14 DAY TRIAL // China is the stage where Microsoft, through the voice of Chairman Bill Gates, has unveiled the expansion of the company's Unlimited Potential and new products bundled as the Student Innovation Suite, combining Windows XP Starter and Office Home and Student 2007 for just $3. In Microsoft's perspective, the initiative is designed to deliver social, economic and technological opportunities to the "next 5 billion people."
"It's a case of philanthropy meets business. We view Unlimited Potential as a convergence that combines Microsoft's long history of philanthropy and corporate citizenship with our focus on sustainable business practices. Unlimited Potential is about reaching the estimated 5 billion people who aren't yet realizing the benefits of information technology. Some of those efforts will be philanthropic in nature while others will involve being creative on the business side, such as figuring out how we empower people to be customers in ways that fit the reality of their lifestyle," revealed Will Poole, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Market Expansion Group.
However, Microsoft's plans are more realistic than the 5 billion consumers figure. In fact, the Redmond Company aims to double its current customer base by 2015. This means that, in just eight years, Microsoft will add no less than 1 billion users to its current ones.
Microsoft currently saturates the existing market, accounting for a share in excess of 90% for both Windows and Office. Microsoft's Unlimited Potential is an expansion strategy. In order to fuel the continuation of its own growth, Microsoft is making sure that it drives the expansion off the market.
"The magic of software is something that we've believed in for a long, long time. Microsoft is now over 30 years old, and the original dream was about computers for everyone. And so that says that as we go after this next 5 billion, it really is going back to the original roots, the original commitment of what Microsoft is all about," Bill Gates stated.