The Computer to Every House Program is under the threat of failure. Instead of the planned sales of 20,000 PCs to 50,000 PCS by summer of 2007, the contractors sold no more than 1,500 PCs.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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PC Failed to Reach Every House
The Computer to Every House Program is under the threat of failure. Instead of the planned sales of 20,000 PCs to 50,000 PCs by summer of 2007, the contractors sold no more than 1,500 PCs. So, the Ministry of IT and Communications has decided to make some changes, including replacement of Windows by Linux.
According to Alexei Kravtsov, chief of Russia’s PC assembler Kraftway, just a few hundred computers were sold in the Krasnodar and Tomsk regions during the whole term of the Computer to Every House Program. In Compulink that supplies PCs to the Chelyabinsk and Arkhangelks regions, they declined to comment on the sales yesterday. The experts say the aggregate sales of Compulink and Kraftway haven’t exceeded 1,500 PCs.
“When implementing the program, we discovered that in some remote villages the people have rather vague idea of computers and have never heard of Microsoft. In some settlements, however, the demand wasn’t bad – roughly five computers per a thousand of population,” Kravtsov said.
The Computer to Every House Program was initiated by software/hardware vendors, and Russia’s Ministry of IT and Communications is in charge of its implementation. Initially, it was planned to sell PCs to people with moderate revenues via more than 40,000 offices of Russia’s Mail Service, Pochta Rossii. All PCs were supplied with Microsoft software and Intel processors. The target was to sell between 20,000 PCs to 50,000 PCs by the summer of 2007.
According to a source with the Ministry of IT and Communications, the second stage of the program will be launched in December. This time, the campaign will be backed up by solid promotion, Microsoft software will be probably replaced by Linux of Russia’s development and the individuals will be able to raise bank credits to pay for PCs, at least the ministry is holding respective negotiations with the biggest banks of the country.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 06, 2007
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