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"The biggest problem we have right now is that people who should be paying for software aren't," Ballmer told an audience of technology executives at an industry conference here sponsored by market researcher Gartner.
Steve Ballmer
One way to stem piracy is to offer consumers in emerging countries a low-cost PC, Ballmer said. "There has to be...a $100 computer to go down-market in some of these countries. We have to engineer (PCs) to be lighter and cheaper," he said.
People in poorer countries have one low-cost computing option, Ballmer said. "They have a leased-PC concept: the Internet cafe. Pay-by-the-drink computer use--that has a very important place in the market. (Microsoft) has five times as many Hotmail users in India and China than there are PCs because of this," he said.
Ballmer said piracy of Microsoft's Windows and Office software in emerging markets has become a major concern for the software giant, especially among business users who can afford to pay for software.
Ballmer on Linux: "The evidence is clear"But lower prices have become part of Microsoft's strategy for gaining market share in developing nations. In recent months, the software maker has announced plans to introduce low-cost "starter editions" of Windows XP into countries including India, Russia and Thailand. These versions will be bundled only with entry-level PCs and will not be available for retail sale.
The Microsoft CEO bristled at the suggestion that Linux is gaining in popularity as a client operating system at the expense of Windows. "There's no appreciable amount of Linux on client systems anywhere in the world," he said.
Ballmer said that some governments have decided against using Linux after studying the costs involved. "You can sit here and read the drama stories and assume they are true. Paris said Linux was dramatically more expensive than Windows. In...Brazil, it's the same thing."
One exception is the city of Munich, Germany, which is planning a widespread Linux installation, Ballmer admitted. "Yes, we lost the city of Munich. But the fact that the same story gets told 65,000 times, and they are still diddling around to some degree...come on, where's the evidence?"
Munich councilors said last month that the city was finally ready to proceed with its Linux installation.
Ballmer also defended a comment made earlier this year by Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, who said security will not be an issue in three years. "If (that) was something we weren't shooting for, no one should come to this keynote. Whether that statement will come to be true or not remains to be seen. But it expresses Bill's fundamental optimism," he said.
- More for them, less for everyone else
- What else do you expect from such a narrow-minded greedy
provider?! - Reply to this comment
- Where Are The Windows Bigots?
- Wow, nobody yet has come in to defend Steve and Microsoft!
Maybe the tide IS turning. - Reply to this comment
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- Narrow minded simpletons
- http://news.com.com/AMD+offering+blueprint+for+249+PC/2100-1042_3-5422893.html?tag=nefd.top
You can make a low-cost pc with a low-cost version of windows. Only the unimaginative and unintelligent jump to the first conclusion that you need all of the bells and whistles when somebody proposes a low cost pc. - View reply
- People that type M$ instead of MS
- http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-07-22&res=l
- Reply to this comment
- Yes, this is fair...
- Yes, hardware companies should sell at a loss so that people will have more money for buying Microsoft's over priced, buggy, outdated, slow to be updated, poorly supported products. Yes, this is absolutly fair.
Pull you head out of your rear Mr. Ballmer and take a breath of fresh air. Your farts are starting to get to you!
Robert - Reply to this comment
- Isn't that what the XBox is for???
- The hack to turn an XBox into a Linux PC shows that it's a valid general purpose PC. It'l prolly be my next home box.
Now to get M$ to admit it and start selling it that way... - Reply to this comment
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- And thas box is even more than 100 $
- Good you mention it. The XBox is basically a PC, and this cost 150$ in the shop. This is the price you pay after it is heavily subsidized by M$.
I have one, but I wouldn't pay for a new one again.
Media Center on it is good though...
- Microsoft X-Box the $100 PC?
- Yeah, it is becoming the $100 PC. Microsoft got the idea to create the X-Box when it purchased set-top provider WebTV. The WebTV team has released yet another cheap-PC with "MSN TV 2". Couple a cheap PC with "pay-per-drink" services such as web access, email and games and you can re-coupe the costs over time.
Microsoft is already well into delivering this kind of solution. It is almost too bad that most of the game development for the X-Box 2 will be done on Apple Power-Mac's rather than PC's with Windows.
- More idiot mac users
- Most of these comments are obviously from more idiot mac users (not to mention the very few linux users?you know who you are...run any software lately?) that just love to bash MS any chance they get. Oh how you are all owned!
I can see why so many of you posted a reply to this thread. The real truth is you feel even more threatened now. More affordable "Windows" boxes means less people to brainwash into joining your cults. (not PC you fools - that means personal computer which refers to a computer built around a microprocessor for use by an individual, as in an office or at home or school. Check Websters you fools. I just love to hear people say PC when referring to Windows. What a treat.
To sum up my rant ? You are all simply owned. I will leave you to your foolish comments and pre-packaged anti-Microsoft sensationalist babble since that about all you can do anyhow. Enjoy. - Reply to this comment
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- More idiots? Oh come on!
- Let's get to basics, this is not Mac vs PC bashing (which we can
do another day). This is really nothing to do with Apple at all.
Think about it. This is bashing Balmer's remarks regarding why
the starving no-name hardware makers should sacrifice their
already minimal margins for MS to profit. Now there is a very
good argument that these no-namers don't deserve the return
of a R&D spender like MS - and I could not agree more.
HOWEVER, the greatest loser of any call for a dramatic low-end
PC price cut is none other than Intel. So let's be honest.
Microsoft doesn't really give a damn about their sole reason for
existence - which is Intel. To obscure the info as an Apple Mac
zealots deal is just dumb. - View reply
- Thank you for silly comment
- Thanks for nothing. Ballmer says something so completely dumb that the IT world collectively wants to throw a pox on the whole Windows world and you defend them?
$100 PC is great idea as long as the hardware vendor is making a buck or two. Remember the disaster of the AOL, MSN, etc. free PC's?
- Who's the fool?
- "Check Websters you fools. I just love to hear people say PC
when referring to Windows. What a treat."
You may not have noticed but Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft,
calls them PCs all the time. I guess that makes him a fool too.
(Although most of the posters here would use other terms, and
do, to describe him).
- You should check before you leap...
- "PC" As quoted from PCWebOPedia, an online source of computer terms and definitions: "(1) Short for personal computer or IBM PC. The first personal computer produced by IBM was called the PC, and increasingly the term PC came to mean IBM or IBM-compatible personal computers, to the exclusion of other types of personal computers, such as Macintoshes."
You might also want to note that Microsoft wants people to associate "PC" with Microsoft and their Windows and Office products. It is the same kind of marketing as calling any soda a "coke" or "pepsi".
Today the term PC most often refers to an Intel or AMD based X86 comptuer with Microsoft Windows. Microsoft certainly has no interest to see sub $100 computer systems with no compatibility with Microsoft products and operating systems.
- Bring Down the cost to $100
- Let me think , uhmm, ehhh, PIRACY, ya, wait a second they are pirating SOFTWARE, not hardware, so if bring doen the cost of SYSTEM software to say, $ 1 for windows ( as is a requirement to run) and lets say $ 5 for office as could be optional. YA , lets wok on that Steve, lets make a 5 year plan, wher YOU reduce the cost of windows to $ 1 BUCK. I bet you everyone will buy your software then , NO MORE PIRACY.
Great Plan STEVE - Reply to this comment
- Jill to Ballmer: "that would make it cheaper than the OS"
- My challenge to you, Steve, is to make it $100 INCLUDING the OS
AND have the manufacturer make a profit.
You can't even buy Windows for that price!!! - Reply to this comment
