14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond is having serious trouble in China, the country that recently took several anti-Microsoft decisions, including a ban of Windows 8 on government computers and an unexpected anti-trust investigation started last week and involving raids at several company offices.
There’s no doubt that all these weird decisions are affecting not only Microsoft’s image, but also its sales, as the software giant invested millions to boost revenues from its Chinese division, and above all, to reduce piracy in a country where 9 out of 10 licenses are said to be pirated.
The Chinese central government decided a couple of months ago to ban Windows 8 on state computers, and although local officials haven’t specifically said it, people close to the matter explained that it all happened amid claims that Microsoft might be using the operating system to spy on the country and steal state secrets.
The company has always denied such allegations and explained on pretty much every single occasion that it’s ready to work with local authorities to convince them that Windows 8 is perfectly secure.
What’s more, Microsoft this time said that while Windows 8 is banned on government computers, it’s ready to offer Windows 7 as a replacement, even though China said that a Linux-based open-source operating system is a much better alternative.
More recently, China started an anti-trust investigation on Microsoft, with state officials raiding offices and seizing computers, documents, and internal conversations that are apparently supposed to demonstrate that Redmond isn’t playing fair. What exactly Microsoft is doing wrong is yet to be determined, but China most likely hopes to find something that would incriminate the company and thus issue a hefty fine for no apparent reason.
Sources say that China is searching for a reason to give Microsoft a penalty in order to support local software companies that are having serious trouble when it comes to competing against the Redmond-based technology firm. Of course, competition is good, but China is clearly adopting the wrong strategy to fight against Microsoft, especially since there’s no reason to believe that the company is actually doing anything wrong right now.
But now it should be payback time.
There’s no doubt that China is a very important market for Microsoft, especially since it remains one of the largest IT industries in the entire world, so Redmond’s efforts to negotiate with the Chinese government and find a way to address all complaints are more or less understandable.
But Microsoft should not actually accept this treatment, especially because its products remain among the most-used software in the country.
Windows currently has a market share of more than 90 percent in China, which is the most obvious reason why there’s almost no chance to see Linux replacing Windows any time in the near future.
The biggest question is how exactly Microsoft could take its revenge on China. We’ve received comments from our readers saying that the company should increase prices in China to a level that would quickly make the government reconsider all its actions and adopt a more friendly approach towards a company that’s investing so much in their country.
But just like in any other country out there, China has its own price regulators too, so such a strategy could bite the dust if Microsoft receives more penalties.
There are ways however to show the Chinese government that Microsoft does not deserve such a hostile approach and Redmond has a team of lawyers that could easily find a method to do that. And there’s no doubt that in case all these problems continue in China, Microsoft might at some time change its attitude as well.
At this point, Microsoft is really doing the right thing and trying to remain open to collaboration with the Chinese government whenever there’s something that’s causing local officials to raise an eyebrow and question the security of the company’s products.
The problem however is that this is most likely just the beginning of a much bigger scandal that involves not only Microsoft, but the entire US tech industry, as other companies based in America are getting the same bad treatment from Chinese authorities.
Probably the most ironic thing, however, is that all these problems are caused by a country that’s still running Windows XP, which is a 13-year-old operating system, on 70 percent of its computers and 90 percent of the licenses are pirated. Someone in China has a lot of courage, that’s for sure.