Microsoft is working on fine tuning its next generation of FlexGo initiative for developing world PCs. Speaking at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), the company said the next release of FlexGo will be designed for Vista, with enhancements to allow users to live on “borrowed time” until their next payment.

The company rolled out the first version of its FlexGo program in May 2006. Microsoft along with a group of hardware, telecommunications, financial and retail services began testing pay-as-you-go and subscription-based rentals of PCs and software in Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia.

After a year into the trials, Microsoft has decided that a subscription model working through telecommunications was the best approach considering most of the families would already be dealing with a telecom company, officials said this week.

David Foster, general manager of the program for Microsoft added: “We are going forward with both our original pay-as-you-go and subscription business models, but our main focus will be on telcos and a subscription model.”

Under the FlexGo program, users make initial down payments on mid-range PCs and make monthly payments for software and broadband services from their local telcos, much the way customers’ pay cable providers for TV and Internet access.

Each FlexGo PC contains a Lower Provisioning Module (LPM), essentially a meter that monitors the total time the PC has been on. It begins when the PC first enters a standby, hibernation, or power-off state, only interjecting itself in front of the user when the user is at the limit of his subscription.

The latest version will allow the option of permitting the user to continue using the PC on so-called “borrowed time” until he pays his or her bill, said Martin Hall, a program manager for Microsoft.

Foster estimated as many as a million PCs were sold worldwide through telcos last year, though he would not say how many were FlexGo systems. Microsoft hopes to expand the number of cities in which it supports FlexGo programs in 2007 though it is not disclosing sales expectations, he added.

Starting in the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft will begin offering all of the different 32-bit Vista SKUs via the FlexGo pilot program.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 8:56 pm under Vista.  Print This Post

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