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 Technology News | June 2005 
Microsoft Unveils Cut-Price Windows
 Wire services
| | Windows XP Starter Edition - almost free! |
Beset by rampant counterfeiting across Latin America, Microsoft on Tuesday introduced a cut-rate, cut-down version of Windows XP that is aimed at first-time, low-income computer users who might otherwise run pirated software.
XP Starter Edition helps users learn to use a mouse and other computer devices, but strips out networking, limits the number of programs that can open and won't work on top-level processors.
The program "is for people who want access to legal software," said Microsoft Mexico General Director Felipe Sánchez Romero. The company sees a large potential market, given that 83 percent of Mexicans don't yet have personal computers.
The company says most novice users don't need the advanced functions and it says it has designed the bottom-tier version of XP to be "an affordable and simple introduction to personal computing." Microsoft launched the Spanish language version of the program at a news conference in Mexico City that featured several partners, including a stateowned lending agency, the main phone company Telmex and local computer manufacturers Texa, Lanix and Hergo.
The software only will be available pre-installed on machines, not as a boxed product. Microsoft has not offered it in the United States or western Europe.
The company earlier had released versions in Thailand, India, Russia, Malaysia and Brazil other markets where counterfeiting is common.
A report by the Gartner consulting company last year criticized the product for limiting upgrade opportunities as people gain expertise. |
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