Microsoft's $3 software is a cheap stunt

MICROSOFT'S $3 dollar software initiative is probably the cheapest publicity stunt ever, according to some critics.

Microsoft software will sell for just $3 (£1.50) in some parts of the world in an attempt to double the number of people using Windows. The firm wants to bring its computing 'culture' to a further one billion people by 2015. Spookily, AMD has a similar timetable aim.

Under Microsoft's scheme, governments in developing countries can purchase the cut-price software, if they provide free PCs for schools.

But one UK charity boss says the offer of cheap software is meaningless without any machines to run it on. "Without the hardware it's like donating the tyres but not the tractor," said Tony Roberts, CEO of Computer Aid International. "Currently the price of a new PC in developing countries is £600. That's higher than the average annual income per head in countries such as Malawi [£300] and Zambia [£500]."

The world's largest and most experienced not-for-profit supplier of computers to developing countries, Computer Aid International has sent over 88,000 PCs to schools in over 100 countries.

It estimates that five billion people have no access to ICT and are permanently locked out of the globalising information economy. Whether this necessarily locks them into poverty is a moot point. Roberts seems to think Microsoft could help here.

"It is only possible to work your way out of poverty if you have access to the basic business tools and knowledge upon which the modern globalised economy is now premised," he told the INQUIRER.

But software alone will not help. "To make this possible we need more PC donations. Since the price of new PCs is often higher than school budgets can manage, schools have to rely upon charity to provide them with the hardware that they require.

"It is essential that the massive excess of unwanted ICT in rich developed countries is transferred to the most disadvantaged economies - if global inequalities are to be reduced."

Demand for Computer Aid PCs currently greatly outstrips supply. Currently only five per cent of used PCs are donated to charitable causes. µ