Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

ARTICLE: "Microsoft Battles Low-Cost Rival for Africa," by Steve Stecklow, Wall Street Journal, 28 October 2008.

Bold start:

Microsoft Corp. see sub-Saharan Africa, among the poorest places on earth, as one of the last great computing frontiers. It wants to make its Windows software a fixture there.

The battle, of course, is against Linux, which costs virtually nothing.

In most countries in Africa, less than one percent use the Internet, or 22.6m out of 742m.

MS offers a special $3 Windows deal if your government can commit to buying at least 10,000 computers for students (which they keep). So far only Libya, Egypt, Russia and Mexico have managed this trick.

So, in Africa, MS is offering a package deal to governments, trying to get them to switch off Linux. The deal typically includes lotsa donated computers for schools.

Underlying all this effort is MS's desire to reduce the pirating of its software in these places. You may have heard this one because I've heard so many people quote it to me that it almost seems like an urban legend: if MS can reduce its piracy by 15%, it would double its revenue.

Point: MS has done most of what it can with the top of the pyramid; now it's adjusting itself to the bottom.