April 1, 2008 >From the Los Angeles Times By April Naive, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
TAIPEI Novel initiative predicted to thrust sales growth, service customers It is an open secret that many computer users in Asia insert pirated software in their boxes. To simultaneously increase customer satisfaction and combat rampant software piracy, Mircosoft is copying a wildly successful business model developed by Amway. "This probe gives us a strong motivation to bend over for Mircosoft." one person said. Amway and Mircosoft are partnering in a joint venture to entice legions of gullible Taiwanese to attend weekly meetings, learn about Microsoft products, sell them to their family and friends, and recruit even more foot soldiers in an ever-growing army selling Mircosoft products. The recruits will also act as a fifth-column to unmask and stamp out software pirates hiding in the the cracks of computing. "Software piracy has been a bone of contention in our country. Now the balls are the other court." another person said. Mircosoft's new Asian marketing arm is expected to lower sales and support costs while accelerating sales and improving customer satisfaction. The average Amyway agent is reputed to net on the order of seventy cents per year while attend as many as one hundred meetings lasting two or three hours each. Specifics were not forthcoming, but it is predicted that representatives will market and support Mircosoft's flagship desktop operating system, server and application products. "This will give me a local go-to person the next time my computer poops on itself and dies." one long-time user said. Yet industry analysts question Mircosoft's ability to follow the trail that Amway has blazed. While the software giant has been highly profitable due to its legal and marketing arms, the market for software is much less than the market for soap. Furthermore, well-known shortcomings in Mircosoft product line are likely to put a damper on this strategy. "Once we get over the hump, this will help us snatch the user-group level enthusiasm of the open source movement and muff them up." said one marketing executive. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
