MS will have lots of competition. Dell sells PCs in the $400 range, you can get a basic machine with Linux and OO for about $250. And there are plenty of places in India selling basic machines with pirated Windows and Office for under $300. With monitor, keyboard and mouse. MS will be trying to sell licensed software into an environment where copying software is considered "acceptable" by vendors trying to make sales.

I thought AMD dropped the PIC.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/11/one_billion_pcs_in_2008/

Microsoft seems to be targeting a very very easy goal if they want a billion PCs by 2015

Back to the drawing board , given the variables , the extremely erratic power supply , the chaotic internal communication systems , the extremes in income with a very large percentage of the population barely earning enough to survive on less than $2-00 per day , the one laptop per child makes far more sense logically and cost effective wise!(the notional average annual income per person for this country is so small that even the CIA World Fact Book does not list it)

Someone at M$ is trying to sell an overpriced product , into a market system in which piracy , tax avoidance , copycat manufacturing and outright unlicensed clone duplication is the main mantra ! Still ignoring the far wealthier Chinese market north of the border could be a fatal mistake?

So does that mean the paying customer in the so called developed nations be billed and extra $100 per new legitimate OS license to subsidize this foolhardy venture?

That's how it would be headlined in India.