TAIPEI — June 1, 2011 — Taiwan is where it all happens, the center of gravity for hardware and device innovation. No matter where in the world it’s purchased, no matter the brand or the components used, there is one certainty — at least one part of that device likely got its start in Taiwan.
During its ninth year at COMPUTEX, Microsoft is showing off more than 130 new, innovative Windows-based devices brought to market by more than 50 of its hardware partners. In its booth, Microsoft showed off nearly 100 PCs, either newly available or soon-to-be-released, ranging from ultraportable thin and light notebooks as well as small and always-connected companions to secure business laptops, high-performance entertainment notebooks and high-end gaming rigs. PCs, phones, servers, TVs, handheld specialty devices — they’re all here. New designs, advanced technologies, innovative components, and new computing trends point the way forward for the Windows device ecosystem.
“Investments in new technologies that simplify experiences and improve the way we interact with devices remain a Microsoft priority,” said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s OEM Division, addressing COMPUTEX attendees. “Natural user interface (NUI) technologies and rich cloud services built into the Windows platforms help deliver immersive experiences to customers, and enable countless new business opportunities for our device partners.”
Microsoft’s Windows platforms connect hardware, applications and services that enable devices to extend their reach to the cloud, where personal computing is evolving to span across a variety of devices. Be it email, search, games, entertainment or business applications, Windows devices let users access content living in the cloud from anywhere, anytime and from nearly any device. Using a variety of input methods — touch, speech, gesture, etc. — users have greater control over their content and how they use their devices to get to it.
NUI and the cloud bring what might have been islands of devices together in a richer and more integrated way. Think about what can be done today on a phone that wouldn’t have been dreamed of five years ago with the simplicity of voice recognition, and the ability today to synchronize files and folders among various devices, or how content delivered to set-top boxes via the Internet and into the living room has redefined movie rentals and the entertainment industry.
At COMPUTEX, Microsoft is demonstrating some of the most innovative computing scenarios the industry has seen, all enabled by its device partners. These scenarios range from voice commands that send text messages with the new Windows Phone 7 code-named “Mango” release, how a DJ using a large, customized Windows 7-based touchscreen PC mixes music for a show, and bringing families spread across the globe closer together with Windows Live Messenger video chat on PCs.