[mso] Re: Office 2003 Launch in NYC - an OT grumble :VSMail mx3

  • From: "Anne Robson" <anne.robson2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 16:29:59 -0000

Hear you loud and clear Greg.  It's just I'm not some largescale
multinational, I'm lil (well not so lil), old (err, getting there) me as
one of a company of 3 which has 2 offices and lots of hot desking.  It
costs us very dear to have to keep our systems up to date for the benefit
of somebody else, but I'm not sure who!

And that is absolutely the last I will say about this!

LOL

Anne

-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Greg Chapman
Sent: 28 October 2003 15:30
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Re: Office 2003 Launch in NYC - an OT grumble :VSMail mx3


I can justify it on a scale of global markets. Yes, there are different
costs per region based on region alone. Ever deal with Europe's god-awful
Value Added Tax concept and the legal restrictions about what may come
from where and how much of it must be made in this or that European
country? Didja know it's illegal to by a computer in England for use in an
office in Germany? The software faces similar hurdles.

But even better, measure this method of increasing your company footprint
in various other markets. If you've already managed to settle into 85% of
the market space in one market, you know you've a bit of a hold there and
your goal is to reasonably get as many upgraders to pay for it as possible
without eroding that foothold. $420 struck the market managers as the
magic number for this version, right or wrong, and part of that magic
number is to support the ideas in the next paragraph.

Then you have India, a market in which very few of your installed copies
were ones for which you were paid. And the new batch of programmers and
call-center employees are making very good livings for their region. And
how much do they make in U.S dollars? A recent Gartner report indicates
that in the Asian workplaces across the nations, a programmer's average
salary is just shy of $7k US per annum. This also implies that the company
he or she works for is in very good shape locally on the economic scale
but is definitely low on buying power compared to U.S. markets. If
Microsoft wants to increase its footprint in these markets it has to offer
the software and upgrades at locally competitive rates. If those rates
represent losing money, then those more affluent markets get to carry a
larger share of the burden all in the interest of making sure Microsoft
gets the LICENSES installed legally and thus secure the upgrade market,
too.

All Microsoft would have to do to lose the race in those markets and begin
a very sharp decline for the company is to price its products and remove
incentives like free upgrades from those markets. The Linux crowd would be
all over that in no time at all.<g>

Greg Chapman
http://www.mousetrax.com
"Counting in binary is as easy as 01, 10, 11!
With thinking this clear, is coding really a good idea?"


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Anne Robson
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 3:16 AM
> To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [mso] Re: Office 2003 Launch in NYC - an OT grumble :VSMail
> mx3
>
>
> Hi Dian
>
> Thanks for your input on this which is as ever illuminating and fair.
>
> With respect, though, this still doesn't address the issue of
> differential pricing from one country to another.  Are you seriously
> trying to say that
> the costed amount of work needed to make Word (predominately) country
> specific to the English-UK market is more than doing so for
> India?  Yet as
> Ian said yesterday he can get a free upgrade from Office 2002
> whereas I
> will get stung for over $420 to *improve* something that is
> only 6 months
> old on my office system.
>

*************************************************************
You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or
MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to
mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes)
in the subject line.

Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu.  This will also
allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail).
//www.freelists.org/webpage/mso

To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send
a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an
invitation with instructions.  Once you are a member of the files group,
you can go here to upload/download files:
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles
*************************************************************

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.532 / Virus Database: 326 - Release Date: 27/10/2003


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.532 / Virus Database: 326 - Release Date: 27/10/2003


*************************************************************
You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or 
MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to 
mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in 
the subject line.

Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu.  This will also allow 
you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail).
//www.freelists.org/webpage/mso

To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a 
request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with 
instructions.  Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to 
upload/download files:
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles
*************************************************************

Other related posts: