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.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan