Microsoft's latest improvements add costs that may be prohibitive for users in critical economies and send them to rivals or pirated copies
Microsoft has to do more if it wants to boost Windows Vista sales in Asia's emerging markets as affordability is still an issue, an analyst says.
According to a statement Thursday on Microsoft's first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2007, Allan Krans, an analyst at research house Technology Business Research (TBR), noted that while enhancements included in Vista offer security and functionality improvements, the operating system also requires a heavier hardware configuration compared with Windows XP.
Although the costs of a dual-core processor, added memory, and graphics processors may not be prohibitive for users in the Americas or Europe, any additional cost on a PC can have a substantial impact in emerging geographies like China, Krans said.
View: Business Week
Microsoft has to do more if it wants to boost Windows Vista sales in Asia's emerging markets as affordability is still an issue, an analyst says.
According to a statement Thursday on Microsoft's first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2007, Allan Krans, an analyst at research house Technology Business Research (TBR), noted that while enhancements included in Vista offer security and functionality improvements, the operating system also requires a heavier hardware configuration compared with Windows XP.
Although the costs of a dual-core processor, added memory, and graphics processors may not be prohibitive for users in the Americas or Europe, any additional cost on a PC can have a substantial impact in emerging geographies like China, Krans said.
View: Business Week
Thats like saying when people cant afford a big screen tv, they turn to robbery: thats the only option they have left.
What you are saying is quite ridiculous. There are many other options besides piracy, such as using a cheaper/free OS or sticking with their old ones, or not using a computer.
well, how much did you pay for each "copy" of XP that you have on 5 machines?
well, how much did you pay for each "copy" of XP that you have on 5 machines?
It came with the PC perhaps?
saturation of the market with LEGIT versions.
Am from Karachi, Pakistan.... I contacted 'Aroma Soft' MS distributor here in Pak they say the price of WIN VISTA ULTIMATE is RS 12,000 that is almost USD 196 and VISTA BASIC RS 5,500 that is almost USD 90, I dont think it is such a bad price here in PAK an average second hand computer costs around USD 150, and most of the software I have seen people here us is IE, WMP, WINAMP, OFFICE, etc so if take down or add office to windows it will be way easier to get rid of piracy... I have legit win vista basic but never will buy office its costs is very inflated.... USD 250
"OMG I can't afford to buy a Bently... wait I'll just go steal it then".. yeh right thats how the world works? What really happens - I simply dont buy a Bently.
"OMG I can't afford to buy a Bently... wait I'll just go steal it then".. yeh right thats how the world works? What really happens - I simply dont buy a Bently.
If Bently's could be posted and hosted on the internet, you bet your bottom dollar they'd be stolen...
The are many obvious differences between intellectual property and physical property. That is why the laws are so different. If you steal a Bentley, you have caused direct and measurable harm to the property owner. In most cases, the violation of copyright holder's rights isn't direct or measurable. That's why in most countries violations are usually handled as civil cases rather than criminal.
Speaking with Adobe, they were surprised to know that "ordinary people" wanted things like photoshop too. But if they aim at the whole market they need a price thats probably 1/10th of the price what it is now... that means they would have to sell more than 10 times as many just to get the same profit (slightly more that 10 times due to things like overcosts of producing more). Then on top of that they would have many more support problems with novice users (as Im presuming most photoshop users are professionals that run into relatively few problems.)
When you start looking at it, for adobe to try and make a product like photoshop accessible to everyone it just makes more work for them with possibly negative profit.
Similar is true with Microsoft possibly, apart from they have a broader market.
EDIT:
even at $10 for Vista, loads of people in Asia would still pirate it for $1, just not quite so many.
Speaking with Adobe, they were surprised to know that "ordinary people" wanted things like photoshop too. But if they aim at the whole market they need a price thats probably 1/10th of the price what it is now... that means they would have to sell more than 10 times as many just to get the same profit (slightly more that 10 times due to things like overcosts of producing more). Then on top of that they would have many more support problems with novice users (as Im presuming most photoshop users are professionals that run into relatively few problems.)
When you start looking at it, for adobe to try and make a product like photoshop accessible to everyone it just makes more work for them with possibly negative profit.
Similar is true with Microsoft possibly, apart from they have a broader market.
EDIT:
even at $10 for Vista, loads of people in Asia would still pirate it for $1, just not quite so many.
This is crap, it is like comparing fords and feraris, photoshop is designed for a certain market whcih is not the end consumer, it is the high end graphic designer, so the price is fine, MS is aiming their OS at the end home user so the price has to be adeqquate for that user to be able to afford it, it is a lot easier for a company to justify the $3000 price for photoshop than it is for an end user to justify the cost of windows.
it's like saying ferrair should lowr their prices so that all the ford drivers can have one. coomparing MS and adobe is just a stupid thing to do
What about free OSes like Ubuntu, etc? How are they doing in the Asian markets?
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