[kwlug-disc] how netbooks are eviscerating MS's business model

[Robert P. J. Day]

  what should have been an obvious prediction:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=6687

"The problem facing Microsoft is that as hardware prices drop, this
puts pressure on Microsoft to lower prices. Moreover, the problem is
that as CPUs get faster, hard drives get bigger, and components become
more and more integrated, the pressure will continue."

"Another problem facing Microsoft is the type of PCs that are selling
well. Desktop sales (and notebooks for that matter) aren’t selling
like they used to. What have been selling well are the cheaper “PC
companion” netbooks (because they are cheap). Problem here is that
Microsoft doesn’t get the same for a copy of Windows for a netbook as
it does for a desktop or notebook. Microsoft was getting as little as
$15 per copy for Windows XP for netbooks. Sure, that’s better than
having Linux pre-loaded on the netbook and getting nothing, but it’s
still quite a cut."

  or as someone on twitter just summarized it, as HW gets cheaper, it
gets harder and harder to hide that MS license fee in there.

rday
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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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