Microsoft Said To Cut Windows Price 70% For Low Cost Devices

kc123 writes with this except from Bloomberg News: "Microsoft is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers and tablets as they try to fend off cheaper rivals like Google's Chromebooks, people familiar with the program said. Manufacturers will be charged $15 to license Windows 8.1 and preinstall it on devices that retail for less than $250, instead of the usual fee of $50. The discount will apply to any products that meet the price limit, with no restrictions on the size or type of device."

Comments

At last

[MCROnline]

Now all we need is Windows retail to be a more realistic price too.

Re:At last

[binarylarry]

If someone from Microsoft is reading this, I personally don't think I pay enough.

I think the basic ad supported version of Windows 8 should start at $999 at least and go up from there for the more powerful versions.

I always feel guilt buying copies of Windows because I know how much I'm ripping Microsoft off.

Whoop-de-do!

[hughbar]

If they pay me $15, I'll take a copy. Don't want it on any device I own or use though...

Re:Whoop-de-do!

[geekster99]

No it's not the only difference. How about:

1) You can't add an administrative user without using the metro user app to create the user and follow up by switching to the desktop app to promote the user to administrator. How stupid is that?

2) No more safe mode with F8. What happens when Microsoft Windows update installs a fscked up video driver (like it did to one of the machines I worked on) and it no longer boots with video? 8.x has to boot to working WINDOWS to force a reboot into safe mode. How stupid is that? I guess we'll never need to go to safe mode unless Windows is working properly. Sheesh

3) That God awful abortion of "fast shutdown and startup." Good luck getting rid of root kits and virii if you don't know the tricks to get Windows to actually reboot the system.

4) Windows 8.x shills and apologists always point out that installing "classic shell" or "start8" makes it usable. Why in God's name should an end user be forced to install third party software to repair the functionality intentionally gutted by Microsoft? The last Lenovo I worked on came with a replacement start menu app preinstalled. Of course, the Windows 8.1 update removed it. Which is 8.x? A half-ass desktop OS or a half-ass tablet OS?

I could go on, but you get the picture. Windows 8.x's user interface and user experience are a piece of shit. I don't care if it plays games or copies files faster. I wouldn't pay for it if it was $15. I wouldn't use it if it was free. Every time I am handed a 8.x machine, I think there is no way it could suck more than I have already seen. Every single time, it proves me wrong.

Good-bye middle tier

[SuperKendall]

One unwanted side effect I can see coming from this, is that most Windows devices will become either very cheap (to meet the price guideline) or very expensive. If you build a device costing $500, the cheaper devices are not going to be that much lower in spec than you because they didn't have to eat a more expensive Windows license.

When I read this story, I was excited because I thought it meant cheaper Windows for home users. I wouldn't mind running Windows 8 in Parallels on my mac, or even dual boot to it to play games. But the price for consumers is just too high for me to do that. They could get a lot of casual Windows sales and remain relevant but for some reason, they just don't seem interested in doing so.

Microsoft, the former leader

[surfdaddy]

They sat on their laurels too long under Ballmer and watched the market expand while they sat on the sidelines. They laughed at the iPhone when it first came out. Rather than putting Office on the iPad, they held it hostage to "protect" Windows. Five plus years later, they may finally do it. How much revenue did they give up there?

They chased Google with Bing. They've chased Apple with the Zune, their music store, and their Windows Phone. They put the name Windows on everything - their cloud, their phone, their ARM tablet, and their regular PC OS, even though all those products are different. They are a MESS. Good luck to Satya - he will need it.

better headlines...

[Gravis Zero]

Microsoft Becoming Desperate to Sell Window 8.1
Microsoft Losing Badly in Tablet Market
Chromebooks Out of Microsoft's Extortionary Reach
Microsoft Discovers Battery Life Is Very Important On Tablets
Microsoft Is Getting "Scroogled"
Microsoft Just Got the Facts

Google top honchos are strategic masters

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I can only marvel at Google at its strategic moves. Sun tried to fight Microsoft with Java and got clobbered. Google rightly realized as long as MSOffice is delivering cash like a firehose, it would be impossible to fight it. It went on a long term plan with bare mininal Google Docs, then with Google apps to pinch the money supply. It leveraged the connectivity by making collaboration front and center of office tools. Microsoft did not reduce price fast enough, or introduce network features fast enough. They were resting in laurels and now MsOffice monopoly does not look as monolithic as it did when we were discussing the ODF vs OOXML fights.

It participated in the spectrum auction and made the telcos pay near market rates. It bought dark strands of the fiber network after the market crash to protect itself from local last mile ISPs from holding it for ransom.

It talked to WhatsApp, made an offer of 10 billion with lots of poison pills. It set the floor at 10 billion, leaving all the smaller players aside. It knew Facebook was despo and will buy WhatsApp, but it boosted the price and made Facebook pay dearlym 35% of cash on hand!. Please disregard the 19 billion dollar figure. That is based on overpriced FB stock price. That Facebook will be strapped for money in the coming year for other aquisitions is the key victory for Google.

WhatsApp's 450 million users includes millions who create new accounts every year when their old free for the first year accounts expire. Those users are penny, nay, paisa pinchers who use WhatsApp to avoid international texting charges between India and the Gulf countries and Singapore. They use WhatsApp to broadcast their texts to N recipients paying 1 outgoing text charge. In India incoming calls and texts must be free by law. Only the sender pays. 2 dollar per user? You can't chisel 2 rupees out of them. Anyway WhatsApp has no advantage when it comes to smartphones. Its explosive growth was due to it being the portal to the intenet for dumb phones via SMS. That market is done.

Unorganized linux tried to scare Microsoft with netbooks. Microsoft hit back and evenutally killed the netbooks market, though it had to extend XP's life to do so. But Google resurrected the netbooks markets, and is forcing Microsoft to engage in price war again. Given the drop dead simplicity of the Chromebook, and low cost by eschewing the bells and whistles of the tablet market, it is very difficult to see anyone make any serious money off them. But it hampers the others from raising their profit margins.

Google plays the strategic game stupendously well.

Did the same thing with Netbooks

[rahvin112]

They did the same with netbooks. Discounted to $15, then used the $15 price to force the OEM to reduce the specs. Once they got the specs to the point of garbage and sales started to drop off they raised the price a bit, rinse and repeat until the entire market is gone. That's what happened to netbooks, incredibly popular until MS deliberately destroyed the hardware requirements so that no on wanted them anymore. Everyone that bought a netbook and hated it? That was Microsoft ensuring they were underpowered pieces of garbage.

The best tricks are the old tricks.