Mark Kent <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The price will fall rapidly, I'm sure, particularly when the OLPC XO
> machines start to come in numbers onto the market. Also, Roy S has
> posted something about sub ????50 desktop machines being made in India,
> too. This market is commoditising awfully rapidly, but it does
> demonstrate just how much fat there was in it. I wonder which of the
> last generation of major players will still be standing in 5 years time?
> How many in 10 years? IBM did an amazing job of surviving the Windows
> years, can Microsoft achieve the same trick? Not with their current
> management, I think.
Plummeting hardware prices really is one of the biggest challenges
facing Microsoft. $40 for OEM Windows may not have been much when
computers were always over $1000, but now as hardware is increasingly
commoditized and the price plummets toward $100 for entry level and
narrow purpose machines, there is not much room for the usual Windows
profit margins. Linux is perfect for these entry level systems and
is perfectly capable of growing with the user as they move up to
higher end systems. Its the thin wedge that could pry open the
desktop market.
Thad
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