Pay Per View PCs?

CNet has been reporting on a recent patent by Microsoft. This patent relates to a metered, pay-as-you-go computing experience.

According to Microsoft this would be "a computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected."

So, you would (presumably on a monthly basis), for example, pay less to use your PC as a browser, and a premium to run Office applications, games or whatever. You could also pay extra to make your PC run at a higher speed for your applications.

"When the need is browsing, a low level of performance may be used and, when network-based interactive gaming is the need of the moment, the highest available performance may be made available to the user," says Microsoft. "The user only pays for the performance level of the moment, the user may see no reason to not acquire a device with a high degree of functionality, in terms of both hardware and software, and experiment with a usage level that suits different performance requirements."

The upside is that the PC would be available for little or no cost because "the metering agents and specific elements of the security module...allow an underwriter in the supply chain to confidently supply a computer at little or no upfront cost to a user or business, aware that their investment is protected and that the scalable performance capabilities generate revenue commensurate with actual performance level settings and usage."

Downsides? Well, how about this. You would be totally tied to a single company at the point that you acquired one of these PCs. You wouldn't own your computer or software any more, you'd merely rent it. Linux (or BSD, Solaris or any other alternative) would be out of the question. Open Source software could effectively be unable to run on such a device, depending on how closed the system is.

According to the document, the actual cost to the consumer over the lifetime of the device would much likely be higher than the current model.

So, let me get this straight. I get to rent a deliberately crippled PC, pay more to make it run at it's higher speeds, am likely to be tied to a single company (ie. Microsoft) and I never get to actually own anything at the end of it. Oh yes, and it costs me more.

Welcome to Microsoft's vision of the future. Please empty your wallet on the way out.