Microsoft’s business model for next generation Windows may be better suited to the mobile industry than Google’s strategy for Android, according to Glen Burchers, director of Freescale’s global consumer industrial segment marketing.
Speaking to Burchers at the Computex consumer electronics show in Taipei, Taiwan, RCR learned he was “optimistic” about what Microsoft had in the works whereas he claimed “the Google Android model is a little fluffy right now.”
“There are some pros and cons with Android,” Burchers told us, noting that it was the only “viable” operating system outside of Apple’s iOS at the moment, but that it was “causing some consternation” within the industry and that the next few years would see some changes. “We’ll see what Microsoft will do with its operating system,” he said adding “there’s quite a lot of change coming in the OS wars.”
Meanwhile, Burchers noted the ongoing trend of smartphone innovation filtering through to the tablet space, which in turn was beginning to cater more to vertical markets with the release of industrial and medical tablets. IPTV, he said was another example of smartphone innovation pushing through to a new space.
Burchers had high praise for Taiwan, which he said had been an important part of the semiconductor industry for 20 or more years, calling it a “powerhouse” that had served the PC industry well.
Moving into a post PC era, Burchers said Taiwan’s importance had not diminished, with more and more innovation happening around mobile processors and ARM based processors in particular.
“Taiwan will always be an important part of this industry for Freescale,” said Burchers who also said the firm viewed Computex as “the most important electronic tradeshow in all of Asia.”
“I would put the quality of the engineers here in Taiwan up with anywhere in the world,” Burchers asserted, pointing to manufacturing giants like TSMC and major OEMs and ODMs like Acer, Asus, Pegatron, Wistron, and Compal as examples of Taiwanese tech prowess.
During the interview, Burchers even showed off a 7-inch prototype tablet he said was an example of some of those currently being put together in Taiwan which could end up on the consumer market for as little as $199, a price point which has thus far seemed a distant dream.
