I hope they also offer this in other poor countries, such as the Philippines where I come from...

I found the article interesting.

A point on your analysis...
-Attack faster and aggressively on all fronts sounds a lot like perfectionism. I assume someone from IBM or Canonical have thought of this and quickly dismissed it as over-optimistic.

It's about market share.

If you sell 100K units in the US where the market is 1,000K you only have 10% but if you can sell 100K in a 200K market you got 50%. Point then is the ability to go to another market and claim a "tremendous" sales story. Plus if I do heavy discounting or have failures in Africa not a lot of US customers are going to know or care.

Another view would be that IBM is really leading the IT world in voicing a different direction. What and how fast they can deliver has always been a question. Look at their sold but not delivered numbers and how this has increased over the past year.

JMHO

IBM is full of ideas, all of them stupid.
Linux isn't an IBM product, I love how they jump on the bandwagon like they invented it LOL.
And Lotus Notes??? Worst app ever made.

Well Africa and Philippines are probably the worst places to sell Linux.

African are too stubborn and there is only one way to do computing.

Filipinos are too caught up in status. Linux is homemade.

Sources: Ive been to these countries and talked to people.

@AstRo: More important is the technology to be offered globally....that answers all questions...

The start place of Africa is surprising not only because of the unconventionality but also for the contradiction to the tenacity of IBM to provide better solutions to the world, rather than a group of users.....

M$ controls the OEM channel in North America people, wake up! Netbooks tried and were 'pulled' from retail due to M$ threats. Africa doesn't 'bend over' like North America to M$. This way they have a 'chance'. I hope they succeed.

Nice, concise summary as a news item. I hope you follow up on it regularly.

An 'honorable' mention should also have outlined the M$ strategy of offering its operating systems in the same/similar markets at vastly reduced costs, compared to those charged in developed nations. M$ is fully aware of its inability to compete on a level playing field.

Why is it that Americans & Westerners must pay ten times more for the same software than when it is offered in another country?

Sure sounds like monopolistic racketeering and illegal price fixing by region.

Africa is (generally) one of the softest entry points in the world today, so it makes sense that IBM/Canonical is using this as a 'test-bed' to get their product (& delivery thereof!) correct. What they do & learn from this will help them move rapidly forward in other markets ... and capturing the market by percentage throughout underdeveloped regions is an outstanding strategy.

Windows (& Apple) will have a murderous time re-'educating' children who grow up using *nix systems. Here's hoping that Central & South America, along with swaths of the poorest in Asia, are next. AND more rapidly assimilated into the market.

Americans & westerners (generally) have vast amounts of wealth to dedicate to converting themselves to linux; it is by choice that they spend five to ten times as much subsidizing M$ & Apple. The only reason they don't switch is their own ignorance, sloth and willful self-mindwashing with corporate propaganda. It is not the responsibility of IBM, Canonical or anyone else to hand-feed the fat and the stupid into an age of modern computing.

Just consider that it is a 'Darwin Effect,' whereby people who choose to be economic slaves to obsolete operating systems, software & paradigms are regularly removing themselves from competition in the world work force. Even the wealthiest of corporations and governments today are finding they cannot afford to subsidize the horrible crud being inflicted on humanity by M$.

Microsoft will hurt IBM with windows licensing costs again if they try to pull this stunt in the US.

I would suppose that one reason for not expanding world-wide would be due to a limit on human resources. It takes some training to support the add-on packages, and IBM does not like to spread itself too thin.

So, pick the winners (marketing successes)

@Mark: that's one plausible reason.

Another one (not excluding the previous) might be, that grey-imports from Africa to Europe/NA may
financially help Africa in short future...

[quote]September 27, 2009 3:00 AM
dean said:Well Africa and Philippines are probably the worst places to sell Linux.
African are too stubborn and there is only one way to do computing.Filipinos are too caught up in status. Linux is homemade.
Sources: Ive [b]been to these countries[/b] and talked to people.[/quote]

Well I live in SA and call B/S as regards your comments! BTW Africa is a continet and NOT a country! Seriously, some of the drivel that get past off as "comment"....!

Here in the Philippines computers come prepackaged with Linux, although they're not officially marketed or whatever. I guess it's the poor countries thing.

Quote: "Here in the Philippines computers come prepackaged with Linux, although they're not officially marketed or whatever. I guess it's the poor countries thing."

They eventually wipe out Linpus(Most Linux Laptops are with Linpus), then install Windows XP, then pop-up a USB stick, then gets the Sality virus. Then hired the technician who installed Windows XP(who knew nothing about Linux and will just say Linux is difficult), to fix the sality thing. In most cases, reformat is the fix. This is a cycle. Anyway back to the topic, This effort of IBM is a welcome. However, IBM has been accused by the Philippine government here for not being able to fix their system installed at GSIS (Government agency here in PH).