Microsoft's cut-price XP flops in Asia | The Inquirer
Windows XP Starter Edition, a cut down version of the full OS, debuted in Thailand last October, and Malaysia and Indonesia in February. But Microsoft’s grand plan to deliver low-cost computing to the developing world has had a lukewarm response from the all important local system builder community. The product is not sold at retail, so depends totally on buy-in from partner companies who are supposed to be bundling and promoting the software as part of their low end offer.
Maybe part of the problem is that bootleg copies of Windows XP go for less than $5 in downtown Kuala Lumpur....