ZDNet: Windows 7 should be available to China for free?

On Thursday, tech blogger Branton · Chase wrote an article suggesting that Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, should be used in China for unusual promotion methods —— Last year, Microsoft’s new CEO, Ballmer, said in a hurry that the Chinese market is not important to Microsoft in view of the serious piracy. Bauer defaults that the Chinese market has limited financial contribution to the company, and Microsoft must adopt more stringent anti-piracy measures. As soon as this remark was disclosed, it caused widespread controversy in the industry. As the CEO of the first-class company, Ballmer apparently had been stunned.

A year later, Microsoft's efforts still did not achieve the expected results: Windows 7 of the new operating system has not yet been released, and Windows 7RTM pirated discs have appeared in the software market, priced at about 10-40 yuan. between.

In contrast, the official price of Windows 7 in China is 399-599 yuan. In actual investigation, large and medium-sized enterprises account for the majority of Microsoft's genuine users. And many ordinary users, including the author, appear to be powerless in the face of the choice of 10 and 400.

Brandon believes that since Microsoft's crackdown and high pressure are not helpful, why not consider providing free to Chinese users?

He analyzed the following reasons:

1. China's influence on the world is becoming more and more important. The number of Internet users ranks first in the world. Seizing such a large customer base is conducive to consolidating Microsoft. The dominant position of the Windows system worldwide.

2, Google plans to launch ChromeOS next year, is a free web-based operating system, no doubt, Google will definitely integrate all Google trademark services in ChromeOS, and China's largest PC brand Lenovo Lenovo A promotional cooperation agreement has been signed with Google. There is reason to believe that when ChromeOS is available, it will steal the considerable market share of Windows.

3, Microsoft can bundle a series of Microsoft network services such as Bing search, MSN, Hotmail, Silverlight, etc. in free Windows 7, and properly absorb the return through advertising, third-party cooperation.

Microsoft's competitors in China are not only Google, but also many local software companies, including Baidu in the search engine field, WPS and Yongzhong in the field of office software, and Maxthon in the browser field. The situation facing Microsoft is not optimistic, it can use the ace of Windows7.

4, international companies will inevitably encounter water and soil dissatisfaction, if you are willing to put down a high profile, you have the opportunity to get a good return: Yahoo and the Chinese local company Alibaba fully cooperate and inject 1 billion yuan, successfully defeated eBay, sit firmly The first throne of the online sales platform. Yahoo took the opportunity to acquire a 40% stake in Alibaba and promote Yahoo search. However, Yahoo's situation today is caused by many factors, but Yahoo is profitable only from the perspective of cooperation with the mainland.

Microsoft is waiting for the government to improve the relevant laws and regulations, or will actively lower the threshold, we can not know. Because the resistance in actual operation is huge, if Microsoft provides free Windows 7 for China, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction in other parts of the world, which is the consequence that Microsoft must measure.