Microsoft Corp chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said demand for computer software would probably be hurt by the US financial crisis.
Given the amount of software that US corporations buy, “it would be reasonable to expect there will be consequences,” Ballmer, who runs the world’s largest software maker, said in an interview before a speech in Bellevue, Washington, on Wednesday. “Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen.”
Software is among industries that may see slower spending as the US faces “grave threats” to its financial stability, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday. Companies may have to respond with caution, Ballmer said.
“It would be really imprudent for anybody to not have that in mind,” Ballmer said.
Microsoft, which in July raised investor concerns by announcing spending increases, will probably use the weaker economy as a chance to “invest more in our future than the other guys we’re competing with,” Ballmer said.
Separately, Microsoft, which trails Nintendo Co and Sony Corp in video-game console sales, cut prices of its Xbox 360 machines in four Asian markets.
Prices of the console in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan will be lowered on Oct. 1, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The cheapest machine, which doesn’t have a hard-disk drive, will sell for NT$6,980, down 27 percent, in Taiwan, the statement said. Prices of game consoles in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore will fall 15 percent to 23 percent.
Microsoft this month cut Xbox 360 prices as much as 29 percent in the US and Japan, allowing the company to offer a model that’s cheaper than Nintendo’s best-selling Wii console for the first time. Sales of the Xbox 360 doubled in the first weekend after the price cuts.
“With the price drop in Asia, we think we’re going to make the Xbox much more accessible to a broader audience,” Alan Bowman, general manager for Microsoft’s entertainment and devices in Asia Pacific and Greater China, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Sydney yesterday.
Nintendo will probably sell 26 million Wii consoles worldwide in the year ending March 31, compared with the 5.5 million Xbox 360 machines, July estimates by Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd indicated.
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