Low-Cost Suite for the Poor

A US$3 suite of Microsoft software, including entry-level editions of Windows and Office, along with educational software, will help Microsoft compete in emerging markets and extend technology to another billion people worldwide by 2015.

The Student Innovation Suite is the centerpiece of a new Microsoft campaign to rebrand and unify its programs for emerging markets. Under the banner of Unlimited Potential (formerly an employment training program, whose name Microsoft has decided to use more broadly) the company wants to extend computer technology to the “second billion” of the world’s population by 2015. (About 1 billion people now have access to PCs.)

Announced by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at a Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in Beijing in Apr. 2007, the suite includes Windows XP Starter Edition, a low-end version of Windows XP that supports older microprocessors, a maximum of 128MB of RAM, and Internet access, but no local networking. It also includes Office Home and Student 2007, Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and the Windows Live Mail desktop e-mail client. The suite will be available for US$3 (not including media) to governments purchasing bulk orders for students and low-income people. In most cases, the software will be installed on recycled or used computers.