Affordable PC has a hitch

Like one of those appliance dealers on Highway 99, Bill Gates won't be undersold.

He's working on a plan to make your next PC almost free. Free in the way cellphones are free — if you sign up for a network service plan.

The approach could make PCs affordable for more people, but it's based on technology that's a little spooky, especially given Big Brother's recent digital eavesdropping.

Rent-to-own PCs are being introduced this year in developing countries. There's no word on when they'll come to the U.S., but industry executives talked up the approach during a conference in San Diego last week.

"There's going to be a great wave of those things that are going to get rolled out," Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief technical officer for advanced strategies, said at the Future in Review (FiRe) conference.

Mundie said, "You'll basically be able to buy composite hardware and software packages ... on cellphone-type business models where you essentially rent them or pay for them like you have prepaid cards on cellphones."

It's being pitched as a way to make PCs more affordable, but this is not philanthropy.

Microsoft is jockeying for position in developing countries where people considering their first computer have some interesting alternatives to a Windows PC.

Universities are developing cheap computing devices based on free Linux software. And some cellphones now have PC-like features, Internet browsers and small keyboards.

Whether this financing scheme works abroad or not, the technology could eventually change the dynamic of PC ownership everywhere if the industry moves further toward subscriptions.

As people become more comfortable with the concept of paying monthly fees for their computing, the shift toward digital media and online services will also accelerate.

Having millions of subscribers would also help Microsoft catch Apple Computer in the digital-media business and recoup the billions it's investing in online services.

Free or reduced-price computers will lure people to subscribe to a bundle of services. Then it's easy to start adding things to that monthly computing bill, just as you do with phone and cable television. Miss a TV show? Want that new song or video game? Download them, for a few dollars added to your bill.

It sounds slick, but there are some trade-offs, such as full control of your PC.

The financing approach depends on new Microsoft technology that can remotely shut down the computers of people who stop paying.

That makes the financing cost-effective, Mundie told me. "In a sense, we've never had a way to turn off your computer if you failed to pay for it, so you can never get anybody to take the credit risk," he said.

It's another idea lifted from the cellphone industry. If you stop paying your phone bill, companies shut off your service, because it's not worth repossessing the device.

Microsoft already provides similar locks and keys to music companies. The Urge music service it launched with MTV last week offers subscriptions to download music, but access to the music is shut off if you stop paying $10 a month.

I understand the business reasons and I'm all for more affordable technology. But using computers is spooky enough nowadays, without Microsoft adding the power to remotely turn them on and off.

Brier Dudley's column appears Mondays. He also writes a blog at seattletimes.com/brierdudleysblog. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.