And what are we doing now ? :) The money has no real value ,its just a commonly accepted idea with exclusive right to print given out to banking industry.Aside the immortality serum anything is just a matter of money...

If so many people use their PC for web browsing only, absolutely anything that is more power efficient ,portable and cheap should find its market and not only in third world countries .I saw a movie on youtube showing Quake 3 being played (and rather smoothly) on Raspberry PI, so it's not that slow.

There are quite a of of nettops sold without anything but the 'box' and they still deserve to be called a PC.

oh no , I am not particularly concerned about situation of MS - I think NONE western company stands a chance of getting reasonable revenue in China.I do think however, only the large companies can change the general perception of piracy in this country, because only they have required resources (possibly :) ).

I agree with you with regards to a necessity of plan re-evaluation in China, I am sure however, most companies involved, do so constantly as this is just a standard business procedure and can't survive on competitive market without it . I can't agree, though, while we talk about piracy - this is an educational,cultural , public acceptance and expenditure priorities issue. There is very little effort focused on unlearning the bad habits. Some people will save money or look for cheaper equivalents or free alternatives rather, than just steal, whereas the others, will download it illegally ,if they just have the opportunity,are able to do so, and the risk of being caught is relatively low.

but india-mallonline exists :D

I stay in the UK and I would love to disagree with you...but being honest with myself, I just simply cannot.However, the real numbers may not be as important as it seems, and imho, it does not matter who ( whether the EU or the US ) is deeper in $hit since we both are :) . I am afraid, 'the hard reset' will have to come anyway...

There is no way to fight it without a proper law enforcement, widely spread education and healthy discussion about consequences of piracy to both sides of the barricade .Some opportunists will ALWAYS prefer to just steal, regardless how cheap the product is.

Yeah, but if someone is uninterested to pay anything ? Moreover, the 'mass' purchasing power in China is still weak ,so how they would manage to claw 'a healthy profits' in western meaning of the word ?