Microsoft Corp is showcasing four new operating systems (OS) at Computex in Taipei tomorrow that it says will cater to all facets of an end-user’s computing life.
The Redmond, Washington-based company has been working on the four operating systems — Windows 7, Windows Embedded, Windows Mobile and Windows Server — to regain consumer and corporate confidence following its unsuccessful launch of Vista OS in 2005.
Windows 7 RC (the trial version currently available called release candidate) has won wide acclaim. The software giant’s introduction of Touch Pack for Windows 7, a set of games and applications optimized for multi-touch computing, has generated interest from the touch-screen liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers and LCD component suppliers.
At this year’s Computex, Microsoft will collaborate with 16 personal computer manufacturers on more than 30 products running on the new operating system, the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper, the Liberty Times, reported yesterday.
The report said the Windows 7 products on display would include notebooks, tablet PCs, all-in-one PCs and netbooks.
PC makers in collaboration with Microsoft include Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Gigabyte Technology Corp (技嘉), BenQ Corp (明基), Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), MiTAC International Corp (神達), Micro-Star International Co (微星), Sharp Corp and Toshiba Corp, the paper said.
Global PC shipments are likely to surpass 322 million units by 2011 from 282 million units this year, the International Data Corp (IDC) forecast early last month, with shipments of notebooks increasing from this year’s 54 percent of the total PC market to 61 percent by 2011.
Microsoft and global PC makers hope the Windows 7 release will spur a wave of hardware upgrades, creating business opportunities for all parties involved.
However, Gartner Inc predicts a complete phase out of corporate XP by the end of 2012 at the latest, as various information technology companies are contemplating technology migration during the economic downturn. They will be forced to do so when their XP versions no longer receive XP upgrades or customer support.
To rally consumer support for its new operating system, Steven Guggenheimer, a Microsoft vice president in charge of the global original equipment manufacturing (OEM) division, and Eddie Wu (吳勝雄), general manager for Microsoft’s OEM division in Asia, will jointly deliver keynote speeches at the Nangang Exhibition Hall tomorrow.
Kevin Dallas, general manager of Microsoft Windows embedded business, will address the company’s four operating systems on Wednesday at the Taipei International Conference Center.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day