2008 e21FORUM: Intel confronts Microsoft again

June 9, 2008 The opening day of COMPUTEX 2008, e21FORUM was held at the Taipei International Convention Center on June 3 to forecast the future of ICT industry world-wide. To connect with the topic of "WiMAX" mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association, e21MagicMedia, convener of e21FORUM, entitled the forum topic as "Leading to a Bright Future with Technology".

Since the e21FORUM was initially held from 2001, the dialogue between Microsoft and Intel became a key topic in this event. This year, executives from Microsoft and Intel confronted here again.

In the opening keynote, Sean M. Maloney, Executive Vice President of Intel Corporation, started his speech to forecast the future of WiMAX. "WiMAX will become a must-have trend. When it matured[sic], it will bring on the utilization percentages on mobile devices like MID and UMPC." stated Maloney. In addition, he also demonstrated the application of SSD by shocking and stunning its device to prove its sustainability and damage-proof in front of forum participants.

On the other hand, Microsoft participated in the COMPUTEX 2008 entitled "It's better with Windows" to demonstrate the advantages of Microsoft Windows with "Trusted", "Familiar", and "Compatible". In the second keynote, Steven Guggenheimer, Vice President of Microsoft Global OEM Department, explained the opportunities which OEMs and ODMs can provide to elevate users' experiences by optimizing Microsoft Windows to the best performance.

Finally in the executive panel, DigiTimes and experts from ICT industry in Taiwan forecast the future of WiMAX. Executives coordinately commented that the basic infrastructure will be a critical factor when developing the WiMAX applications in Taiwan.