A recent Microsoft feedback platform shows there's huge demand for the company's services in Iran. But despitesanctions lifting on technology products being provided to the country, the company is still not providing basic features to Iranians.Users have voted over30,000 times for the suggestion, Please give the people of Iran to access the Microsoft Store. Thank you. Meanwhile,Tom Warren at The Verge pointed out that a plea to include the Persian calendar was among the most-requested features inaMicrosoft poll asking for feedback on theWindows 10operating system.
Some are attributingthis lack of support in Iranto US sanctions on the country, which generally prohibit trade.
But in May last year, theUS relaxed some of those sanctions, allowing US companies to sell mobile phones, software, and other communication technology to Iranians. The exemptions only affected individuals, not thegovernment, andIranian customers couldn't really buy the products themselves owing to otherfinancial sanctions.
As a result, some companies opened up their products to Iranians. As well as selling its Mac and iPhone rangeto customers planning on taking the devices to Iran, Applegranted Iraniansaccessto its App Store.
Google also joined in, and allowed Iraniansto download apps from its Google Play store that were free.Then in February 2014, more amendments were made, meaning that Iranians could actually purchase communications products and services.
MICROSOFT HAS FALLEN BEHIND ITS PEERS, EVEN IF ITS PEERS ARE BEING PRETTY CONSERVATIVE
But Microsoft has not followed suit.CollinAnderson, a researcher who campaigned against thetechnology sanctions on Iran,told me in a phone interview that this could be because of fear that such a move may land the companyin legal trouble.
Companies are very legitimately fearful of running foul of the sanction regimes, which are incredibly complex, and very dangerous if you run afoul of them, he said.
He added thatMicrosoft also doesn't offer a legal, off-the-shelf version of Windows, or Skype credit in Iran, though in the past ithas found a way to provide products to the Iranian market. Microsoft took steps to make Hotmail available, and a number of other things, such as Windows Updates, he said.
Overall, when it comes to introducing their services to Iran, Microsoft has fallen behind its peers, even if its peers are being pretty conservative, Anderson said.
He thinks that entering the Iranian market could pay off for Microsoft financially.The market in Iran is huge. This isn't some small country: this is nearly 80 million people, he pointed out. In the future, Iran may be a very advantageous place to go into for businesses.
There's certainly a big market for Windows inthe country. Over 90 percent of computers use a version of Microsoft Windows,according to Stat Counterthough it's likely given the circumstances thatmany of those are running pirated systems.
But this isn't about money for Anderson and other campaigners.He feels that private companiesare, in their own way, contributing to censorship in the country by not offering services that could help freethe flow of information. Now we have to push private companies, he said,and encourage them to actually act and not be censors of the Iranian public in the same way that the government is.
By Motherboard
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
