Microsoft Launches 'Pay as You Go' PC Trials

Microsoft is continuing to pursue its vision of "a PC on every desk in every home." But it's not going the $100 PC route. Microsoft's latest method for achieving that end, FlexGo, takes a page from cell phone and cable playbooks.

Microsoft unveiled a new financing program designed to make PCs more affordable to emerging-market customers on May 22, the day before the kick-off of its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle.

The new pay-as-you-go program and associated metering technology that enables it are known collectively as "FlexGo." In partnership with a handful of hardware, telecommunications, retail and financial services partners, Microsoft is launching this week full-fledged FlexGo trials in Brazil and will add trials in India, China, Russia and Mexico within the month, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft and its partners—which include Advanced Micro Devices, HSBC Bank Brasil, Infineon Technologies, Intel, Lenovo, Phoenix Technologies and Transmeta, as well as local service providers in several countries—are testing FlexGo in two different ways.

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