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Back when the project started in 2004, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer indicated that he felt strongly about users in developing countries opting to legally buy a cheap Windows PC over alternatives such as Linux or piracy. With a million copies sold and two years in, it appears as if Microsoft intends on keeping the project going for some time to come. Starter Edition also a success for revenues
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Microsoft is also helping out local OEM manufacturers by partnering with them to create the budget PCs that will run Starter Edition, saying that "a hardware vendor in Brazil that has grown by 25 percent due to these sales," and adding that local IT industries could grow around this initiative. Poole says that Microsoft hopes that this new generation of computer-literate children who would not normally have these resources available to them will go on to change the future for themselves and even their societies.
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Microsoft sees Starter Edition as a success for computer literacyĪccording to Poole, families using Starter Edition are not just becoming computer literate, they are also providing feedback to Microsoft on ways to improve the software and future offerings. The operating system is also modified so that each version comes with localized language and imagery so that, for example, the Indonesian version "has a look and feel that is more Indonesian than other products." In our experience with Starter Edition, this translates primarily to a few additional desktop backgrounds and other minimum cosmetic changes and options. Poole explained, "our team took a hard look at typical support calls from first-time users, looking at what things were tripping them up, and we eliminated some of the features that were really designed for experienced users." In a statement released by Microsoft, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Market Expansion Group Will Poole said that due to the fact that the average income in the markets that they are targeting are much lower than developed markets, "the OS needed to be lightweight enough for low-cost hardware to run efficiently, and we needed to reduce the base cost of the operating system as well."Īccording to Microsoft," Windows XP Starter Edition was simplified from Windows XP so that it would be more usable to those who had never touched a computer before, omitting a number of "advanced features" that they felt might confuse a novice user. Now, Windows XP Starter Edition is being sold across 139 countries in 25 different localized language versions. The program launched just over two years ago with a pilot of only five countries with the goal of putting PCs in the homes of low-income families in order to increase computer literacy in developing cultures. Windows XP Starter Edition is now being used in over 1 million homes worldwide.