Microsoft Corp’s plan to cut royalty rates paid by contract PC makers to use the latest Windows 8 operating system is unlikely to significantly boost lukewarm sales of computers running the system because they still lack hit applications and face strong competition from Google Inc’s Android operating system and others, market researcher Gartner Inc said yesterday.
Over the past year, Microsoft’s Windows 8 did not stimulate PC replacement demand as much as expected, Gartner analyst Tracy Tsai (蔡惠芬) told a media briefing.
To accelerate the development of computers running Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft plans to offer discounts in licensing fees to contract PC makers, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
“Price is not the only factor that caused disappointing sales of Windows 8 PCs ... Microsoft’s Windows 8 system is facing growing competition from Apple Inc’s iOS and Google’s Android,” Tsai said. “No applications are developed specifically for Windows 8 PCs and consumers do not know what is unique about Windows PCs.”
Amid enormous uncertainty and complexity in the mobile computing market, sales of Windows 8 PCs and Ultrabook computers fell disappointingly short over the past year because of changes in consumer behavior, Tsai said.
The situation is likely to deteriorate further over the next two to three years as consumers are increasingly able to access their personal data on multiple mobile computing devices via cloud computing technologies, she said, adding that PC vendors needed to devise a new strategy to survive.
International Data Corp (IDC), another market researcher, last week said global PC shipments shrank for the first time ever last year, falling 3.7 percent, adding that it expected shipments to drop 1.3 percent annually this year, marking the second straight year of decline.
Tsai said she maintained a conservative attitude about the growth of global PC shipments.
The three-year PC replacement cycle could disappear as consumers will make upgrading their smartphones and tablets their priority, instead of getting a new PC, she said.
“The PC market will still grow, but a very slow pace in the next few years,” Tsai said. “PCs will make up an ever-smaller share of the overall mobile computing market over the near future in the emerging markets.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
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