PC VENDORS UNHAPPY

Some vendors in Taiwan are concerned that the reported restrictions mean they would have to be chosen by chipmakers to make tablet PCs for the new Windows operating system. Previously PC vendors could choose their own partners.

"By missing those chances, is it good for the whole industry together? This industry doesn't belong to Microsoft or Google, it belongs to all the participants," Jim Wong, president of world No.2 PC vendor Acer Inc told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday.

"So they can't make the decision for all of us. That's the problem," Wong said.

Sony's Crisan declined to comment on the reported restrictions, but said Windows 8 would probably eventually be opened to everyone.

On Wednesday, Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows unit, said the new system did not yet have a name and did not say when it would be available. He promised more details at a developers' conference in September.

The release date is a "Defense Department secret", joked Sinofsky, adding that it would not be this autumn.

Microsoft typically aims for 24 to 36 months between major Windows versions, suggesting a launch date for the next Windows between October 2011 and October 2012.

Sinofsky said Microsoft is working to integrate Internet telephone service Skype into the new system, following its agreement to purchase the company last month.

He had shown a crude version of the new Windows system working on ARM Holdings chips - which work better on mobile devices due to their low power requirements - at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

That signaled a change in emphasis for Microsoft toward mobile devices, although the new Windows will still run on chips made by traditional partner Intel Corp .