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Microsoft Cuts Vista Price To $66 In China
narramissic writes "Microsoft this week cut the retail price of Windows Vista Home Basic in China by 67% — from 1,521 renminbi to 499 renminbi ($65.80). This is a steep discount compared to what users in the US and elsewhere are charged for the software. The reason for the price reduction? Battling piracy, of course. The new pricing 'narrows the price gap between original versions of Microsoft's software and pirated copies,' making it that much easier for consumers to 'do the right thing.'"
IT's silly, why pay $66 bucks for a copy of watered down Dista when you can steal Ultimate? I mean, if you are in a country that has no IP enforcment, why not just steal the best one?
This is my sig.
Does this mean we need more piracy in the US to bring the price down?
So what is that, like 2 months of a person's income there?
Reduce it to two or three day's income like it is here for the average person. Then you'll hit the point where they can afford it instead of stealing it.
The piracy of one is a tragedy. The piracy of millions is a discount.
MS does it in China; yet here in the western world, the software companies use piracy as an excuse to need to raise prices. (To recoup alleged losses from e-shrink)
Depending on where you go for the data, that's still 1/2 to a full month's wages.
I'm very interested to discover how that price decrease decision was made. e.g. was it just not selling? Did the government "recommend" it?
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I hate to say it, but,... even "pirated Windows Vista" is still "Windows Vista",... you're better off sticking with Windows XP, ... or MacOS X ... or Linux.
I read a very interesting article on Microsoft's policies in China in the latest Fortune magazine. They were talking about how for years Microsoft would try to battle piracy in China, and realized it was a losing battle, so they gave up. Instead, they opened up research institutes and kissed the ass of the government. This made the government more apt to enforce IP policy, and MSFT had a big hand in dictating it.
I remember reading that Windows + Office was about $3 US to students. In fact, in China, pirated Windows is often less expensive than Linux because Linux has more cds, which increases the cost dramatically.
Also interesting was when the interviewer asked Gates about China's policy on suppressing free speech, and Bill Gates had an internal BSOD and basically froze. After an uncomfortable period of time, the interviewer said "That's quite a pregnant pause" and Gates said "I don't think I want to answer that question."
The great thing about capitalism is that CEOs like Bill Gates who wants to make hand-over-fist in terms of money, doesn't have to give a rat's ass about basic human rights, he can choose to hide behind his business like a coward. Craig Mundie's answer was "I don't think that is my area of expertise." Cowards.
So are we saying there is a good side to piracy? Shocking!! You mean the music industry could have just reduced their prices to compete with piracy instead of sueing every single person?
Maybe the money saved isn't enough for vista basic users to learn Chinese?
Just a thought.
The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.
Average income in Beijing is 15,600 RMB (chinese dollar) per year. That's 1300 RMB per month. With Vista at 500 RMB that's a good chunk of change. Even Beijing residents with a University degree only averaged 3,000 RMB per month.
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In the US, average income is $36,000 per year. Or $3,000 per month. Vista would have to cost ovder $1,100 to take up as great of a part of our income.
Note that the original price (1500 RMB) was more than one months salary for the average employee in Beijing.
If Vista cost us $1,100 I can guarantee it would be pirated to a much greater degree.
http://ask.yahoo.com/20040518.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/
that's why i pirate linux.
Are we sending Windows to China in retaliation for the lead-paint and poisonous pet food that China is shipping to us?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Perhaps because in China, stealing is still treated as a serious crime, and is often (I think) enforced quite heavily. A better course of action for people in China would be to infringe on the copyright, which is not seriously enforced.
Unless, of course, you've fallen into the semantics of the stop-copyright-infringement lobby groups, who would love it if everyone saw the complicated artificial legal definition of copyright infringement as being equivalent to horrible crime of stealing. In that case, yes, they should steal the best one.