services, Lim said.
The advantages of using a Linux system include advanced power management, optimized boot and shutdown times, as well as more WiFi and 3G support such as software development kits (SDK) from telecommunication providers, Lim said.
Last year, Windows XP and Vista together took up a 75 percent of the global market share in netbook OS, data from the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) showed.
“The Windows platform isn’t necessarily better, but consumers have a certain familiarity with this OS, hence XP was able to grow so fast on netbooks last year,” Victor Horng (洪宗勝), general manager of OSS Integral Institute Co (晟鑫科技), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Linpus also sees netbooks becoming the mainstream soon as they encroach on regular notebook sales, with sales estimated to grow 102 percent this year. Sales of regular notebooks is projected to grow 11.3 percent, while sales of desktop computers are expected to drop 0.9 percent, MIC data showed.
Global PC shipments this year are estimated to approach 300 million units, it added.
Earlier this month, Intel Corp and Novell Inc’s collaboration to aggressively push Moblin, a Linux platform, in netbooks demonstrated Intel’s resolve to build a powerful Linux-based ecosystem.
UNCONVINCING: The US Congress questioned whether the company’s Chinese owners pose a national security risk and how the app might influence young users TikTok chief executive officer Shou Chew (周受資), confronted with an unforgiving, distrustful US Congress, tried to give answers in his testimony on Thursday that avoided offending either the US government or China. However, his evasiveness left Congress unsatisfied, with representatives hungrier than ever to punish TikTok for ties to its parent company ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), based in Beijing. He did not bring his company any closer to a resolution. Politically, TikTok is in a tougher spot. Its executives had been discussing divesting from ByteDance to resolve US national security concerns, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. However, China this week said
The Investment Commission yesterday approved a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) application to invest an additional US$3.5 billion in its Arizona subsidiary to manufactured advanced chips. The world’s largest contract chipmaker’s board of directors last month approved the funding project after TSMC started moving manufacturing equipment into the fab in December last year in preparation for the production of 4-nanometer chips next year. TSMC said it has also commenced the second phase of facility construction in Arizona. The second fab is to produce semiconductors using 3-nanometer technology in 2026. Altogether, TSMC plans to spend US$40 billion on the Arizona fabs, doubling its
KEY SECTOR: Taiwan’s new chip legislation is insufficient, and a more strategic ‘chip act’ that covers the whole semiconductor ecosystem is needed, MediaTek’s chairman said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chairman Rick Tsai (蔡明介) yesterday urged the government to formulate a state semiconductor strategy and comprehensive “chip act” that includes local chip designers and smaller-scale semiconductor companies, as they are facing intensifying competition from China. The government is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the local semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, given that the US, the EU and Japan are offering hefty subsidies and significant tax incentives to build semiconductor capacity domestically, as they have realized the strategic importance of semiconductors, Tsai said. To implement such a program, the government should take steps to finance a “chip act,” Tsai said
Microsoft Corp has threatened to cut off access to its Internet search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence (AI) chat products, people familiar with the dispute have said. The software maker licenses the data in its Bing search index — a map of the Internet that can be quickly scanned in real time — to other companies that offer Web search, such as Apollo Global Management Inc’s Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Last month, Microsoft integrated a cousin of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chat technology, into Bing. Rivals
RSS