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Our Bureau

The Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, unveiling the Microsoft New Windows XP Starter Edition, in the Capital on Wednesday. Present were (from left) Mr Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd; Mr. Ravi Swaminathan, Vice- President, HP; Mr Rajiv Kaul, MD, Microsoft India; and Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India. - - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Sept. 29

IN a move expected to bring down the price of a computer, Microsoft Corporation India today announced that its low-cost Operating System Windows XP Starter Edition in Hindi would be available in India, early next year.

India is the fifth country to see the launch of Windows XP Starter Edition, which is being touted as a low cost introduction to Windows XP Operating System and designed for the first time PC users.

Although "affordability" is one of the key aspects of the new product, the company refused to divulge the pricing , merely stating that it would be substantially lower that the existing offerings.

"We will be sharing the price point of Windows XP Starter Edition with our Original Equipment Manufacturers in the next few weeks," Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft India, said at a conference here.

At present, cost of Operating Systems constitutes about 16-20 per cent of the cost of the overall system, even as the market would like to see it come down to about 10 per cent of the price of the PC, sources said.

Leading hardware players like Acer, HCL, HP and Wipro, as also AMD, Intel and PCS have voiced their support to the offering although they remained tight-lipped on the potential price reduction.

The Minister for IT and Communications, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, hoped that there would be 20 per cent decrease in the price of the PC with this launch "It is my personal view that it should be given out free," Mr Maran said.

Mr Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director of Microsoft Corporation India, said that the benefits of Windows at a lower piece point included localised and tailored support, localised customisation pre-configured setting; and simplified task management.

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