By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
A recent trip to Seoul by Microsoft (MS) CEO Steve Ballmer to tout the latest edition of its Windows operating system has been recognized as the U.S. software giant’s increased efforts to embrace the South Korean market.
Government officials and executives from information technology companies say MS is focusing here at a time when its bigger competitors including Apple are threatening its distinctive position in the mobile operating system and Web-browsing sectors.
Ballmer said South Korea has a greater penetration rate in high-speed Internet, and companies will see greater benefits in contents-related sectors by using the system.
"Microsoft sees South Korea as a single independent market. The penetration rate of Microsoft's windows system on PCs here has reached over 99 percent. The chances are incredibly high for Microsoft to realize a jackpot for the new Windows 7," an executive at Samsung Electronics, said Wednesday.
"Ballmer hopes to test the marketability of Windows 7's core function ― broadcasting contents ― in South Korea for its eventual advance into the broadcasting business. The nation has emerged as the test-bed for the success of its new operating system," he added.
Windows 7, released Oct. 22, is the much-touted update to software that runs most personal computers.
In Europe, Microsoft is still under intensified investigation by European regulators into the way the company bundles its products.
Competing software makers complained that PC users don't have a clear way to choose an alternative and the European Commission concluded in January that Microsoft was violating antitrust laws. The investigation might lead to more erosion of Microsoft's market share.
"Windows 7 is a lifeline for our business," an MS spokeswoman said. MS executives say the company's future direction is subject to the success of the latest operating system.
In line with such perceptions and acknowledgements, Ballmer met with the chief executive of Samsung Electronics to promote the use Windows 7 for its corporate computers.
Later, the company said it will migrate all of its corporate PCs worldwide to the new system, beginning in 2010.
"That was a constructive result for Microsoft, and Samsung's decision was a good gesture to increase the bids for the Windows success," another MS representative said.
Only about a quarter of the world’s personal computer users run Vista.
In contrast, between 60 and 70 percent of the users are still running MS's eight-year-old Windows XP software, which many find more compatible and easier to use.
The collaboration with Samsung Electronics to encourage more PC users to purchase energy-saving PC systems also means help from the South Korean company could play a pivotal role in supporting the U.S. software company.
Samsung is the world's biggest maker of computer memory chips. The company, which is supplying the chips to major PC makers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Acer, expects substantial energy savings when Microsoft's flagship system and Samsung’s 40-nanometer class DDR DRAM are used together.
As for further steps, Microsoft is planning to provide a broadcasting service sometime next year along with four local TV broadcasters.
Broadcast TV channels interlocked with "Windows Media Center" will be transmitted in the form of Video on Demand (VOD). Airing home shopping channels real-time will be started soon, sources said.
In a conference attended by some 70 chief information officers here, Ballmer pointed out Windows 7 energy efficiency, lower costs and management fees.
Its unpopular predecessor, Microsoft's Windows Vista, was plagued by poor performance and incompatibility with other hardware and software products.
The unpopularity led the global memory chip market to suffer from massive inventories. Chipmakers, who had increased their production capabilities due to higher expectations for Vista, were cutting their capital expenditures and lowering production to secure the bottom line.
"The situation has changed. Ballmer took an aggressive sales trip in South Korea and got some of the results he hoped for. For Microsoft, the Korean market is not just a test-bed for eventual success in China anymore," another Samsung executive said.