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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Earlie who wrote (50659)	3/8/1999 3:58:00 PM
From: wlheatmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Earlie, From CNNFN--as you can see, MSFT and others feel that the expensive PC's will not be the big sellers and they're looking at ways to bring the internet to the masses cheaply (in a thriftier fashion -g-). Gates plans China venture Microsoft, Hong Kong Telecom to announce software rental deal March 8, 1999: 2:12 p.m. ET SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates plans to unveil this week a project aimed at getting hundreds of millions of Chinese television viewers onto the Internet, company officials said Monday. Gates was expected to introduce a project to develop specially-equipped televisions and video compact disc (VCD) players to tap into the World Wide Web during a visit to the south China city of Shenzhen on Wednesday, a Microsoft (MSFT) official said. "Personal computers are still beyond the means of many Chinese households, but almost everyone has a television or VCD player," said the official, who declined to be identified. "We think this is a better way into the market," he said. According to statistics published in state newspapers, China has around 320 million television sets and 40 million VCD players. The "Venus project" on Internet television would be developed in cooperation with Chinese partners and run on the Windows CE operating system, designed to take consumer electronics on-line, the official said. Among the Chinese partners invited to meet Gates on Wednesday were computer makers Legend Holdings Ltd., Stone Electronic Technology Ltd., Founder (Hong Kong) Ltd. and white goods manufacturer Qingdao Haier Refrigerator Co Ltd., the official said. He declined to say what Microsoft's total investment in the project might be. Microsoft is also due to announce a "strategic cooperation plan" with Hong Kong Telecommunications in Hong Kong on Tuesday. The South China Morning Post said the two companies would announce an Internet deal to allow computer users to rent software, download films and play interactive games. The joint-venture service, set to be available by the end of this year, is one of the first in the world, the newspaper said. Officials from Microsoft and Hongkong Telecom declined comment. But Hongkong Telecom said last week its chief executive, Linus Cheung, would co-host a news conference with Gates in Hong Kong at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday (0645 GMT) on a "strategic cooperation plan." It gave no further details. The South China Morning Post said the new service would allow users to rent a wide range of software from Hongkong Telecom's computer at low cost for one-time use. Users would not need to buy software which can cost thousands of dollars and may only be used a few times. The low cost of individual rental also made piracy less economically attractive. The alliance would help Hongkong Telecom, the territory's leading telecommunications provider, cement its domination of Hong Kong's Internet service provider market -- of which it holds more than 50 percent -- and move into the still untapped realm of electronic commerce, the newspaper said. Hongkong Telecom, a unit of Cable and Wireless Plc, has been searching for new sources of revenue after the recent deregulation of its long-distance monopoly. Hongkong Telecom shares rose $0.85, in Hong Kong dollars, to $14.85 in morning trading on Monday, after rising 8.9 percent to $14.00 last Friday on speculation of a Microsoft alliance.