Microsoft Patent Envisions Free Computing

Dotnaught writes "A Microsoft patent application published on Thursday shows the company contemplating free computers and software for its customers. It suggests 'a service provider such as a telephone company, an Internet service provider, or a leasing company may provide computer systems or components to users at a reduced charge or for free in exchange for targeted advertising delivery.'"

Re:Prior Art

[Anonymous Coward]

And the I-opener was subsidized in a similar manner.. That was a wonderful success.

I say go ahead MS, give us free machines to install Linux on..... Hee Hee

Not so fast...

[rackhamh]

Every time a patent is mentioned on Slashdot, the same misunderstandings crop up over and over and over...

1. This is not a PATENT. It's a patent application PUBLICATION... which means the application has filed, but hasn't been examined yet (and probably won't be for about 2 more years).
2. Just because a patent is filed doesn't mean it will be granted.
3. The substance of the patent is in the claims. This is what Microsoft thinks (or wants the USPTO to think) is patentably novel. Specifically, what they're claiming is:

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable modules for execution on a client computer in association with advertising delivery comprising:
an opt-in module, comprising support for selecting an advertising delivery mode;
a user profiling module for collecting user profile data;
and an advertising delivery module for presenting a targeted advertisement corresponding to information in the user profile data according to the selected advertising delivery mode.

This is what the USPTO will be looking at when they do their prior art search.

Doesn't anyone read the newspaper?

[swordgeek]

How much did your Sunday paper cost you? Maybe a buck, these days. It probably cost the publisher about $3 to print it, factoring in all of the news gathering and publishing costs. However, they also sold about $5/paper in ads, so they're making a net profit.

Advertising is the primary revenue generator for information content providers. TVs, websites, newspapers, radio, and now computers. The only real difference is that once you get the computer, you have the computer and can theoretically do what you want. Of course, you could do that with a newspaper as well, by ripping the ads out.

I think they know that already...

[Browzer]

[0004] Other prior art service providers, such as Internet service providers and e-mail providers, have offered free or reduced charge services when users are willing to accept advertising in a portion of the window space allocated to the process supporting that service. Advertising delivery was restricted to the time when a user was connected to the particular service and only on display elements, such as a browser window, associated with that service.

Re:They tried this already

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

by nine-times (778537) <[e-mail]>

Actually, I like everything about this idea except for the words "targeted" and "advertising".

I can't stand the irony here. Gmail wouldn't exist if it weren't for targeted advertising.