At shops in the bustling Xinyang market in Shanghai, fake Apple iPhones and Bose speakers were displayed alongside bootleg copies of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system, a week before it was to go on sale offcially.
“Which version do you want? Ultimate? Normal? English or Chinese?” one shopkeeper asked, proudly pointing out her ample supply of discs packed in unmarked white boxes.
People in China have been able to buy pirated copies of the newest version of Microsoft’s Windows franchise this month for just 20 yuan (S$4) each – a fraction of list prices, which are as high as US$320.
Windows 7’s “early release” in China underscores the challenge that major software makers face when trying to make money in the country, the world’s second-largest PC market after the United States.
US research firm IDC estimated that about 80 percent of software sold in China last year was pirated. While that figure is falling, it is still double the global average and about four times the average in developed markets like the US and Japan.
Said analyst Matthew Cheung at research firm Gartner: “If you’re trying to sell a program that costs 2,000 yuan to a student living on 400 yuan a month, that’s simply not going to work out for most consumers.”
In a nod to such pressures, Microsoft cut the price of its Office 2007 Home and Student Edition to 199 yuan last year from 699 yuan.
And Microsoft will sell its low-end Windows 7 Home Basic version from 399 yuan. Most experts agree that piracy in Chine is a long-term issue, but many say that conditions should improve as software makers cut prices, users become more educated and living standards rise.
Gartner estimated that software-piracy rates in mainland China would fall as low as 50 percent by 2012.
Source from The New York Times
3 Comments
I was at an electronics mall in Moscow a few days back — really huge place, permanent structure, over a hundred separate stores, about a third of which were selling pirated software.
And right near the front of the pile: Windows 7, in English or Russian. About 400 rubles (around 12 dollars). Maya went for 490, Finale for 430, the Adobe Suite for just over 300. And this is a country that has been majorly cracking down on software piracy…
have you ever heard of torrents/rapidshare?
Ya. Sure. Kind of file sharing stuff.
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