SEM Guru

If you haven't read the BBC News interview with Bill Gates Bill is quoted as saying

"It is not as simple, not as cheap, not as powerful as I thought we could achieve so now I get to come in and work with smart people to make that happen. It's the most fun I can imagine,"

I just brought a PC for my daughter for $299 (remember when it was $5000 for a basic PC) which came fully built including a AMD processor, 256MB ram, 40GB HD. Perfect for an 8 year old to surf the web and other things she'll want to do. It also came bundled with Windows XP Home. Looking up the price of XP Home on pricegrabber.com I found the lowest price for the full edition was $44, the list price is closer to $99. This represents way over 10% of the cost of the new machine, and at $99 represents 33% of the cost of the machine. Given that at the start of the PC revolution a PC cost $5000 and it now costs $300, the cost of the O/S is now becoming the major roadblock to a lower prices PC.With the huge profits Microsoft has just announced the price of this software is vastly inflated and hasn't fallen at the same speed as other parts of the PC. If Bill truely beleived in bringing the cost of the PC down he needs to take the first step.