The offer sounds very generous. Microsoft (MSFT) will sharply cut its prices to developing countries that offer free PCs to children. It may be a way to avoid some piracy of Windows. If consumers can get a real version cheap enough, why get a screwy version from a pirate.
The move is part of a push for Microsoft to double the number of PC users in the world to two billion by 2015.
But, the move has two by-products. One is that many governments have begun to use the Linux open source operating system on PCs. It is much less expensive than Windows. But, a lower-price Windows product may make Linux less attractive. The open source system is still only used on a small fraction of the world’s PCs. Microsoft would like to keep it that way.
Another matter that Microsoft must be considering is that having Windows on most of the world’s new PCs gives it a gateway to other devices from portable handheld communications electronics, to games, to connected TVs. More Windows equals a larger wedge for the sale of future Microsoft products.
Microsoft knows that it is good to be generous.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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