According to an agreement signed in the middle of July, 2005 Bi Line company became official distributor in Armenia of all products of Microsoft Corporation, the world software development leader. Bi Line Director General Artak Zakaryan reported the Microsoft plans to increase the sales volume at the Armenian market up to $1 million. The corporation further plans to open its special representation in Armenia. Microsoft intends to pursue a special price policy in Armenia. Specifically, own software is planned to be sold at “special” prices to schools, higher education institutions and other organizations, as well as to establish low prices for licensed software. Microsoft intends to prove to Armenian users in practice that licensed programs are in all respects more favorable than the “piratical” versions. The Corporation has already made its first step to open up the Armenian market: Microsoft has set about localization of its products. Bi Line reported best Armenian language specialists are involved in the making of Armenian versions of Microsoft products. However, to attain better results it was decided to translate computer terminology to Armenian in an interactive regime at www.mslip.bi-line.am. The dictionary of translated terms is already placed at the web resource. Having acquainted themselves with the dictionary everyone can add to it. The proposals will later be considered by experts to be used in localization. Speaking of the need of translation of Microsoft products into Armenian, A. Zakaryan noted the education system needs it first of all and its “computerization” is a priority task to the Armenian Government. “Many schoolchildren, for example, do not know English or Russian to an extent sufficient for learning to work on the computer in these languages.” Thus the Armenian language is indispensable in this case. Besides, Microsoft intends to actively participate in large-scale IT projects being implemented in Armenia, one of these being the forming of e-government in Armenia. “Here one cannot do without localization of software,” the Bi Line head remarked.
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