According to a report in the Financial Times recently, Microsoft intends to cut the price of its software and development tools in China, at the same time offering alternative editions, a move that is seen to be reflecting the impact of piracy and Linux on the company's business here.

It is hoped that this move on Microsoft's part will win over independent software developers in the region.

Colin Png, Microsoft's director for Asia and greater China, is quoted in the paper as saying that Microsoft plans to "almost give away" its main development tool–Visualstudio.NET–to software development students. Trial kits of the same tool will also be developed.

"It's useless for us to talk about our technology when nobody can get a hold of it," Png was quoted as saying. "We want to make some of these software editions (in development tools) more accessible." Microsoft will start offering editions of Visualstudio.NET, its main development tool, at lower prices to developers in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand in the next two to three months.