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 Ballmer Enthralls Partners
While in India, Steve Ballmer, the big boss of Microsoft, exclusively addressed a group of select Microsoft partners in Mumbai. The partners who attended the meeting were impressed with Ballmer’s candidness as he honestly admitted Windows Vista’s below-than-expected acceptance, and praised competitor Google and even Oracle.
However, Ballmer rubbished the Oracle and Sun deal and expressed doubts if Oracle will be able to manage Sun’s hardware business which is hugely unprofitable. Ballmer expressed the view that Sun’s hardware business will burn a big hole in Oracle’s highly ‘profitable’ software business.
Most partners were enamored by Ballmer’s straight talk and punch lines.
Tricks of the trade?
One of the AV vendors which has set the consumer market on fire with its rock-bottom pricing is facing a unique problem. Many of the vendor’s dealers, particularly in the north, have been taking undue advantage of the company’s low-priced products.
They have been selling the 3-user license AV package in a counterfeit package as a single-user license to customers. In essence, one retail pack of a 3-user license is sold to three different customers separately as a single-user license at the price of the 3-user license.
The racket was going on smoothly till one well-informed customer figured out the cheating. The vigilant customer filed a complaint against the dealer for counterfeiting and piracy and thus exposed the scandal. Following the complaint, the vendor has sent out a stern notice to all its resellers to not be involved in such fraudulent practices, and has even threatened a few of the dealers with legal action. |