UPDATE: Microsoft, Taiwan To Develop Cloud Computing Technology
(Adds comments from Ballmer on the company's planned investment in cloud
computing; details of Microsoft's MOU with Chunghwa Telecom.)
By Jessie Ho
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) plans to spend US$9.5 billion in
research and development projects in 2010, a considerable portion of which will
go to cloud-computing technologies, the U.S. software giant's Chief Executive
Steve Ballmer said Wednesday.
Microsoft, which recently launched its latest Windows 7 operating system,
signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday with Taiwan's government to
jointly set up a research center for cloud computing on the island.
Microsoft and Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs will jointly establish the
"Software and Services Excellence Center" on the island, Microsoft said in the
statement, without disclosing the size of its investment.
Ming-Ji Wu, director general of the economic ministry's Department of
Industrial Technology, said the center will be set up before the end of 2009.
Microsoft said the venture is aimed at helping local contract makers of
electronics products develop devices and services related to cloud computing--an
emerging technology that allows users to access data saved in remote servers
through phones or computers.
Barry Lam, chairman of Quanta Computer Inc. (2382.TW), the world's largest
contract notebook maker by revenue, said in late October the company will focus
on developing and making cloud computing servers in the coming years.
Speaking on Windows 7, Ballmer said the overall market response is good.
"I certainly think in the consumer market Windows 7 will take over very
quickly, and it will be surging in the business market," Ballmer told reporters
in Taipei, where he hosted a forum on cloud computing.
Ballmer said he expects 300 million personal computers to be sold worldwide in
2009.
"For the next 20 years, we are going to teach computers to recognize your
voice and image," Ballmer told reporters on the eve of Microsoft's 20th
anniversary of operations in Taiwan.
Ballmer, who arrived in Taipei Tuesday and is leaving later Wednesday, also
signed an MOU with Chunghwa Telecom Co. (CHT), Taiwan's largest phone services
provider by revenue, for Microsoft to offer online software to Chunghwa
Telecom's customers, and to let Chunghwa Telecom deploy the Windows Azure
operating system for its cloud-technology applications.
-By Perris Lee Choon Siong and Jessie Ho, Dow Jones Newswires; +8862-2502-
2557; perris.lee@dowjones.com; jessie.ho@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-04-090438ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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