Microsoft said it would cut the price of its Windows XP Home Edition from 960 yuan to 399 yuan in the next 12 months. The retail price of Microsoft Office 2007 software will also be cut from 699 yuan to 398 yuan.

“Many Chinese consumers still have the conception that genuine software is expensive,” said Wei Qing, consumer and online marketing officer of Microsoft Greater China. “We want to tell Chinese consumers that it is not.”

Having entered the Chinese market in 1992, Microsoft’s sales revenue in the country has long been sluggish due to pirated software.

Although the company has successfully convinced government agencies and computer venders in China to adopt genuine software in recent years, pirated software still prevails among individual consumers.

Critics said it is Microsoft’s high pricing that forced many Chinese users to turn to pirated software. Windows XP home edition was sold at 1,498 yuan in China last year, loosely equivalent to the average monthly income of city dwellers in Beijing.

As a test, Microsoft launched a promotional campaign in October in which the company reduced the price of its Office 2007 software (which could only be installed on a single computer) from 699 to 199 yuan during the weeklong National Day holiday.

The campaign turned out to be a great success as actual sales were 10 times better than earlier estimates, according to Wang Jianhua, president of Beijing Federal Software, one of China’s largest genuine software retail chains.

Wei said Microsoft would extend the October promotion campaign to the upcoming Spring Festival.

Buy office 2007 Chinese Version at 199 Yuan from Dangdang.com

Buy Windows Xp Chinese Version at 399 Yuan from amazon.cn

Source: China Daily

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The local police has cancelled Ren’s fine, not because the law was wrongly applied in this case, but after a careful go-through in this case, there appears that the facts in the case are clear, and the law was applied correctly, and they make this collective decision on Ren: due to facts that this is the first time for Ren to violate the “Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection and Management Regulations”, and fining him 1,900 Yuan is relatively harsh while his infraction is just minor, they decide to withdraw the penalty of 1,900 Yuan fine, and replace it with a talk-on-education.

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I like the design of the Thinkpad X61 series, looks pretty tiny and solid, and someone told me that their battery goes for quite a long time.

After looking after it in Beijing Computer market, like in Zhongguancun, I found many good looking X61 on sale, and their types and models differ a lot, for exemple, Model 7675L12 or 7673LA2, I don’t think these models will match those in the US market, and don’t ask me why they make it such a confusing way…

The price was okay at a first glance, starting from 7000 (about 1000 USD) yuan at the bottem, to a very hight range, for example this one:

ThinkPad X61:
Vista Home Basic, 1G Memo, 120G HD,12.1″ XGA…, right now its price is 7300 yuan.

But the one I especially interest in was X61 Tablet, yes, you can use it as a directly writing notbook, just like a regular book note.

The price for X61T in Beijing is about 15,000 Yuan (2200 USD), okay, as we all know tablet is a kind of luxury, so let’s take a look at its configuration:

Type: 7762J3C/7762J6C Beijing

And then here is their website in Chinese, after checking it a little bit from their overseas website, here I go into the Lenovo US website, and wow, I think the price different such a lot, and see the configuration here…

Type: 7764CTO U.S.

And note, that the above 2 types are very different in configuration, someone make a comment here about the difference, so if I will take this into consideration, the price gap will be even bigger, and even worse, some type of configuration is not available in China.

After a search on the net, I seems to know a little bit about how Lenovo make the price so cheap in the US, as they just got the Thinkpad from IBM, and still shy and timid in the US market, so they will keep the price so much appealing in the US market, as lots of people there still feel it ” It is still very strong compared to other notebooks, but not as rock solid as the older model…”

Online discount, vacation discount, special coupons, makes the price so cheap, I heard it still face many problems in occupying the share of market.

But as many people have pointed out, that Lenovo has not big worry in its hometown – China, their products are always of the top priced, as goverment officals, and rich guys will pay their bill to be classified as rich or to be looked more professional. ThinkPad is a very fancy toy in China.

One of the guys from Lenovo, explained that as somehting like a different marketing strategy or …

But anyway, I still feel to be cheated somehow.

Additional Links:

• Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC User Review

• How to buy cheap ThinkPad from US and take it to China (in Chinese)

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There had been many similiar discussions on legality of browsing or keeping pornographic stuff from the internet in China recent years.

For exemple, a couple watching pornographic video at home was regarded as criminal activity.

The reason why local police fined Mr. Ren was based on the following regulation, “Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection and Management Regulations”(计算机信息网络国际联网安全保护管理办法), issued on Dec.30th, of 1997, which says: Article 5.No unit or individual may use the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit the following kinds of information:…(6) Promoting feudal superstitions, sexually suggestive material, gambling, violence, murder; …” and “if remedial action is not taken within the specified period, then a fine of not more than 5000 RMB may be assessed against the top management personnel in charge of the area and other persons directly responsible [for the violation] and a fine of not more than 15,000 RMB against the unit;”…

More discussions followed, some people even doubt the legality of the punishment from the local police, occording to the “Law of the PRC on punishments in public order and security administration” (中华人民共和国治安管理处罚法), which was recently issued on Mar.1st of 2006, those who “create, transport, duplicate, sale, rent pornographic books, pictures, videos” could be fined, but it seems not the case of this time.

Is it obvious to know which one to follow, a REGULATION or a LAW ?

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Shopping experience: everything good, except you will need to avoid the jungle of sales hunting around in the mall.

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