Microsoft Takes On Digital Divide with $3 Windows-Office Bundle

Published: April 25, 2007

by Alex Woodie

The digital divide can be a horrible place. On the one side are Westerners who go into withdrawal at the slightest hiccup in their mobile e-mail service. On the other are the majority of Earth's inhabitants, an estimated five billion people who don't use computers, let alone have "crackberry" addictions. To help narrow this digital divide and spread IT's tremendous bounty across a level playing field, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced plans last week to sell a software package that includes Windows XP and Office 2007 for only $3.

Gates announced the new bundle during a keynote address at the Government Leaders Forum in Beijing, China. Gates spoke about the coming age of heightened digital collaboration, and the capability we will soon have to interact with computers using pens and our own voices (which Gates often talks about, but which isn't really feasible in the immediate future).

He then went on to evangelize in a different sort of way. "Another goal we should have is to go beyond helping the billion people who use technology today, and bringing that to the other five billion," he said. "Now, that will take time, and there are many priorities, many things we need to do to drive equity on a global basis. But one of those over time is to make sure that access to technology, to the information and the empowerment that's being developed on the Internet, that every kid and everybody who wants can have access to those capabilities.

"With technology moving so quickly, this is within our reach. We have to plan for it," Gates continued. "We have to think about the infrastructure and the training. We have to think about how we finance these things, and maintain the quality. And we have to think about the whole problem. It's not just the cost of the PC, but rather these issues of connectivity, of the training, the maintenance, the support, all of those have to come together, and most of those are actually more difficult, and more expensive than just the hardware piece."

The deliverable in all this is something called the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite. This package includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop. It will become available in the second half of 2007 for a mere $3, compared to about $150 for a retail version of Office 2007 alone.

The Student Innovation Suite will only be available to qualifying governments that supply PCs directly to primary and secondary school students. Microsoft expects the governments to use refurbished PCs, or new low-cost models like Intel's Classmate PC, AMD's 50x15, and VIA's pc-1. More information can be found at Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" Web site.

Orlando Ayala, senior vice president of Microsoft's emerging segments market development group, explained the need for the Student Innovation Suite. "We're acutely aware of the digital divide that puts many young people at a disadvantage in terms of acquiring critical 21st century skills," he says in a PressPass Q&A. "We hear this same concern expressed by the governments and education communities of developing countries, from Guatemala to Namibia to Thailand to India and China. These nations know their young people will benefit greatly from having access to modern computers equipped with complete, educationally relevant software solutions that they can use in their schools and homes."

Microsoft's Partners in Learning (PiL) program isn't just selling its most profitable products at a deep, deep discount. The company is also expanding the number of Innovation Centers around the globe, with plans to add an additional 90 centers in 25 countries by 2009 (there are currently 110 centers in 60 countries). The centers are important for expanding work-force skills, creating jobs, strengthening innovation, and improving competitiveness, Microsoft says.

Another program created by PiL (which doesn't sound nearly as appetizing as IBM's Partners in Education [PIE]) involves students in India. "We're creating in India an employment portal, to let students go up and check their skills, see what additional skills they need to get, see where the jobs are, be able to reach out to curriculum that partners develop there, and that will be an excellent way of using technology to empower people," said Gates, whose twin roles as chairman of Microsoft and chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation appear to be following similar courses these days. The portal should go live by mid year.

Microsoft has dozens other programs aimed at flattening the digital divide and helping the world's poor. Last week it announced a new alliance with the Asian Development Bank to promote IT training, job searches, business plans, and boost transparency in governments. It also announced an expansion of its Partnerships for Technology Access, or PTA program, which is designed to increase access to PCs by uniting governments, technology companies, banks, and other organizations. Microsoft announced five new PTAs for Argentina, Botswana, Chile, China, and Egypt. There are already 50 PTAs operating.

While the $3 Office-Windows bundle and all the other programs boost Microsoft's credibility as a caring, progressive corporation, don't be fooled into thinking that it's all about the charity (although there is, unquestionably, a lot of charity involved in it). With only 20 percent of the world's population using computers today, there is tremendous opportunity for growth in the future. Giving the world's poor a taste of the incredible things that computers can do is not only good philanthropy--it's a shrewd investment in Microsoft's future customers.

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