On Sat, 4 Aug 2007 09:20:01 -0700, Leonard
<> wrote:
>Hi all,
>This post may not be technical to be here but it is relevant to all of us.
>Here's a zdnet news (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6200577.html). MS
>sells Vista Home Premium package at $118 in China to thwart piracy there.
>Whereas the same package costs 288 euros in Germany and $220 in US. I am not
>a anti-MS guy so do not get me wrong. But MS would really let us down this
>time if it did not cut price elsewhere.
Microsoft's pricing polices are based on GREED, you were expecting
fair? Sorry, isn't going to happen. You see it works like this, people
living in North America, throughout Europe, much of South America,
Japan are gorged with inflated prices to cover Microsoft losses where
Windows and other Microsoft products are routinely pirated like in
much of Asia, especially China, much of Russia and other Eastern block
counties once part of the former Soviet Union.
While there is a rapidly growing middle and upper middle class in
China bootleg copies of all software are readily available and the
government there does little to stop it. So guess what, most estimates
show there are a best a few thousand registered users of Windows in
all of China, a country who's population far exceeds a billion people,
will a mere handful having paid for their copy of Vista yet there are
tens of millions of Windows users in China that were given a wink a
nod that it's ok to steal a copy.
Microsoft dropped prices on Vista in the hope it would encourage more
to get a legimate copy. Lots of luck. Especially when Bill Gates is on
record saying he doesn't mind of the Chinese steal Windows now hoping
someday they will get converted into paying customers. Meanwhile
paying customers are forced to put up with things like activation and
of course we make up what's lost in overseas profits by paying an
inflated price.
Now you know what the WOW campaign really means.
Wow, some suits in Microsoft campus must say to each other, we can't
believe people gladly pay hundreds of dollars for a buggy version of
Windows while at the same time the founder of Microsoft is on record
saying he doesn't mind if millions steal a copy in China.
The new slogan from Microsoft should be bend over. We'll do it to you.