In the end, Microsoft’s best intentions may not satisfy what locals want. The company surveyed 8,000 people in emerging markets and found their most pressing needs for technology often revolved around entertainment and surfing the Internet.

“It reinforced for us that the emerging middle classes are sort of like the middle classes here except they don’t have as much money,” Mr. Toyama said. “It’s sometimes easy for us to get caught up in things and forget we are serving the needs of real people.”

The above comes from a story on Microsoft’s social research unit in Bangalore, an organization LIRNEasia has had many interactions with, and hopes to work with in the future as well.

We were under the impression that they did mostly qualitative research, and that we were the only people doing quantitative research in the region, but the story refers to an 8,000 person survey. Well, you learn something new everyday.