Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Oct 18, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Oct 18, 2004 |
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eWorld
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Software Watch this window Moumita Bakshi
AFTER months of speculation in the media and industry, Microsoft Corporation has finally announced that India will be the fifth country to witness the launch of its "most affordable version" of Windows. Come 2005, and the Windows XP Starter Edition will be available here in Hindi. The company promises that this version of Windows will do its bit in making PCs more affordable and relevant to first-time users, in the process bridging the digital divide in developing markets. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia joined the Starter Edition Pilot Program in August, and Russia joined in September. Why is this product relevant to a market like India? Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft India, says that although the country has proved itself in software exports, the use of IT in the domestic market is low. PC penetration is merely 0.8 per cent while Internet penetration is even lower at 0.4 per cent. Only five per cent of the Indian population speaks or follows English. The XP Starter Edition is expected to throw open the `Windows' to the digital world for consumers looking for an affordable entry-level model. With this, the company also hopes to make a strong dent on piracy. The key features of the offering, as identified by Microsoft, include
At present, the cost of Operating Systems constitutes about 16-20 per cent of the cost of the overall system. Microsoft says the feedback received from the industry pegs the desired level at about 10 per cent of the PC cost. Hardware players Acer, HCL, HP and Wipro, as also AMD, Intel and PCS, have already voiced support for the offering. However, the announcement has also elicited caution. Research firm Gartner has warned users to steer clear of the Starter Edition until some user constraints are taken care of. The three limitations identified by Gartner are `deliberate crippling' of the operating system to allow just three applications to run at any one time; supporting a limited 128MB or RAM or 40GB of HDD; and maximum video resolution of 800 x 600. "Also, there is no upgrade path as the customer wanting an upgrade will have to buy the full version of Windows XP Home at an additional cost of $200," says Gartner. According to an industry analyst in India, while the product may contribute towards enhancing the market, the user experience will be constrained by factors such as lack of networking (there is no support for PC-to-PC home networking, sharing printers across a network or more advanced features such as the ability to establish multiple user accounts on a single PC), and resolution. "Going forward, it may only be seen as a `stripped down version of Windows'. But it has its positives, including the local language interface, and features that will be useful for first-time users in India," the analyst says. The actual test of the product will, of course, lie in marketing. "Remember we are talking about a first-time user. The big question is how to make him aware of the benefits. Convincing him will depend largely on how the dealers reach out to the masses and how well the program is rolled out," he says.
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