ULCPCs: I'm Still Laughing At That One
,----[ Quote ]
| Even HP’s promised new ultra-mobile will offer Linux variants. Asus rocked
| the non-Apple world with the Eee PC, and even though they are busy trying to
| launch more flavors of that little device than Baskin Robbins offers in ice
| cream, the big news is that consumers bought the original Linux version in
| numbers that changed the landscape. And then of course there is Apple, but I
| won’t repeat my well chronicled thoughts on that here.
|
| So, let’s get down to brass tacks here. This, as it always has been, is about
| marketing pure and simple. In the same way that McDonald’s isn’t about
| burgers, Microsoft isn’t about software and is quickly becoming less so as it
| tries to get bigger footholds in the advertising game. Mobile devices are
| coming but they will be the razor. The blades will be advertising that pops
| up on all those free Internet services. Until (and if) Microsoft gets a hold
| in the advertising game, they still need to sell software. Now the marketing
| shifts from creating and supporting a new life-style platform to a two-fold
| strategy that:
|
| * Attempts to get Microsoft software onto a class of devices that
| Microsoft tried to create an environment for and failed to deliver on
| and,
| * Hyping price as the deciding factor.
|
| The thing is, it will probably succeed. With no thanks to Microsoft.
`----
http://www.gottabemobile.com/CommentView,guid,21065d0f-69f9-4fbb-a112-a902773937d7.aspx
Microsoft still tries pay-as-you-go computing (it even patented this trivial
idea). But who would subscribe and pay for Windows monthly when there's Linux?
That's why Microsoft is so afraid of Linux (#1 threat, by its own admission).
It's a great commodity.
Intel, by the way, is helping Microsoft get children locked-in (or "addicted"
as Gates puts it). Details below.
Related:
Microsoft selling hobbled software to poor countries
,----[ Quote ]
| Surprisingly, no-one seems to have told Microsoft that it is not good
| marketing strategy to treat your customers as if they are stupid. Which
| is exactly what the company is doing with the release in Africa of the
| stripped-down operating system it calls Windows XP Starter Edition.
|
| Microsoft South Africa launched Windows XP Starter Edition (XPSE) into
| the African market last week with very little fanfare and market hype.
|
| Which is not surprising considering how the product was received by other
| media on its intial launch in 2004. Known for its straight talking, The
| Register labelled XPSE "crippleware". Analysts Gartner said the product
| had "good intent, poor execution".
`----
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=983
Governments Must Reject Gates' $3 Bid to Addict Next Billion PC Users
,----[ Quote ]
| "Microsoft's strategy of getting developing nations hooked on its
| software was clearly outlined by Bill Gates almost a decade ago," said
| Con Zymaris, CEO of long-standing open source firm Cybersource.
|
| Specifically, Bill Gates, citing China as an example, said:
|
| "Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but
| people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though.
| As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.
| They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to
| collect sometime in the next decade."[1]
`----
http://www.cybersource.com.au/press/gates_set_to_addict_next_billion.html
Microsoft tests "pay-as-you-go" software
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has been quietly testing a new "pay-as-you-go" software
| rental service in South Africa, Mexico, and Romania. The service
| allows users to pay a monthly fee of around $15 for the use
| of Office 2003.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070222-8907.html
Microsoft to launch new Vista-subscription trials in early 2008
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is readying a new Windows-Vista based version of its
| FlexGo hardware-software-services bundle aimed at emerging markets.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=445
Now pre-paid Office 2007 tool from Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Hyderabad: Just like a pre-paid mobile telephony card, you can now have a
| pre-paid Office 2007 productivity software from Microsoft in India.
|
| This offering that comes with the purchase of new personal computer allows a
| user to access this software for six months and thereafter with the option of
| renewal with additional payments.
`----
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14561091
Microsoft expands Office ‘pay-as-you-go’ rental program
,----[ Quote ]
| Via the pay-as-you-go program, users can choose three- or six-month
| subscriptions to Office Professional 2007 and pay a monthly fee to use the
| product.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=955
Microsoft patent hints at pay-as-you-go OS
,----[ Quote ]
| A Microsoft patent application from June 2005, published only today,
| titled "System and method for delivery of a modular operating system"
| may signal a fundamental change for what an operating systems stands
| for and how it is sold.
`----
http://www.istartedsomething.com.nyud.net:8080/20061215/pay-as-you-go-os-patent/
Intel, Microsoft for Pay-As-You-Go PCs
,----[ Quote ]
| The pay-as-you-go model enabled by FlexGo makes PCs more accessible
| by reducing the initial cost and enabling customers to pay for
| computers through subscriptions or as they use them, through the
| purchase of prepaid activation cards or tokens.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060522/20060521005039.html?.v=1
,----[ Quote ]
| Want to write a Word document? Pay a few pennies. Want to download
| some digital photos? Pay a few more.
|
| Under the idea, which Microsoft is introducing this week, people would
| be able to get a PC for their home with a mechanism that charges them
| depending on how much computing they use. Consumers would pay for about
| half of the PC upfront and then, say, 50 cents or 75 cents per hour of
| use. After several hundred hours of paid use, they would then own the
| PC outright.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1003_3-6074589.html?part=rss&tag=6074589&subj=news
Africa: 'Microsoft is Imperialistic' Says Open Source Advocates
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corporation's products have been locked out of the
| on-going World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi Kenya.
|
| With over 300 computers provided for participants and the press,
| organizers of the WSF have preferred to provide open source
| software products and blocked all Microsoft related products for
| the forum's usage and its related activities.
|
| [...]
|
| Activists at the forum also believe that since Microsoft is a
| corporate brand from the United States of America, a country
| they believe has intentions of maintaining the status quo of
| a unipolar world over which it is above international law and
| the UN, the brand should be locked out.
|
| [...]
|
| "The open source movement is providing Linux, a robust free
| software. Everybody owns it and it can be shared. And this
| is what WSF is all about - a free society, a movement
| fighting for ownership of free resources" he adds.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701230831.html
[Mandriva CEO:] An open letter to Steve Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their
| mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone.
| How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my
| place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.
|
| Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
|
| Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the next one.
| You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics
| you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win
| too.
`----
http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
Lessons from Africa: How to Kill Your Own FUD
,----[ Quote ]
| So, even as Microsoft claims superior quality over Linux, they act as if they
| don't even buy their own FUD. If they really believed that Windows was
| superior to Linux, they wouldn't have to bribe people with “marketing help”
| to get them to choose Windows.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-11-09-030-26-OP-MD-MS
Linux wins Nigerian school desktops back from Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| "We are sticking with that platform," said the official, who would not give
| his name.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6124
http://tinyurl.com/27ycq9
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