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Microsoft Raises UK Cloud, Software Prices 22% After Brexit-Fuelled Pound Drop (techweekeurope.co.uk)
Reader Mickeycaskill writes: Microsoft is to substantially increase its prices for software and cloud services prices offered in British pounds in order to accommodate the sharp drop in the currency against the US dollar in recent weeks. Beginning in January 2017 on-premises enterprise software prices will go up by 13 percent and most enterprise cloud prices will increase by 22 percent, bringing them into line with euro prices. Microsoft said it isn't planning to change its prices for consumer software and cloud services. The value of the pound has fallen by about 18 percent since the EU referendum on 23 June.
Apparently these things happen even with much larger volume fiat currencies as well.
That will sure punish the Brits for wanting to preserve their own sovereignty. Any indication that you resist the New World Order must be punished. It would serve them right if they moved to Linux and open source solutions wherever they could and ended up paying Microsoft a lot less rather than a lot more.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You stupid USians don't know what's going to hit you when Microsoft finds out that you illegally broke away from the EU 240 years ago!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
All they're doing is following the exchange rate for the British pound.
But then when the money gains back value, the prices don't drop
It is the British pound that lost value.
Notice how companies are quick to raise prices, but are very slow to reduce the prices when currency is strong (hint: Switzerland).
Not all is negative in this: UK may consider switching to OS software in the long term.
Every time a brexiter in denial with "oh they're just using brexit as an excuse".
No, you dumb bastard - if the GBP is worth 20% less then business either have to absorb a ~20% loss or increase prices. There's no conspiracy here. There's no clever accounting being hidden you by MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIES to make it look like the GBP has not seriously lost value when actually it hasn't. The fact is that the currency is no so useful atm. Just as investment in the UK in general is now not so attractive, not least because of a huge amount of uncertainty that investors hate - all that's really worth doing is buying chunks of UK business on the cheap, like our loss of our best technology asset, ARM.
It might be worth doing in the consumer sector because 1) they're facing serious competition atm 2) it's a smaller market anyway. But other business can't do this. They either run on much smaller margins, or they don't have huge reserves to release the pain more slowly. Sure, Carney has been making excellent use of public money to buffer things for now - his was the "emergency budget" that took place entirely within the executive sphere - but eventually he is going to run out of other people's money, to quote the old bat, and QE would just devalue the pound further.
I run a small business, but I'm already way worse off because everything I import costs a fuck-ton more and I can't afford to just bump prices up accordingly when my larger competitors already have huge warehouses of stock and have the power of scale to have negotiated pricing agreements. All the OMG RED TAPE that supposedly comes from Brussels is a myth, and what few anti-small-business legislation exists is hardly likely to be removed by the prevent government, whose ear is deaf to all but the largest enterprises.
Brexit is mostly a democratic expression of xenophobia that, because of no minimum turnout requirements, means the majority has to suffer heavily thanks to a third of the country being thick.
Mind you, I could be way worse off. Those northern working class voters who thought this would be to their advantage are going to be in for a hell of a ride.
Where is this free Linux cloud service where I can stand up entire enterprise architectures and applications securely
You can stop your rant right there. If you want security and to be sure your data and operations will continue predictably, don't use a cloud service at all. Why does it make sense to entrust your crown jewels to a bunch of complete strangers, who use computers you know nothing about in a place that you don't even necessarily know, if you can't run them yourself? Besides, as you know full well, it is FOSS software that is (mostly) free of charge. No one has ever pretended that the necessary hardware and services came free - to do so would be ridiculous. But if you really want to run your software on someone else's equipment, why not go to AWS? Then you'll be using tried and tested FOSS, professionally operated for you. (Although I would never entrust really vital data to any remote service; basic risk analysis will show you why).
25 years ago I was warning people about the perils of what has come to be known as "hacking", and most of them were completely unaware and unprepared. I told them that the problem had barely even started yet, and wouldn't until serious professional criminals and state actors became aware of the potential and began to exploit it.
That would be about now, and those who entrust their IT to "the cloud" are simply meeting the black hats half way. They may very well get away with for a long time - just as people get away with leaving their houses unlocked, their windows open, and their cars unlocked with the keys in. But it isn't smart.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Okay, your imports cost more, so you should buy British stuff to have it cost the same. As an added bonus, your product will be cheaper than imports, making you more competitive......
I don't know, calling this "brexit" when it's not even happening is ridiculous. The are a couple of issues here. One, the pound has been overvalued for quite a while now, the uncertainty brought about recently has only sought to restore the pound to a more accurate valuation (although some economists feel that the valuation is higher than it should be still).
Unfortunately, the issue with uncertainty isn't brexit, but the result of politicians that aren't actually acting. The government is not doing a good job at showing certainty, article 50 hasn't even been executed by our government, so we and everyone else don't even know if we're even really leaving the EU or not. Brexit is simply leaving the EU and there is no progress since the elections, we're just stuck in limbo while politicians do anything but act. At this point, our politicians need to either start acting and declare we're staying in the EU or leaving, otherwise we're just going to ruin ourselves by staying in this stupid limbo.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I must add that this is an excellent point. Despite higher costs for imported raw materials, the drop in Sterling is working wonders for the UK manufacturing sector. Politicians on the left and right have argued and clamoured for a "rebalancing of the economy", i.e. boosting manufacturing; now they have it. Don't believe me? Read the UK's latest PMI report (https://www.markiteconomics.com/Survey/PressRelease.mvc/f55855e5e87b4e9dadc0e3cbea1c285f). To quote: "The weak sterling exchange rate remained the prime growth engine, driving higher new orders from Asia, Europe, the USA and a number of emerging markets."
Besides, those of us who read the financial press (as I do) will be well aware the central banks have long complained of needing a currency devaluation and a bit more inflation to help western economies. Britain has, quite inadvertently, achieved precisely this.
Rule Britannia? :-)
When Britain joined the EU there were a few "bumps" along the way. A few sacrifices had to be made (e.g. good paying manufacturing jobs), and some "economic realignment" had to occur. The same is true of Brexit. But overall it makes Britain a more affordable destination for labor an manufacturing. Just wait, the leisure industry will also boom.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Oh stop with the Project Fear (TM) already. Just be more positive.
Have you forgotten the IMF ballout, the Winter of Discontent and later Maggie going begging for a rebate because Britain was the "sick man of Europe"? We were shagged before we joined the EEC, and I hope leaving it's successor doesn't take us back to those dark days.
Talking of this recent event bringing back manufacturing jobs is bullshit that some politicians -- especially on the left -- like to peddle, but in fact if manufacturing comes back it will more likely be automated. Anyway, this depreciation doesnt allow us to compete with China's labour costs, or any of its competitors now that it is getting too expensive. When the pound dropped after the 2008 financial crises, the relative side of our trade gap didn't shrink... it's not price that's preventing people buying our products.
If half the international banking industry leaves then we'll end up with a gap in governement finances that will cause them to make cuts more painful than anything George Osbourne did in the last six years, I can guarantee that a boom in exports won't cover this difference. And as the economy contracts the size of the interest payments on the goverment's debts will become the fifth biggest expense... finance industry wins again.
Those predictions are certainly consistent with what the more informed people I know have been saying. In the short term, it seems almost certain that the UK economy will drop significantly in GDP terms. It's possible that this effect will continue for several years, depending on what if any post-Brexit deal with the EU gets worked out. But the worst of the doom-and-gloom predictions probably aren't realistic, because there are also areas such as those we were discussing before where the EU has been a negative influence even if it's a net benefit overall, and there are some effects like the devaluation of Sterling that may provide some cushioning effect for the economy.
In the longer term, it seems the jury's out. The UK already trades more with non-EU partners than EU ones, and trade with non-EU partners is growing faster so the gap has been widening. It will surely widen even faster in future if the remaining EU leaders follow through on their scorched earth rhetoric, though at some point it's likely that the adults will step in and prevent that. Meanwhile, the EU has serious economic problems of its own still bubbling under the surface, particularly within the Eurozone. As we've been seeing with TTIP and CETA, claims that the EU is somehow better placed to negotiate new trade deals with foreign partners than an independent UK may be exaggerated. And if the coming elections in places like France and Germany go in favour of eurosceptic/nationalist parties, which is certainly a possibility at the moment, the EU may not exist in its current form within a few years anyway.
For any of these factors to mean Brexit leaves the UK economically better off, it seems we're talking about 5-10 years at a minimum, though, unless something catastrophic happens within the EU sooner than that. And even a decade from now, if events turn the other way with the EU stabilising but wider global trade suffering for some reason, maybe Brexit will prove to be unhelpful economically even in the longer term. In reality, I doubt anyone has enough information and foresight to make useful predictions that far out.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
You fail to understand Brexiter logic. By suggesting that it is not unquestionably and undeniably certain that the UK will be the best country in the world for leaving the EU you have outed yourself as a remainer. For them, saying "nobody can know what will happen" == "worst doom and gloom prediction".
Your position is that none of the shit that goes down over the next 5-10 years is due to Brexit? LOL.
Of coruse not. It's the immigrants fault. And Brussles (though Belgian immigrants get little if any blame). If anything bad happens after Brexit it's because we didn't Brexit hard enough.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
We haven't seen the shrinkage really get going yet. Next month when Nissan announces that it will be running down Sunderland and moving new production elsewhere will be the first major causality, followed by various banks. The short term boost from the weak Pound won't help when the stuff simply isn't being made here any more.
Don't forget though that rising inflation counters a lot of that growth. Unless wages are going to start rising much faster than they have been, what little growth there is will only help the wealthy.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Okay, your imports cost more, so you should buy British stuff to have it cost the same. As an added bonus, your product will be cheaper than imports, making you more competitive......
Erm, you should have just wrote "I know nothing about economics" because that is effectively what you said.
This is my second favourite incorrect argument.
It is incorrect because new industries do not spring up just because things become more expensive due to the logistics and economies of scale. When you invest in new infrastructure you need a reasonable expectation you will get a return on your investment, selling low margin/high volume items exclusively to an impoverished nation is not conducive to an acceptable ROI.
Secondly, you wont be able to make most things cheaper than you can import them for because you have to pay for raw materials. If you want to build nails in the UK, you need to import the steel. An entire steel working ecosystem is not going to spring up to support a few nail manufacturers.
Thirdly, the UK is an advanced nation with high wages, wages will need to increase to maintain the same quality of life. Likely scenario is that the quality of life drops a little whilst wages increase a little. This means higher costs for manufacturing. As the UK is one of the worlds most advanced nations, we cant sell the widgets we make to other, richer countries because there aren't any, so any widgets made in the UK need to be affordable to the people who make them (Paging Henry Ford, Mr Ford to the white courtesy phone please). If it is not feasible to build your widgets in good economic times in the UK, it sure as shit is not feasible to do it in bad economic times.
So no new industries are going to pop up, things we import will become more expensive whilst fewer people will buy what we export because we've made an enemy of our largest trading partner... Just look at what is happening to Russia. It could be as bad as Russia because we haven't got eastern Europe by the short and curlies with out gas.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.