Steve Ballmer this week came up with a novel explanation for high levels of software piracy in emerging economies. Hardware, he says, is too expensive. What these people need, he said, is a "$100 computer."
We at The Register have had occasion previously to observe that Steve is rich and we are not because he can see things that we cannot. And well - there he goes again. There is a possibility that this is another one of those 'Steve didn't really say/mean that' occasions, Steve being something of a master of the misquote, but the context would tend to support the cheaper hardware equals less piracy interpretation. At the Gartner Symposium in Florida CNET reports: "One way to stem piracy is to offer consumers in emerging countries a low-cost PC, Ballmer said. 'There has to be... a $100 computer to dow-market in some of these countries. We have to engineer (PCs) to be lighter and cheaper,' he said."
Take into account the paraphrase and the nip and tuck and it's pretty clear that the quote isn't exactly as it left its mother, but in any event he is talking about piracy as being Microsoft's biggest problem, and he is talking about ultra low cost PCs being the way forward for emerging markets. He's certainly right about how a $100 PC would be a great enabler, but it's entirely unclear how this would stop people who pirate Microsoft software because they can't afford it from just carrying on.
There is however no reason to reduce prices, says Steve, because most of the people can't afford PCs, so obviously don't steal software, whereas the people who can afford PCs are "relatively affluent" and can therefore afford software.
