When I posted the other day about the ubiquity of the cell phone, I may have jumped the gun a bit with today’s news that Microsoft will announce a plan to lower the cost of personal computers for developing nations by letting people pay for PCs in a way that resembles how they buy cell phones with prepaid calling plans. These Microsoft FlexGo computers can cut the upfront cost of buying a $600 computer in half, but they put a time limit on how long consumers can use the PC before buying more time on it. This kind of pay-as-you-go payment plan has helped consumers in poorer nations adopt a billion prepaid cell phones. Apparently, the problem isn't the low income in households in developing nations; it's the irregularity of the income that’s the barrier to buying a PC. Microsoft’s been testing the prepaid model in Brazil with 10 hours of prepaid usage. Now it’s expanding the program to other countries. Estimates of the potential market exceed one billion users!!! Microsoft never does things by half.
You'll need a big one of these, and a dozen rolls of duct tape!
.jpg)
Comment Preview