PC Dealers Demand To Lower Windows 98 Price

A movement among Korean PC dealers demanding that the sales price of the Korean version of Microsoft's Windows 98 be reduced is gaining momentum. About 1,000 shopowners at Seoul's Yongsan electronics shopping distict staged a rally Wednesday against the de facto market monopoly of Microsoft, protesting that the local price of the 'Hangul Windows 98' is enormously high considering the Korean market situation. A spokesperson for the demonstrators claimed that the sticker price of the MS software would have to be lowered down to the level of W70,000 - 80,000 a unit if the local PC industry was to show any recovery. The retail price of 'Windows 98'currently costs more than W100,000.

(Hwang Soon-hyon, icarus@chosun.com)