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Microsoft to Sell PCs, Starting in India

Posted by Zonk on from the no-red-rings-on-these-i-hope dept.

kripkenstein writes "According to an Ars Technica report Microsoft will begin selling complete PCs, for the first time in the company's history. The program is aimed at customers in India. 'Dubbed the IQ PC, the machines will cost RS21,000 (about $525), are manufactured in partnership with Zenith, and will sport AMD Athlon CPUs. ... In some ways, the move to sell hardware is a natural extension of Microsoft's low-cost Windows initiative ... It may also be a response to projects like Intel's Classmate PC and the OLPC XO.' The Ars Technica summary is careful to state that they seriously doubt this will lead to Microsoft selling PCs in the US, yet the question must be asked: After Microsoft mice and keyboards, then the XBOX and Zune, Microsoft is increasingly becoming a hardware vendor. Is it only a question of time before Microsoft starts to compete directly with the likes of Dell and HP?"

6 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Good for them... by chris098 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This really is just an extension of Microsoft's business model. From the article:

    Aimed primarily at students...

    If they can get students hooked to MS products when they're young, especially in these developing countries where the alternative may be Linux, then it's likely these students will continue using Microsoft later on in life, because they're familiar with it. It's a clever move, and really, I'm surprised it took Microsoft so long to start doing this.

  2. All the more reason for Dell to sell Linux by slazzy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Time for hardware vendors to start selling more PCs preloaded with Linux. Why sell Windows when Microsoft is your competition?

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    1. Re:All the more reason for Dell to sell Linux by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously. It's not a good idea for MS to mess with their distribution channel. With Dell starting to see Ubuntu, it's not a good idea to give the vendors and more reason to push Linux on their customers.

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    2. Re:All the more reason for Dell to sell Linux by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      why not just bribe the OEMs who sell there to preinstall Windows?
      ...like they do here in the U.S., I presume you mean. Because unlike in the U.S., Microsoft can't bribe the politicians as easily in other countries. Why do you think the E.U. is giving Microsoft such a hard time? The U.S. government doesn't give Microsoft such a hard time because Microsoft bought and paid for a whole lot of politicians.
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  3. Wintel? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What happened to the MS/Intel alliance of old? Microsoft getting annoyed at Intel making chips for Apple?

  4. Re:All directions at once by jbrannon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft is simultaneously going in all directions, which is identical to going nowhere fast. I believe that's called "growing".