Microsoft Lowers Budget PC XP Prices

Microsoft is cutting the price of its XP operating system for low-cost, ultra-portable laptops, as long as they meet stringent specifications, which could significantly increase the company's market share in developing countries.

Microsoft has announced that it will significantly cut the price on its XP operating system for low-cost, ultra-portable laptops, although they’ll have to be specific guidelines in order to qualify, IDG reports.

That could well greatly increase the company’s market share in developing countries, where it’s estimated that the number of those types of machines will grow dramatically in the next few years.

In order to qualify, the laptop would have to have no more than 1GB of RAM, a processor of 1GHz or less, no more than an 80GB hard drive, no touch screen and a screen no larger than 10.2 inches.

The plan is to sell copies of XP to computer makers in China and India for $26, a great deal less than a home copy costs in the West.

Since many of the low-cost laptops on the market use Linux, this is a strong move by Microsoft to capture a larger market share in places where it’s not as big as it would like to be – although laptops like the Asus Eee, which meets the specs, are proving popular in developed nations, too, and they lack the capacity to runs Windows Vista.

Microsoft announced earlier this year that it will stop selling XP for regular desktops and laptops at the end of June, but it will make XP available for low0cost laptops until 2010.