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Software Piracy Due to Expensive Hardware, Says Ballmer

Posted by michael on from the passing-the-buck dept.

frdmfghtr writes "ZDNet is running a story where Steve Ballmer tries to pin the blame of software copyright infringement on expensive hardware: 'One way to stem piracy is to offer consumers in emerging countries a low-cost PC, Ballmer said. "There has to be...a $100 computer to go down-market in some of these countries. We have to engineer (PCs) to be lighter and cheaper," he said.' Does he think that cheaper hardware will make copying software harder to do?"

1 of 814 comments (clear)

  1. Hardware vs. Software costs by yeremein · · Score: 5, Informative

    20 years ago:

    Hardware:
    5MHz CPU
    512KB RAM
    20MB HDD
    14" monochrome CRT
    Total price: $3000

    Software:
    MS-DOS: $60

    Operating system = 2% of total cost

    Today:

    Hardware:
    2.4GHz Celeron
    256MB RAM
    40GB HDD
    15" SVGA LCD monitor
    Total cost: $500

    Software:
    Windows XP Home OEM: $100

    Operating system = 20% of system cost

    The price of the OS has increased by an order of magnitude relative to hardware costs... and the cause of piracy is expensive hardware? Pull your head out, Ballmer.