Cheap Bill Gates

In a grand gesture Bill Gates announces Microsoft software will sell for just $3 (£1.50) in some parts of the world in an attempt to double the number of global PC users . Under the banner of its Unlimited Potential scheme, it is aimed at bridging the digital divide. The scheme aims to bring the benefit of computing technology to the remaining five sixths of the world's population, who currently live without it.

But , read on ...

"This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business," Orlando Ayala of Microsoft told the Reuter's news agency.

In many developing countries pirated versions of Microsoft software are sold very cheaply anyway and governments will be required to provide free computers to schools, capable of running Windows, to be eligible for the discounted software - a captured market .