Thursday, September 28, 2006 Microsoft keeps cool despite growing use of open source technology
DESPITE the increasing number of people using open source technology, the largest software company in the world remains confident of its place in the Philippine software market.
Boy Bawal, sales operations director for Southern Philippines of Microsoft Philippines, said the company is not threatened by open source software.
“Open source has given the market a choice. Microsoft believes that if it (Microsoft) is doing the right thing, the market will make its choice,” he said in an interview.
Open source software is free unlike those developed by Microsoft, whose source code is available under a copyright license.
Bawal said Microsoft respects the country’s software market and the local market, in general. This is why the company has continued to practice its business model, which helps the economies of the countries where it is operating in.
“Microsoft’s business model is very unique in the sense that the company invests for the marketing and promotions of its products but passes on the sale to its local partners. It believes that the growth of its local partners also means growth to the company,” Bawal said.
Summit
Recognizing the contribution of Internet cafes to efforts in bridging the digital divide in the country, Microsoft is planning to hold a summit for the sector’s players to gather and discuss issues concerning the sector.
Bawal said the company plans to hold the Internet café summit in Cebu.
Microsoft aims to make the summit a venue where sector players can air out, discuss and “hopefully” solve issues.
Among the major topics to be discussed are problems on software licensing and financing. Setting up a standard rental or usage rate is also one of the objectives of the summit.
Bawal said there is a need for a standard rental rate for the sector to avoid cutthroat competition and for the entire industry to thrive and continue to connect the entire different provinces, especially rural areas, to the Web.
A session on how to grow an Internet café business will also be held during the summit
Bawal said there are about 1,600 Internet cafes in Visayas and Mindanao. Most of these are concentrated in Cebu, Davao, Cagayan and Bacolod.
Microsoft has been helping some Internet cafés comply with intellectual property laws on the use of licensed software by linking them with financial institutions that can help them pay for the license. (JBN)
