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Exchange Rates Spell High Prices for Windows 7 In the EU
CWmike writes "European customers will pay up to twice as much for Windows 7 compared with US users, even though the new operating system will ship without a browser in Europe. Some of the money Microsoft stands to make on the European editions of Windows 7 comes from the weak dollar. Last week, for instance, the dollar fell against the euro the most in a month, hitting $1.41 per euro. For example, Windows 7 Professional, the key retail edition for businesses, will sport a price tag of 285 euros, or $400.60, and £189.99, or $313.84, at Saturday's exchange rate. In other words, EU customers will pay twice the $199.99 U.S. price; U.K. buyers will pay 57% more. And depending on your view on bundling IE, Europe's customers will be paying more for less, with Microsoft's decision to yank IE8 from Windows 7 in an effort to head off EU antitrust regulators, who may still force the company to take more drastic measures."
In Australia, the price of Windows 7 is AU$200. The US equivalent is AU$60.
You do the math.
Yes, this is a big "f*** you" from Redmond.
AC
For some reason, pretty much everything in technology is assumed 1€=1$... at least ever since the dollar is weak. Poor Britons have it worse, because they often get 1£=1$
Try buying Apple hardware here... That hurts.... Smallest MacBook? 945€ In the US 999$ (which translates to 712€ at current rates)
Pretty much the entire rest of the world got fucked over with Vista pricing too.. Here's how Gates weasel'd out of it @1:08: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmd93lWbOsw
Im after downloading it for free and getting a legal key valid till 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx
surprised that microsoft are so "generous" lately
quite happy with it so far and (gasp!) will ensure my next laptop has win7 on it
It makes sense. They don't really lose anything as this is prior to you actually being able to buy it. Microsoft seem pretty confident that their new system is something to be proud of, so they get to show it off in the most ballsy way possible - by letting you actually have a copy and try it out for an entire year. The Vista criticism is now somewhat mitigated by people being able to get a copy of Windows 7 to install right now. Microsoft benefit from the "thousand eyes" testing principle of GNU/Linux. And when the time comes round that it is available to buy, you have an inducement in that its already installed and in use. There are also Advance Order deals available right now that let you buy it for half-price. Also, unlike the ridiculous number of different Vista versions there were, Windows 7 (ignoring server and mobile variants) comes in three flavours: Home, Professional and Ultimate which are easily differentiated by a short feature list of extras. Home Edition isn't the hamstrung version that it was with XP or Vista. It only lacks a couple of features that pros really would want, and Ultimate only adds things that really sound like the most exclusive features (e.g. the on and off-disk encryption utilities). So you aren't forced to buy some "deluxe" system just for basic features you'd expect.
I think Microsoft are being "generous" for very sound financial reasons. They reckon people will try this and actually want to buy it. I'm a Gentoo and Kubuntu user most of the time, but credit where its due.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
The EU as an entity has a yearly budget of around 140 billion Euros (~$200 billion) and that's not counting any of the individual states. I hardly think that a couple of hundred million from Microsoft is going to make such a huge impact financially that the EU is picking on them as a money-making exercise.
Indeed. Globalisation makes source material cheaper for companies and end-products more expensive for consumers
You are very wrong.
Photography stuff is even worse. It's not unknown to find a DSLR will be priced at:
$799 = £899 = â950
Or are MS suggesting that it costs that much to spell words like "colour" and "flavour" correctly and swap the primary definition for "Hood" and "Bonnet" around? ;-)
Actually MS has officially said "screw you" when it comes to a British English version of Windows. So you don't even get that for your extra £££.
except for the 50% of people who don 't qualify for the OEM/ education versions.
"Qualify"? You just go to a shop, buy an OEM/SBE Version and install it. Perfectly legal - in some (most?) EU-countries...
While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.
US IT companies have almost always just changed the $ sign to a £ sign when they sell software here in the UK and made noises about "localisation costs" and "compliance costs"
Just business as usual, screwing as much profit out of the consumer as possible.
A copyright holder can limit distribution of a work to regional markets, therefore it might be illegal to do so, but 5 years ago this worked flawlessly for a game that I ordered.
If the USD and the EUR were the same when the product was sold, and then the EUR goes down in price, I would agree with you.
But if the price according to the exchange rates at release differs %100, I believe it's a scam.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
Windows pricing is exactly opposite as you describe, so you just reinforced the original posters point.
I had tons of European customers always buying computer hardware. This was in Orlando, FL and they would go on vacation with their families and buy up everything because it was half the price it was in Europe.
Apple puts encryption on every desktop (not on by default, but nevertheless present). Why can't Microsoft?
The encrypting file system has been part of windows since windows 2000.
It's not perfect, but pretty good.
As a canadian I must unfortunately correct you in that Quebec is part of Canada not the US.
Wrong. It refers to the lid on the front of a car. Get a car geek (mechanic) to point this out for you next time :P
Note: I was 13 when I wrote most of this. Take with several grains of salt.