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>Margins.

Bullshit.

>A netbook that gets better every year for $250-350 will have a razor-thin profit margin. If it has to have Microsoft Windows Special Edition on it, 10-30% of the price tag goes to MS.

And if you count all of the payments they get for preinstalling crap, I think it cancels out most if not all of the windows license.

Or they could just install linux. Some did (not enough though).

>Joe Average wouldn't buy a computer that doesn't run whatever brand name he recognizes, so Windows is a requirement.

The entire netbook industry was kicked off by the linux brand name. So that makes little sense.

>A tablet isn't a "computer", so it doesn't need to run Windows in order to sell

Android or iOS are as much brands as windows or linux are.

>A Google Nexus 7 now has everything except a keyboard in terms of netbook hardware, but it gives up no margin to MS and has a market big enough for economies of scale.

Netbooks also had a market big enough for economies of scale too.




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