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Going for 2 Billion: Microsoft Dramatically Lowers Prices for Poorest Customers
Posted by Spy April 20, 2007 8:57 AM with 5 comment(s)
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Microsoft: You've already got a billion users worldwide. What's next? A billion more, of course. Microsoft this morning announced a new initiative that will provide the company's most valuable software to the world's most needy users at almost no cost, in a bid to raise its worldwide user base from one billion to two billion users by 2015.

Microsoft's efforts come under a new program called Microsoft Unlimited Potential (which the cynical might read as "For Microsoft, Unlimited Potential.") But make no mistake: Microsoft is not promoting its efforts as charity. "This is a business, not a philanthropic effort," said Microsoft senior vice president Orlando Ayala.

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Source: www.windowsitpro.com

Comments

 

ChiTownDale said:

Mr Gates should be a comedian!
His "program" requires a MAXIMUM income of $15,000 a year yet it is apparently targeted at famlies with students (since one of the MS products offered is Office 2007 Home and Student).
 
The thing is that the $15,000 income limit is used by every other organization for SINGLE persons. Any family with at least one dependent uses a $25,000 income limit. Check any drug company's Patient Assistance Program you care to. Drug companies provide their drugs for FREE to patients with incomes of $15,000 for single people and $25,000 for patients with spouses or dependent children (and don't use government programs to do so).
The other tragic joke about this program is that it requires that the person aquire their computer through GOVERNMENT programs. Have you tried to get ANYTHING through a government program lately? It takes six months or more to get Medicaid through state governements because they are overwhelmed with applications because of the economy today thanks to Washington's bungling and also due to personnel cuts at the state and county level due to lack of funding from Washington and the state.
 
So thanks for nothing, Mr Gates. You offer an operating system that will soon be obsolete, to be replaced with one (Vista) that costs double and triple what the current one (XP) does. You offer a suite of software (Office 2007 Home and Student) that is meant to help someone who doesn't have enough money to afford online access, enough money to need software to manage this money and can't afford a printer or ink for that printer to print out anything they would create with the student feature.
 
Meanwhile, drug companies give people who earn as much as $25,000 a year THOUSANDS of dollars worth of drugs for free.
 
Who is the better benefactor, Microsoft who offers $300 worth of software (half of which is obsolete, XP) for $3 to a potential customer who earns no more than $15,000 a year
or Pfizer who provides $1,368 worth of Lyrica a year for FREE to a patient who earns as much as $25,000 a year?
 
I know who I would vote for and it isn't Bill Gates who has more money than 25,000 middle class families together could earn in a lifetime and well over 3 million families who earn $15,000 earn in total in one year!
 
April 20, 2007 8:33 PM
 

AloneInTheDark said:

Who cares ? It isn't charity, in the end of the day, Microsoft is a business with the goal to earn money. Communism didn't work. Get over it.
April 20, 2007 11:55 PM
 

Spy said:

You are so wrong.  Take your Western blinkers off for a second and remember the countless people who will benefit from this.
April 21, 2007 6:56 AM
 

GP007 said:

No matter what MS does, there will always be a handfull of people who will call it a stupid move, and beat it at any chance they get.

These people pirate windows for the same price MS is going to be selling a legal copy for, I don't see it as a dumb move at all.  You have to price your products relative to the market you're selling them in.

That being said, they could do good by lowering the price of Windows a bit in general,  but only time will tell if they do that.

April 21, 2007 2:38 PM
 

Zac B said:

Microsoft benifits and the poor benifit. Win-win. You know, other os providers could do the same things. Microsoft isn't monopolizing the idea of sales ya know.
April 22, 2007 4:42 PM

About Spy

Hello world, as they say. I'm in Melbourne Australia and work as a Systems Administrator. I go to work every day with a smile on my face as I just love my work. Our company works across 30+ sites around the state so I travel a bit. We use mostly MS products, IBM hardware and 100% Cisco networking...it's a sweet mix for sure. I've been around Bink's site since it's inception way back when it was just a group on the MS site...that was a while ago. Bink.nu is the leading source of Microsoft news on the web that's for sure and I love being a part of Steven's team. Anyway, hope you enjoy the site.
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