 |
• March 7, 2008 •
At the end of February Microsoft announced it intends to cut the price of retail versions of Windows Vista when the OS will start shipping with the Service Pack 1 update (probably around June/July).
In the U.S., Microsoft is cutting prices only on the upgrade versions of the higher-end versions of Vista. The suggested price for Vista Ultimate drops to $219 from $299, while Home Premium falls to $129, from $159.
Other developed markets will also see price cuts, ranging from three percent in some cases to nearly fifty percent in others. In some emerging markets Microsoft is also eliminating the distinction between full and upgrade versions of Home Basic and Home Premium.
Brad Brooks, a corporate vice president for Windows marketing at Microsoft, said in an interview that Microsoft tested lower prices and "was surprised to find that the amount of revenue lost was more than made up for by an increase in the number of PC buyers willing to shell out for an upgrade."
Personally I believe this won't have a lot of affect. In the first place, retail versions of Windows have always amounted to less than 5 percent of all Windows licenses sold, so it's unclear how this change will make much of a difference to consumers or Microsoft. Secondly, users have smartened up over the years, and upgrading Windows is done even less then in the past. Most users will acquire their next Windows with a new PC purchase. And the announced price cuts certainly don't affect the price of the versions of Windows bundled with new PCs.
