Microsoft to begin selling products online

Microsoft will open a trial version of an online store (code-named "NITRO")in April, and plans to be offering a full-featured online commerce site byAugust. NITRO, which stands for "New Interactive Technology for ResellersOnline", will allow customers to buy any Microsoft product online; it willalso place a "Buy Now" button on any Web page that features one of theirproducts.

"Anyplace in microsoft.com where there are products talked about, therewill be a buy now button," said Neil Farnsworth, the general manager ofbusiness development for the end-user customer unit of Microsoft "When acustomer clicks on a buy now button, they will be taken to a Commerce[Server] 3.0 shopping cart."

Microsoft is being careful about its relationship with resellers, however.Every time someone purchases a product at the Microsoft store online, theywill be shown a list of other places to buy it for less.

"Bill [Gates] has said many times that he would not want to do whatresellers do for any price," Farnsworth said. "Distribution of software isone thing that we are not good at. Right now, we're getting 1.5 millionpeople a day coming through our site and we have no idea who they are andno idea if they are buying our products, and that's a problem for us andour resellers.