Microsoft Corp launched Windows 7 yesterday in its most important release for years, aiming to win back customers after the disappointing Vista and strengthen its grip on the PC market.
The company has received good reviews for the new operating system, which it hopes will grab back the impetus in new technology from rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc.
The new system — which is faster, less cluttered and has new touch-screen features — comes almost three years after the launch of Vista, whose complexity frustrated many home users and turned off business customers.
The success of Windows — which accounts for more than half of Microsoft’s profit — is crucial for chief executive Steve Ballmer to revive the company’s image as the world’s most important software firm.
“I have to say I’m chomping at the bit,” Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft customers and partners in Toronto, Canada, on Wednesday, adding that he is ready to make sales calls himself on Windows 7.
Sales won’t immediately impact Microsoft’s bottom line, which is expected to post a lower quarterly profit today.
Microsoft is charging US$199.99 for the Home Premium version of Windows 7, or US$119.99 for users seeking to upgrade from older versions of the operating system — well below comparable prices for Vista.
It also has a range of offers in conjunction with retailer Best Buy and PC makers such as Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁).
For the first time, shoppers will be able to buy PCs loaded with the software direct from a branded Microsoft store, with the first of a planned chain set to open yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The US holiday season will soon reveal whether consumer PC sales get a kick from Windows 7, but success with corporations — the key to Microsoft’s financial power — won’t be clear until next year, analysts say.
“Come June of next year, we are going to get the real indication of the business-to-business marketplace,” Mark Simons, chief executive of the US arm of Toshiba Corp, the world’s No. 5 PC maker, said on Wednesday.
Research group Gartner expects commercial PC sales to rise 10 percent next year and an additional 13 percent in 2011, as businesses replace four and five-year-old computers.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
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