| Microsoft drops price
of Vista, sets agenda for West Africa digitization
By SOLA FANAWOPO
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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Microsoft said it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista
operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at
pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows.
The world's largest software maker said it planned to lower
retail prices for Vista in 70 countries later this year in
tandem with the shipment of the first major update to the
operating system, Service Pack 1 (SP1). The software giant
made the pronouncement just as it set agenda for West Africa
digitization.
Packaged versions of Windows Vista sold at stores and on the
Web account for less than 10 per cent of all licences of the
dominant Windows operating system that sits on more than 90
per cent of the world's PCs."We anticipate these changes
will provide greater opportunities... to sell more standalone
copies of Windows," said Brad Brooks, a Microsoft corporate
vice president.
In the US, Microsoft will reduce prices for Windows Vista
Ultimate, the company's top-end operating system, to $319
(£160) from $399 for the full version, and cut the price
for an "upgrade" version to $219 from $259 for consumers
who already run Windows XP or another edition of Vista.
Microsoft will also cut prices for upgrade versions of Vista
Home Premium, its mainstream product, to $129 from $239. The
price cuts vary from country to country. In emerging markets,
Microsoft will stop selling "upgrade" versions of
Vista, because, for many customers, Vista will be the first
purchase of a genuine copy of Windows. The company will instead
sell Vista Home Premium and Home Basic, a stripped-down version,
at the upgrade prices.
Microsoft has sold more than 100 million licences of Vista
since its January 2007 release and its adoption has underpinned
strong earnings results at the company in recent quarters.
Nonetheless, some critics have raised issues with Vista's
performance, stringent hardware requirements and lack of support
for other software and devices, such as printers. Microsoft
has said it will continue to sell Windows XP until June 2008,
delaying a scheduled transition to Vista.
Brooks, who oversees the consumer marketing of Vista, said
he is confident the company can bring in enough new customers
to offset the revenue declines from lowering prices, after
seeing the results of a recent three-month promotional trial
of lower Vista prices. The announcement came on the heels
of market research firm NPD sales data that shows a 30 per
cent drop in money spent on software at US retailers in January.
At a media chat in Lagos last week, the company’s West
Africa’s management staff led by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu,
its Nigeria’s country manager, Microsoft listed the
following as its priorities: OEM programmes, community technology
skill programme, digital village skill, youth empowerment
programme.
Mba-Uzoukwu said Microsoft is committed to growing the local
IT industry and capacity across the region. According to him,
the company with its cutting edge solutions would continue
to help people and businesses across the sub-region to actualize
their dreams for digital inclusion and education.
He disclosed that the company is planning a campaign which
is targeted at ensuring that every Nigerian, Liberian, Gambian,
Sierra-Leonean and Ghanaian has the right Pc, specially built
to meet their particular need. In addition, he said the company
had inaugurated its Community Technology Skill Programme,
a global community-based learning programme focused on the
extending skills and economic opportunities to enable young
people and adults to realize their potentialities.
Jumai Umar-Ajijola, the company’s Citizenship Manager,
whose responsibility is to manage and execute social programmes
for Microsoft in the Anglophone West Africa, said the company
will deepen its Digital Village Scheme, an initiative with
governments to address the issue of providing access to the
youth and other excluded people in the community to improve
on their livelihood. She explained that nine of such villages
had been set up.
In addition, she said Microsoft had also set up a Youth Employment
Programme. “As a result of grant to the international
youth foundation from Microsoft, we will be rolling out some
youth employability programme, starting from November, to
2,500 youths from all over the country with plan to place,
at least, 70 per cent of the in jobs.”
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