Microsoft executives concede that demand in the first three countries — Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia — has been "modest", but added that demand is stronger in other places, such as Brazil. Microsoft won't say how many Starter Edition-based computers have shipped since Microsoft launched the new Windows version as a pilot project two years ago.
Gartner said that the software's restricted features also blunt the ability of Starter Edition to act as a check on pirated versions, which are widespread in most of the markets where Microsoft sells the OS.
"Ultimately, Microsoft can't limit the functionality of Windows and successfully fight piracy," Gartner said in its report. "The only real options are to lower the price and maintain functionality."
But Wickstrand counters that the limits haven't been an issue among testers of the version of Windows XP.
Wickstrand said that Starter Edition is meeting the needs of its target market, based on feedback from Microsoft beta programme participants in Thailand, India and other countries.
One is Sagaya Shalini, a woman who runs an Internet cafe in a village in Tamil Nadu, India. Shalini uses her PC to run a variety of businesses for the very rural village, home to about 1,000 people. It is three hours from the nearest city and 10km from the nearest other computer. As a result, her PC gets a lot of use.
Shalini gives computer and language classes and also uses the PC to send basic medical information, such as a villager's blood pressure or EKG, to a distant medical professional. The PC even helps diagnose agricultural problems.
"She'll take a picture of someone's crop and get advice with what may be wrong with their crops," Wickstrand said.
When making product decisions, Wickstrand says he tries to think about what would work for Shalini. "I use Sagaya as a tiebreaker," Wickstrand said. "She's really much more the expert than I am or my product managers are."
Another of Wickstrand's bellwethers is Manthana Upathe, a Thai woman who got her first PC through a Microsoft beta programme for Windows XP Starter Edition.
"She doesn't want her 10-year-old son at an Internet cafe," Wickstrand said. "She wants her son at home."
