Microsoft FlexGo
FlexGo is a technology developed by Microsoft to enable users to pay for using a full-featured personal computer based on the amount of time it used for, similar to pay as you go for cell phones. Another method of payment would be a monthly subscription. It was introduced on May 22, 2006. IBM and other corporations are also adapting similar business models to expand into new markets.
Goals
FlexGo's main target audience are those in third world countries or people with unsteady income. It had been featured under a topic on Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech, Episode 57 "Vloggercon". Microsoft wanted to give people the opportunity to buy their very first computer using FlexGo, and pay for only the time they would use it. Microsoft also planned to team up with telecommunication companies to allow internet access to become a pay as you go feature, also. The main targeted areas for FlexGo are India, Hungary, Vietnam, Slovenia, and Brazil.[1]
External links and references
- Microsoft.com — FlexGo Technology at the Wayback Machine
- Geekzone, Microsoft Introduce Pay-as-you-go Computing
- Microsoft pitches pay-as-you-go PCs
- Microsoft brings Vista to developing world PCs
- Microsoft broadsides African laptop
- prepaid FlexGo card
