Dell’s XP ‘downgrade’ now $150
It’s hardly controversial to say many people think XP is better than Vista. Now Dell believes some of its customers will consider it $150 better.
The firm has tripled the price it charges to provide a ‘downgrade’ option on new PCs. Where a customer pays the extra cash, Dell will pre-install a copy of XP on the machine alongside Vista.
It’s a particularly pricey option as the deal is only available to customers buying either the Business or Ultimate edition of Vista. (That’s one of the main reasons Microsoft is letting firms continue to exploit this loophole – regardless of what system the customer actually runs, they’ve still paid for an expensive edition of Vista.)
Originally Dell offered this downgrade free of charge before introducing a $50 fee in June, which rose to $100 in October.
While the deal does increase Dell’s costs (they have to pay the extra licensing for XP Professional, the only edition of XP eligible for the program), the repeated price rises certainly suggest the firm is trying to maximize profits from XP. That’s entirely within their rights as a retailer, of course, but it’s likely to leave a bitter taste for consumers who see Dell making cash from Microsoft’s failure (real or perceived) with Vista.
By coincidence, the Dell price hike comes on the same day as reports that RadioShack will be selling an Acer netbook with XP for $99. (XP is still allowed as a standard feature on netbooks, mainly because they struggle to run Vista).
It’s hardly a like-for-like comparison as Dell’s offer is for far more powerful machines, plus the reported RadioShack deal requires customers to sign up to a two-year data contract with AT&T. But it certainly doesn’t look great when you can buy an entire XP computer for less than Dell is charging to add on the system alone.
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December 9th, 2008
“[...] it’s likely to leave a bitter taste for consumers who see Dell making cash from Microsoft’s failure (real or perceived) with Vista.”
If the price has been jacked up from $50 to $100 to $150, and the market is willing to bear the cost just to avoid Vista, then Vista is indisputably a failure. That is to say, the failure is real, not perceived – despite the wishful thinking of a small minority of diehards and apologists.
December 9th, 2008
They are also willing to pay it when Linux is free.
Not real sure what that proves about Windows or people using the OS a machine is shipped with but it’s interesting.
December 9th, 2008
I don’t think anyone would call Vista a success, but this clearly shows that the effect of it hurting Microsoft significantly is a different subject.
Looks like they still get a license fee either way, and that people will pay a premium to do so even when a free superior alternative is easily acquired.
I can’t understand why anyone runs XP on a netbook, either. The whole idea is cheap, lower end hardware
December 10th, 2008
Check Micro Center for XP computers, Dell isn’t the only game in town. Also your local computer repair/refurb shop sells XP computers used….but often with a guarantee.
Tell Dell how you feel, if enough customers complain…maybe they will listen.