“When you haven’t got the dough, try pay-as-you-go. That could be a potential axiom for the nifty business model launched in Brazil today by Microsoft. After several market trials, the company is announcing the release of computers powered by FlexGo, a technology which lets users pay by the hour using cards bought from local vendors,” Parmy Olson reports for Forbes. “If you’re familiar with the pay-as-you-go method for cell phones, FlexGo uses a similar system. A customer who buys a FlexGo-powered PC would pay half the normal retail price at a shop, and would from then on purchase multicolored pre-paid cards to get hourly access to the computer.”
“The users would type in the card number via a program in Windows, and if they card runs out, the computer stops working. A PC that normally sold for $600 would go for around $300 with 10 hours of usage time included, and the pre-paid hours would go towards paying off the computer,” Olson reports. “In a statement Microsoft, led by co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates, said the new method brought ‘the flexibility of an Internet cafe into the home,’ and allowed users to avoid high fixed-monthly loan payments required to finance a PC.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: An interesting idea. Rent-to-own personal computers. Eventually, users pay off the PC and own it outright. It could be used as a way to get a more expensive PC than one could afford to buy – sort of like vehicle leasing.
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For Microsoft, this is a stupid idea. We all know of Windows users — most of them — who spend an inordinate amount of time fighting security issues. This will drive the customers into a fury when they spend their money on Microsoft’s ticking meter to deal with spam, spyware, viruses, crashes and such. If Microsoft is looking for yet another publicity disaster, they have found it.
And this is “innovation”?
Gimme a break!
As Jimbo said it is all able Microsoft creating revenue streams to complement the Windows cash cow.
You can always count on Microsucks to take the lowest common denominator. They’re winning the race to the bottom. Congrats!
JEG,
Your original post was a complaint that Apple wasn’t doing something like this. Frankly, I’d rather have Apple maintain it’s lower marketshare than make a soulless business move designed to take advantage of people by taking their money in exchange for lousy products. These people will surely end up paying much more for these inferior computers than they would if they simply saved their money for awhile and then purchased them at regular price. This might be a great move for Microsoft, but usually what’s great for Microsoft is terrible for consumers.
JEG.
No, i haven’t been to Latin America. But I can’t help to think that they might also find the idea of being locked out of their stuff because they ran out of minutes, well, retarded. $300, $600, $1200, whatever, its still junk. And now you have to pay by the hour for that junk to not work properly? Retarded.
And what does Apple have us “locked into”? A solution that just works? Oh no!!!
Are you that dense ? ANY pay-to-play, rental service usually ass-rapes the poor people that can’t afford it in the first place. The opposite, being rich and getting perks for spending the riches you have. The only true way to help the poor is to build them a barebones unit that’s affordable, and they can KEEP. I’m sure a 700 mhz PC can be had for $120, and while it won’t play Quake 4, it can play lots of older titles, and more importantly, people can actually use it to LEARN with. I use to have a 700 mhz PowerSpec with Win 98, then XP. I upgraded the graphics to a Geforce 3, and it sufficed just fine. I ended up selling it to someone for $100 and they’ve been happy ever since. Higher end PC’s carry higher PROFIT margins, that’s why they’re not trying to sell these Brazilians the $400 PC’s you and I see at discount places. If these people were really benevolent, they would simply donate older PC’s to poor people worldwide because few people are really equipped to deal with technology and business-wise, this make a less employable workforce. Equipping South America especially makes sense, because it’s a lot closer than India for outsourcing, and we are seeing a fantastic increase in spanish speaking people here. Building PC manufacturing plant and support centers in South America would enable there economy, and so many wouldn’t need to flood this country illegally. Plus, more americans would have jobs flying down there to supervise and set up the industry.
I thought that the first hit was free.
sorry, i meant TO Jeg
that last post was me
Retarded idea but then again it’s Microshaft!
um…yep. definitely dense. and locked in : )
The last coment from Jeg did not come from me.
Sleeve, maclover
It doesn’t matter what the long term cost of owning a cheap is. For a lot of these folks that is the only way they can afford a computer. You can debate all day long about how good/bad these machines are. To them price is king. Take it from someone who used to sell technology to these countries. These people don’t really have a choice. Apple support in Latin America is very limited and software titles there are scarce. Yes you can buy on-line from US retailers but shipping is expensive.
You don’t seem to understand my post. What I meant by “locked” is that they catch customers early on get used to MS products and go on to buy them and recommend them to friends. Are you telling me that Apple wouldn’t want to be in that position? It has nothing to do with actual technology
Maclover: Sorry but I’m not sure how you when from an MS rent plan to an outsourcing discussion.
This is going to be great for Mac sales!
I want Microsoft to offer low rent housing. The tenants might need government assistance with virus protection though.
This is a veiled test for OS subscriptions – buy a computer and pay a monthly fee just to turn on your computer. Microsoft has been trying to sell this model to the IT world for years.
EVERYONE should be worried about this. If it works for Microsoft, I guarantee that every software company – including Apple – will also go with that model. This is a hugh cash cow for all of them. They all want a steady revenue stream.
If you don’t think so, just look at the software activation scheme currently used by the majority of major software companies.
The only reason Apple doesn’t have activation for OS X is – up until the change to Intel chips OS X wouldn’t run on anything other than Apple hardware. Well, that has all changed. I also guarantee that eventually, it will be included in OS X.
Triplehead, how can you possibly “guarantee” that Apple will follow M$ in any respect? As long as Steve Jobs is at Apple, he will do what he wants – and I guarantee that Steve does not follow Bill.
I also have a theory as to why there is no activation code for OS X: Apple wants us to install it on as many macs as we can. Because selling hardware means money in the bank, Apple doesn’t care about piracy. Their attitude is that we have to buy the Macs from them and since the latest OS release runs best on the newest hardware, we are just giving ourselves the incentive to buy newer Macs. It’s clever, shrewd and very effective – an idea worthy of Steve Jobs himself.
Now then, tell me again why you think Jobs is going to copy Gates?
Why do title loans, pawn shops and loan sharks come to mind when reading this article? Oh yes, because MafiaSoft is gonna bilk those poor bastards into paying 400+% of the value of that piece-of-crap computer they’ll get.
They’ll be better off with the MIT $100 computer project (if it ever sees the light of day).
Cell phone usually don’t stop working. An hour of talk time is an hour of talk time. PC’s can easily stop working, or they can start to work unreliably, after even a few weeks, especially if the user is a novice. The “Internet Cafe” is a good thing, because the establishment will maintain the PC is working order. What happens when the “rent-to-own” PC needs IT support? You’ll be using up the “10 hours” just getting it to work again.
HELLyeah! I want to pay mafia$oft all the time what ever they ask.
Hallelujah!
Hmm I read it as
Microsoft introduces PRAY-as-you-go PCs
Jeg, you do have a pretty good understanding of the situation, but my point was how to solve multiple issues across multiple levels which the microsoft solution isn’t doing. Actually that’s what makes Apple so great, they solve multiple issues in depth quite frequently which puts them so far ahead of other technology companies, Apple really is amazing. Other companies seem to lack hindsight, insight, and foresight, which few people let alone executives have – which in essence – is exactly what vision requires. My solution nevertheless has vision, it solves economic problems in North and South America simultaneously, while unfortunately increasing business for microsoft, but alot of the whole IT industry is built on windows ineffectiveness. Apple, unfortunately, couldn’t spur the economy because it would take less people to implement, meaning less people with disposable income. So basically, as the microsoft program is, no one really wins, not even microsloth.
I don’t get it, most PC systems with Windows are pay as you go. The only difference I see here is that you pay half price before you pay as you go.
Windows, the software that you keep on paying for.