CRAZY pricing!

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Dale said:
Well, Bill, this time, I have to agree with you.

I paid $299 for a full retail copy of Windows 95 the first week Windows
95 hit the shelves. Tuesday, I will pay $399 for a full retail copy of
Vista Ultimate. I'm not an economist but I think that, considering
inflation, Vista is probably cheaper than Windows 95 was.

Dale
Click to expand...
You are lucky. In the UK it is over $700 for full Vista Ultimate.

Theo Carr-Brion
 
But Windows has to be backward compatible with programs for old
versions. This must add hugely to the complexity and cost of
development, and the potential for bugs.

Theo Carr-Brion
 
Tom some extent that is true. There are always development
and research costs. However, the proof is in the pudding about
the tremendous profit returns Microsoft has for the OS and Office
family. It's not like Microsoft starts over too many times, from scratch,
every time they release a new operating system. Vista comes from
Windows Server 2003. Microsoft doesn't have nearly the overhead
costs that most companies do- not even close.

Last quarter (3 month period) those two divisions accounted for
$6 billion in revenue and $4 billion in profit. Incredible.
https://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY07/earn_rel_q2_07.mspx

Also, hardware companies make their own drivers, they make
their products work on Windows. Microsoft may "work" with
some of these vendors, but its ultimately up to the companies
to make their stuff compatible. Their profit margins are vastly
smaller than Microsoft's.

-Michael
 
FACTS of a so-called "Family Pack". :-)

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-17ConsumerOptionsPR.mspx

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rumors of a so called FAMILY PACK with reduced pricing for more than 2
licenses.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=201
 
Rock said:
Where did you get this figure?
Click to expand...

It is plausible that many households have more than one. Many have several,
even I would like to sell a couple of my laptops but they are not worth
much. These personal computers are obsolete too quickly.
 
On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:48:11 -0600, chris

..
I would suspect that most homes simply get their OS when they buy a new
computer. Eventually, several hundred million computers that will run
Vista but relatively few (proportionally) will be retail purchases.
Click to expand...

BINGO.........so how much does MS make when Dell sells a $300 PC with
Vista on it?
 
[snip]
There is a reason why today mobile homes in California and Florida sale for
$1 million, or more.
Click to expand...
[snip]

Are you trying to explain (or apologise for) Microsoft's pricing of
software products by equating it to the Real Estate market?
 
Dale said:
Well, Bill, this time, I have to agree with you.

I paid $299 for a full retail copy of Windows 95 the first week Windows 95
Click to expand...

Did you buy this from a scout?

hit the shelves. Tuesday, I will pay $399 for a full retail copy of Vista
Ultimate. I'm not an economist but I think that, considering inflation,
Vista is probably cheaper than Windows 95 was.

Dale
Click to expand...
<rest deleted>
 
I agree with you on pricing. I just bought windows vista premium OS and it
was 239.99 at circuit city. Best buy has one for 299.99. Microsoft has
billions upon billions of dollars they've made on software since they first
opened for business, so why do they need to charge between $200 to $300 for a
cd that they pay>50 cents to make? Microsoft needs to provide vista at a
lower more affordable price, and make sure most common software will work
with an os before they release it to the public for sale.
 
I agree that the pricing is out of line.

What is common software to you is esoteric software to another.

Bottom line is M/S can not check every single program for compatibility.
They give the O/S code to developers, who see if their programs run on the
O/S betas. If the manufacturer says that it does, and that there are no
problems, Microsoft runs with it. I would also - until it is proven
otherwise.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Gee, that's not too much more then Windows 95 was years ago. Look at
inflation and what more Vista is then 95 and I don't think the pricing is
way out of line.
 
Their profit margin is out of line. Just as their stated reasons for
raising support prices from 35 dollars to 59 dollars indicates, their prices
are based on what the market will bear and have nothing to do with
development, production, and operating costs. It is a common business
practice but not, in my opinion, a moral practice. But stockholders love it
all the way to the bank.

Dale
 
Dale said:
Their profit margin is out of line. Just as their stated reasons for
raising support prices from 35 dollars to 59 dollars indicates, their
prices are based on what the market will bear and have nothing to do with
development, production, and operating costs. It is a common business
practice but not, in my opinion, a moral practice. But stockholders love
it all the way to the bank.

Dale
Click to expand...

In the US, at least, publicly held companies are required by law to maximize
the
profits for stockholders.

Tom Lake
 
Well, then we are seeing the monopoly implementation of that. Other
companies who sell products people just can't live without can't raise their
profit margins to those kinds of levels. Not even the oil companies have
margins like Microsoft's. So why don't oil companies raise the price of gas
to $5.00 a gallon? Simple. If they all got together and did so, that's
price fixing. If one of them, in the interests of maximizing profits,
raised theirs to $5.00 a gallon, they'd go broke because the other companies
didn't.

So when there is no competition, you get 39% profit margins.

Dale
 
My guess is it will be made permanent and expanded when legal hurdles are
crossed.
Some countries have legislation that has been attempting to make it
difficult for Microsoft recently and some of that may get in the way of a
faster implementation of the plans.
 
Where did you get "39% profit margins"?
Perhaps I missed the source for that in the thread.
 
Dale said:
Well, then we are seeing the monopoly implementation of that. Other
companies who sell products people just can't live without can't raise
their profit margins to those kinds of levels. Not even the oil companies
have margins like Microsoft's. So why don't oil companies raise the price
of gas to $5.00 a gallon? Simple. If they all got together and did so,
that's price fixing. If one of them, in the interests of maximizing
profits, raised theirs to $5.00 a gallon, they'd go broke because the
other companies didn't.

So when there is no competition, you get 39% profit margins.

Dale
Click to expand...

Who said MS had a monopoly, much less a product you can't live without?
You are free to buy a Mac and run their OS, or install Linux... or even buy
an older MS OS for a new PC.
I'm still running Windows ME. I have no need for Vista until after the
price comes down.
I do need oil, electricty, and such things are government controlled at
least to a point, in some areas.
 
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