Google Chrome OS and the Third world (why it will fail)(aitoehigie.wordpress.com)

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aitoehigie.wordpress.com

Google Chrome OS and the Third world (why it will fail)

http://aitoehigie.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/google-chrome-and-the-third-world-why-it-will-fail/

1 comments

Firstly, US companies tends not to care about other countries. To the extent that they do, it is mostly European countries that are important. The reason is pretty simple -- money. First world countries can (and will) pay for things. It is generally more useful to have paying customers as your user base. (Here I include customers of other products, i.e. "eyeballs" that you can sell to advertisers. Advertisers want access to people who buy products.)

Secondly, the third world has shown rather resoundingly that it doesn't want non-Microsoft products. Here in Thailand I routinely see Thai people install Windows XP onto their iMacs and Macbooks. They don't use OSX, and I have never met a Thai using Linux. Even laptops which are supposed to have Linux pre-installed will routinely have XP installed by the shop before they are sold.

Here, the reasoning is a bit more complex. For starters, Thai language support. XP has very good Thai support (i.e. it actually has a Thai language locale). OSX does not at all, and Linux has extremely half-assed Thai language support. Obviously, Thailand isn't an important market to Apple and Linux using Thais haven't stepped up to do the translation. This is a unique issue for Thais, so we can ignore it for the general "Third World". I would suggest, however, that most Third World users don't speak English as a first language. Some African countries will do ok with French or English (or German!) locales, so we'll leave it at that.

Besides language issues, the main issue I've encountered here in Thailand is that Thai people want to learn marketable computer skills. They believe that since everyone uses Windows and Office, if they learn, for example, Linux and Open Office, they will have the wrong skill set. They want to emulate the West so they can be successful, and the West uses Microsoft. Thats what they want to use too.

Microsoft is quite deeply ingrained into the computing culture over here. If a Thai wants to add you to their IM list, they will ask you "do you have M?" <<are you on M[SN Messenger]?>>. Alternatively, they might just say "add email someusername42" <<add the MSN Messenger contact someusername42[@hotmail.com]>>. Microsoft defaults are just assumed (MSN Messenger, hotmail.com, etc.)

So, given that OSX and Linux can't penetrate into the third world (and in Apple's case, probably don't even want to)... why would you assume that Chrome OS will? That is, assuming that Google even cares (which is a huge assumption)...