As you might recall, we learned last month that the cheapest Windows 7 flavor available worldwide will only support running three applications concurrently. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will target that release at netbooks—even though cheap little laptops should have no trouble running higher-end editions of the operating system. What's the idea there?

Apparently, Microsoft will intentionally limit the basic netbook release in order to get consumers to "trade up" to full-featured editions, thus raising average selling prices. Microsoft's CFO makes no apologies for the strategy

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16553