Microsoft is taking on the pirates in China by reducing the prices of Vista Basic and Vista Premium, it is the company’s hope that people will buy legitimate copies instead of buying them off the street.

At the beginning of this month, Microsoft announced new prices for those versions of Vista in the Chinese market.  Vista Basic now costs $66 at retail and Home Premium now costs $119.  At this point it should be noted that an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium runs right around $110 to $120 in the US, retail is just packaging and extra support so to me, it’s the same thing.

The company said in a statement that this will allow more Chinese customers to “enjoy the legal version of Windows Vista.”  Piracy runs rampant in China but the $66 and $119 price tags might not do to help much because a pirated version of Vista Ultimate can be had for $5 or less on the street.

International Data Corp. estimates that 82% of the software being used in China is pirated.  Computer makers operating in China are now bound by law to preinstall legal copies of any software the user has ordered but they are more than happy to pass that cost on to the customer.  Nonetheless, it has reduced occurrences of piracy.

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Related:

Vista does not go over well in China, blame the pirates

Microsoft says Vista "sold well" in China

Microsoft drops Vista price to entice hesitant consumers

Windows Vista on Lenovo PCs to support 2008 Olympics

Handheld Vista PC plummets in price

Entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 4:02 am under Microsoft, Vista.  Print This Post

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