Microsoft cuts price of Vista in China
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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August 3rd, 2007
[...] 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, … …more [...]