Microsoft's cut-price XP flops in Asia

THEY SAY NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished. Microsoft's mission to bring cheap Windows to the Asian masses has got off to a very slow start.

Windows XP Starter Edition, a cut down version of the full OS, debuted in Thailand last October, and Malaysia and Indonesia in February. But Microsoft's grand plan to deliver low-cost computing to the developing world has had a lukewarm response from the all important local system builder community. The product is not sold at retail, so depends totally on buy-in from partner companies who are supposed to be bundling and promoting the software as part of their low end offer.

Maybe part of the problem is that bootleg copies of Windows XP go for less than $5 in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Many prospective Starter Edition partners sell their kit without any OS installed, while others are continuing to pre-load full editions of XP, clearly believing customers are not hungry for a compromise on features. Still others are finding a market for pre-loaded Linux. The scheme moves to India and then Russia later this year.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called for the industry to come up with a sub-$100 PC, with the idea that anyone paying that little for their hardware isn't going to begrudge shelling out for legal software. As yet there have been no takers in the hardware community. µ

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