In a patent application that Microsoft Corp. filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, it has applied for a patent on its "Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience" scheme.

Under the concept, software use and access to specific computer hardware would be measured - and the fees would be charged for the software run as well as the computing horsepower used, against the user's billed or prepaid account.

Underlying a method of operating a computer, the application would offer a directory of options to the user, along with the price of each option - the total cost would be dependent on the selected number of options and their category - which could be an hourly rate, a onetime charge, or a fixed rate for a specific time period.

Both the hardware components - processors, memory and graphics controller, as well as software and services - e-mail, word processing, database access, and Web browsing, etc - would be rentable. As such, the business model will require a modified computer, with a metering agent for keeping track of usage and a security module to prevent rigging.

The flexibility in approach of the new model is evident, as it is an alternative to buying a computer and software that may not be consistent with a person's needs for a specific the duration of the system.

The application says that under the 'pay-as-you-go model', "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."