Microsoft

Only 244 Genuine Copies of Windows Vista Sold in China

You do the math!

By Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor

18th of April 2007, 07:01 GMT

Adjust text size:

Microsoft has applauded the fact that Windows Vista has sold in excess of 20 million licenses world wide in the operating system's first month on the market. However, out of those 20 million, only

244 genuine licenses of Vista were sold in China. Can you do the math?

Well, according to a report from Gearfuse citing the Windows Vista chief distributor in Beijing, the 244 copies of Windows Vista represent all the operating system's sales country wide. Apparently, the Beijing distributor controls over 90% of the national volume of Windows Vista products in China and in this context it is in the position to most accurately estimate the market performances of the operating system.

The Windows Genuine Advantage team has interpreted the signs of dirt-low prices for pirated editions of Windows Vista as a positive sign that the anti-piracy measures built in the operating system are effective. Counterfeit editions of Vista are available for as low as a few dollars, and that includes the packaging. However, there are also the pirated materials on peer-to-peer networks for free.

"On a recent trip to South America, we met a street vendor who had a copy of Windows Vista that included an inkjet-printed package, obviously counterfeit. He said, "This isn't going to work very long because Microsoft is going to shut this key off and you won't be able to activate it. But you can use it for a trial." This was eight days after the business launch of Windows Vista to volume licensing customers in the first part of December. So on one hand, low-quality copies are already out there, but on the other, the counterfeiters are aware that (no "that") Windows Vista's anti-piracy technologies are working, and we've yet to see high-quality packaged counterfeit versions of our new operating system software," revealed Cori Hartje, director of the Microsoft Genuine Software Initiative on the one year anniversary of GSI.

Pirated copies of Chinese Windows Vista on sale

"A colleague and friend of mine was traveling in Brazil recently and during her trip she took a few minutes to see what software was easily available on the streets of Sao Paulo. While Windows Vista was among the counterfeits available(,) it was cheaper (about $5 vs $10 for other software titles) because the vendor said it 'might expire'. While learning that a counterfeit copy of your product is suddenly cheaper than before might not obviously be a good thing (but) in this case I think it is. The fact that the value of a counterfeit copy is dropping is a sign that the product is harder to counterfeit," stated Alex Kochis, a senior licensing manager WGA team.

Microsoft has by no means overlooked China when it came to promote Windows Vista. The Redmond Company did in fact forecast that it will sell 20% more software products in China in 2007 compared to the past year. As such, a part of the $500 million Wow marketing campaign went to China, as you can see from the giant Windows Vista advertisement on the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. I wonder if the 244 Vista copies sold managed to pay for the Jin Mao ad of Windows Vista?

What do you think? Has the Windows Genuine Advantage initiative impacted in any way the piracy level of Windows Vista?

TAGS:

Windows Vista | China | Windows Genuine Advantage | piracy

SEARCH THE NEWS ARCHIVE :

Today's News | Yesterday's News | News Archive

User opinions:

No user comments yet.

Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!

Share your opinion:

SUBMIT PROGRAM \| ADVERTISE \| GET HELP \| SEND US FEEDBACK \| RSS FEEDS \| ENTER NEWS SITE \| ENGLISH BOARD \| ROMANIAN FORUM
© 2001 - 2008 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Softpedia™ and the Softpedia™ logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.	Copyright Information \| Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use \| Update your software \| Archive

NEWS CATEGORIES: