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Microsoft Officially Announces Anti-Virus Product

Posted by Zonk on from the another-product-all-grown-up dept.

Harry Maugans writes "Microsoft has officially announced their entrance into the anti-virus market. By combining anti-virus scans, anti-spyware scans, and firewall protection into a single package, Microsoft thinks they've created something fresh. So fresh they're charging an annual fee of $49.99 per year." From the article: "Microsoft's Windows OneCare Live program will be launched in June and made available online and via retailers for an annual fee of $49.95 on up to three machines. Customers who beta test Windows OneCare Live between April 1 and April 30 get to take advantage of a special $19.95 promotional price. Microsoft's pricing means Windows OneCare subscribers are likely to pay less up front than if they bought traditional anti-virus software like Symantec, for example, whose Norton AntiVirus 2006 protection pack for three PCs lists at $89.99."

7 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Big deal by tbone1 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Call me cynical, but when their anti-virus software is based on DirectX, ...

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  2. Re:Extortion by Namronorman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No I don't think it's wrong for you to feel this way and I think more people would understand if you explained it in more simpler terms. You buy a piece of software, it's buggy, they'll fix their mistakes... but you have to pay for it. The idea of paying for other people's mistakes when they're aware of it and fully capable of fixing it for free just really steams me.

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  3. Old Auto Industry quote by db32 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I seem to remember that story (dunno if its simply urban legend or not) about Gates chastising the auto industry about how much farther computers have come in the previous years.

    Imagine if the auto industry followed the same logic here...Are you willing to pay an extra $50/year to make sure your cars manufacturer fixes any safety issues? I imagine there are some auto industry leaders kicking themselves for not making safety recalls a subscription based service.

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  4. Re:Cool by JonTurner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >>So now they sell you the problem and the fix!

    It's a "fix" in the sense of a drug addict getting a dose. Doesn't solve the underlying problems, but makes the pain go away for a short while.

  5. Re:Not a bargain by Prairiewest · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Symantec rebates make the annual upgrade cost of these products almost (if not exactly) $0.
    Really? Then you had better inform most of the non-techie users that I have met, because they seem to keep paying $49/yr for the latest version of Norton Antivirus or $79/yr for Norton Internet Security (something like that, anyway). Each of them have had at least one virus in the past, before they had Norton, so they are now all happy to pay their "virus tax" each year.

    Yes, I have seen some rebate offers for Symantec products in the past, but each of the rebates that I've seen only applies to users who are migrating from a different vendor's package (from McAfee to Norton, for example). And the one rebate that I did help one of them send in got rejected for some trivial reason and the re-submission was rejected because it came in past the deadline (of course it did - they took too long to let my friend know that his first submission wasn't perfect). I know it's not related to AV in particular, but this whole rebate thing by the manufacturers is a sore point for me - I think it's a scam really, and many people do not get their rebate money.

    So considering Norton Internet Security at $79 per year versus Microsoft at $49 per year I think that $49 per year WILL be paid by many users, only because the price is actually cheaper compared to Norton Internet Security, and also because you won't have to send in any stupid rebates.

  6. Smart move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Bill Gates is a billionare because he made one simple, correct observation and acted on it. Before microsoft (how many here can rememebr that?) everyone who sold computer related products marketed them the "experts", peole who had formal training or years of experiance with computers. Gate's observation was that there are FAR more ignorent and un-informmed people then there are coputer experts in the world So why no sell to the larger grouop? Find a product they can use and sell it to them.



    This latest move, selling a subscription service to fix a broken operating system is another smart move. Most people as so uninformmed and ignorent that they don't see a problem here. Most users have zero experiance with non-Windows systems and don't see Windows as being "broken".

    If you ask me it's a bit of a comflict of interrest isn't it. The more effort they put into fixing Windows the fewer subscription they sell. I bet the fixes come out real fast now.

  7. Re:Extortion by pllewis · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Why is Microsoft considered evil when they introduce an anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall for a fee. This is purely a business decision to protect Microsoft from lawsuits.

    A similar reason you don't let baseball players bet on baseball. They can minipulate the outcome. You have to trust them not to taint the product to sell additional services. The only thing you can trust in business, is that business will do whatever they can to satisfy their shareholders(make money). If this goes through anti-trust, and people buy this service, this would probable replace Office and it's OS licensing as MS's single source of income revenue. But, on the lighter side, think of how much bigger a loss MS could take to sell XBOX360's!!! Sony could never compete then.