What is FlexGo?
Microsoft introduced the innovative Microsoft® FlexGo™ technology to help provide people in underserved markets with new computer and software purchasing options that are tailored to their needs. By removing some of the financial barriers to PC ownership, hundreds of millions of people in underserved markets can enjoy the benefits of computing.
Microsoft FlexGo gives computer manufacturers, retailers, and telecommunication companies a new way to offer their customers affordable PC payment options. FlexGo helps make it possible to lower the initial cost of a full-featured PC for customers, and allows them to pay for a PC as they use it. This technology supports two models today:
- Scalable, sustainable approaches to shared access and delivery
of ICT.
- Initiatives that foster a local software and services ecosystem.
Subscription.
With a Microsoft FlexGo subscription, customers may subscribe to broadband Internet service combined with payments for use of a PC—along with genuine software and technical support—all in one convenient monthly bill (services vary by country and computer manufacturer).
Pay as you go.
The Microsoft FlexGo pay-as-you-go plan is similar to the prepaid mobile phone model. Customers can take home a PC with genuine Microsoft software and then pay for the PC as it is used.
An example of subscription computing:
- The buyer makes a down payment for the PC and takes it home.
- The buyer signs a contract with the network operator for broadband Internet services. The payments for Internet services reimburse the network operator for the balance of the PC purchase price over the course of the contract.
- At the completion of the contract, the subscriber owns the PC and can elect to continue their broadband service from the network operator.
An example of pay-as-you-go computing:
- The buyer makes a down payment on the PC and takes it home. A financial institution subsidizes the purchase price.
- The buyer signs a contract to purchase a set amount of PC usage time at an hourly rate. The buyer can add time as he or she needs it. The purchase of PC usage time reimburses the financial institution for the remaining PC purchase price, including interest.
- Hours of PC usage can be conveniently purchased through a variety of distribution channels, including convenience stores (scratch cards), ATMs, point-of-sale networks, and the Internet.
- Once enough hours of usage time are purchased as determined by the contract, no additional payments are required to use the PC.
With FlexGo, millions of people will now be able to enjoy the benefits of owning their own PC and participating in an increasingly digital global society.
Microsoft FlexGo enables exiting opportunities for:
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