Brian
02-21-2007, 08:20 PM
Ballmer Using Piracy as Scapegoat for Poor Vista Sales (http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/11251/Ballmer+Using+Piracy+as+Scapegoat+for+Poor+Vista+S ales/)
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has told Wall Street analysts that the company might "dial up" the intensity of antipiracy technology baked into Windows Vista as part of an effort to squeeze more revenue from China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets.
Ballmer's comments came during a conference call with financial analysts in which he repeatedly hammered home the theme that sales forecasts for Windows -- Vista in particular -- have been "overly optimistic."
One way Microsoft can bump up Windows sales is to tighten the screws on pirates, Ballmer said. "Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth, and I think we'll make some piracy improvements this year."
I think I'm stating the obvious here, but it is unlikely that poor Vista sales are because of piracy. I think it has much more to do with the fact that we don't <em>really</em> need Vista. I mean, there is the eye candy, and there are a couple of marginally useful and/or cool features, but who wants to fork out money for a new OS just for those things? Some people are still using Windows 2000 because they didn't feel XP added anything useful (cough, Rich, cough). I sure won't be moving to Vista any time soon...
[image]"
Read full story here (http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;7680622;fp;16;fpid;1)
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has told Wall Street analysts that the company might "dial up" the intensity of antipiracy technology baked into Windows Vista as part of an effort to squeeze more revenue from China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets.
Ballmer's comments came during a conference call with financial analysts in which he repeatedly hammered home the theme that sales forecasts for Windows -- Vista in particular -- have been "overly optimistic."
One way Microsoft can bump up Windows sales is to tighten the screws on pirates, Ballmer said. "Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth, and I think we'll make some piracy improvements this year."
I think I'm stating the obvious here, but it is unlikely that poor Vista sales are because of piracy. I think it has much more to do with the fact that we don't <em>really</em> need Vista. I mean, there is the eye candy, and there are a couple of marginally useful and/or cool features, but who wants to fork out money for a new OS just for those things? Some people are still using Windows 2000 because they didn't feel XP added anything useful (cough, Rich, cough). I sure won't be moving to Vista any time soon...
[image]"
Read full story here (http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;7680622;fp;16;fpid;1)