Microsoft restrictions a problem for vendors
Source: Agencies |
June 3, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MICROSOFT Corp showed off a version of its next operating system at technology conferences in the United States and Taipei, as some PC makers grumbled over restrictions on their involvement in the development of the system.
The world's largest software company is expected to launch the new system, code-named Windows 8 and highlighting touchscreen features optimized for tablet computers, in the next 18 months, as it races to catch up with Apple Inc.
But Microsoft has told chipmakers who want to use the system for tablets to work with only one manufacturer to speed up the delivery, Bloomberg and Dow Jones news reported, sparking worries among some PC vendors that they will be left out.
Some Taiwanese vendors are concerned that the reported restrictions mean they would have to be chosen by chipmakers to make tablet PCs for the new Windows operating system. Previously PC vendors could choose their own partners.
"By missing those chances, is it good for the whole industry together? This industry doesn't belong to Microsoft or Google, it belongs to all the participants," Jim Wong, president of world No. 2 PC vendor Acer Inc, said in Taipei.
In demonstrations at the D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, and the Computex show in Taipei, Microsoft executives showed a starting page that resembled Microsoft's latest phone software, with live "tiles" manipulated by pressing and swiping the screen.
The demonstration shows Microsoft is making progress toward the new operating system, which it promises will run on a range of hardware devices from traditional PCs to laptops and tablets, using both touchscreen and mouse and keyboard commands.
The company said in Palos Verdes that it was "not out of the game" in tablets.
"The fact that it's a year or two years after the iPad doesn't really matter. There is already a lot of built-in infrastructure," Adrian Crisan, Sony's director of engineering for VAIO and Mobile of America, told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
"Today Apple is first on one thing and Microsoft is first for another and, overall, it's going to be a race and whatever customers will like, they will buy."
The world's largest software company is expected to launch the new system, code-named Windows 8 and highlighting touchscreen features optimized for tablet computers, in the next 18 months, as it races to catch up with Apple Inc.
But Microsoft has told chipmakers who want to use the system for tablets to work with only one manufacturer to speed up the delivery, Bloomberg and Dow Jones news reported, sparking worries among some PC vendors that they will be left out.
Some Taiwanese vendors are concerned that the reported restrictions mean they would have to be chosen by chipmakers to make tablet PCs for the new Windows operating system. Previously PC vendors could choose their own partners.
"By missing those chances, is it good for the whole industry together? This industry doesn't belong to Microsoft or Google, it belongs to all the participants," Jim Wong, president of world No. 2 PC vendor Acer Inc, said in Taipei.
In demonstrations at the D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, and the Computex show in Taipei, Microsoft executives showed a starting page that resembled Microsoft's latest phone software, with live "tiles" manipulated by pressing and swiping the screen.
The demonstration shows Microsoft is making progress toward the new operating system, which it promises will run on a range of hardware devices from traditional PCs to laptops and tablets, using both touchscreen and mouse and keyboard commands.
The company said in Palos Verdes that it was "not out of the game" in tablets.
"The fact that it's a year or two years after the iPad doesn't really matter. There is already a lot of built-in infrastructure," Adrian Crisan, Sony's director of engineering for VAIO and Mobile of America, told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
"Today Apple is first on one thing and Microsoft is first for another and, overall, it's going to be a race and whatever customers will like, they will buy."
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