Microsoft Thailand is gearing up for a direct entrance to the Thai consumer market, with a plan to launch products and services to individual consumers, including xBox, Kinect, Internet services and an online market place.

The company expects that expansion out of its existing corporate markets and into the new consumer territory will lead it to double its growth rate in the next three years.

Microsoft Thailand's managing director Birathon Kasemsri na Ayudhaya said his company would follow the global direction of Microsoft Corporation, and expand its business footprint in Thailand to focus more on the consumer market, which was characterised by huge spending.

Under the plan, the company plans to bring its flagship consumer products like X-Box and Kinect, as well as potentially popular products like Windows Phone, to sell directly to Thai consumers. However, in order to successfully bring products and services to the consumer market, it needs to prepare infrastructure, including establishment of an online service platform and market place for Thais.

"Currently, there are about 100 local applications for Thai consumers, but there needs to be more such applications to serve a market place in Thailand," Birathon said.

He said Microsoft Thailand was being restructured, with plans to increase teams for consumer products. They will be recruited and transferred from existing business units, and all will be dedicated to exploring the consumer market.

Currently, the company has 200 staff in Thailand, overseeing its activities across various markets, including those for small- and medium-sized businesses, larger enterprises and the consumer market.

"Thailand is the only country that is being allowed to increase its number of staff, because the consumerisation trend in Thailand is very strong when compared to the other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The consumer market is a new ocean from which Microsoft will source revenue that will drive our revenue growth," he said.

Apart from gearing up for the consumer market, Microsoft Thailand will focus on working more closely with the government sector. It aims to support the country's competitiveness by offering the benefits of Microsoft's technology platforms, Birathon said.

"To make business growth sustainable in the long-term, Microsoft aims to assist the public sector - the ICT policy-maker - to direct and lead the country's development and competitiveness. If we benefit from the government's policies, we will be prepared to take this into consideration in terms of government licences for Microsoft's products," he said.

He said there were two main government schemes in which Microsoft was seeking a role, to assist their efficient execution. These were the 'free tablets for students scheme' and projects helping the country to prepare for competition in the coming Asean Economic Community.

Birathon said Microsoft's existing collaborative projects with the government would continue. There are also plans to expand and emphasise schemes involving Microsoft and the Labour and Education ministries.

"For the free tablet project, we would like to assist in creating the back-end and core system for helping to deliver the content, for example, cloud-computing infrastructure as well as content management," Birathon said.

"As far as preparing the country to enter the Asean Economic Community is concerned, the company can execute collaborative projects with the Labour Ministry the Education Ministry to develop skilled human resources."

Moreover, the company plans to develop local projects that align with global projects, in order to ease the budget burden on Thailand.

"Cloud is a crucial factor to assist Thailand to increase its competitiveness," Birathon said.