Why is Vista so Expensive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alias
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Gates had a 10 year plan when windows 95 was made....
They made it so it could be easily copied and installed on as many computers
you liked...
MS wanted this so they could dominate the desktop computers.

However they knew that when this goal was obtained they would put protective
measures so that windows would not be able to be pirated and they would use
their user base to get
filthy rich.

They introduced that with XP, and are slowly tightening the platform.

This would be ok if the price of windows was low...

however because they know vista will be a total flop, they increased the
price
so the company would survive..

They also wanted to artificially increase sales by having that "only install
twice"
limitation.. but they took it back because it was too fast for the world to
accept it..

their strategies are such as to slowly get to the point where they want to
be,
but it wont work.

This one two punch of bad design and high price, will bring MS down to its
knees.

People wont tolerate such crap and other solutions will become available.

I see this combination of strategies as self defeating...

If they continue.. Microsoft will die, or be displaced by other
technologies.
Bill Gates 10 year old plan cannot work in the new era of internet freedom
and filesharring. And it will collapse.

A new model will be created... and my bets are on unix technology.
 
Actually, Windows Vista pricing is inline with Windows XP skus, you should
also take into account the upgrade pricing. The difference is pricing
actually affects the premium versions of Windows such as Home Premium and
Ultimate which offers more features and services.
 
Andre said:
Actually, Windows Vista pricing is inline with Windows XP skus, you should
also take into account the upgrade pricing. The difference is pricing
actually affects the premium versions of Windows such as Home Premium and
Ultimate which offers more features and services.
Click to expand...

Spin, spin, spin. It's more expensive. Period. They lied. Period.

Alias
 
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I will buy the Home Premium
upgrade since I have a qualifying copy of MCE 2005.
 
Andre Da Costa said:
Actually, Windows Vista pricing is inline with Windows XP skus, you should
also take into account the upgrade pricing. The difference is pricing
actually affects the premium versions of Windows such as Home Premium and
Ultimate which offers more features and services.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry
Click to expand...

It's definalty more expensive. I have XP Pro that I bought at Best Buy for
$79 two years ago. It's the full version not an upgrade. I just had to wait
for a sale. I don't see any prices listed for any version of Vista that come
close to that even with a discount.

Regards,
Skon
 
I'd say that it *is* more expensive and the reason seems obvious to me.
Several states sued MS and got millions of dollars. That money has to be
made up; MS is a business not a charity. This is done by raising prices.

I'm not being cynical or criticizing MS here, this is just how business
works. Our country (the United States) is "class action lawsuit happy" and
every time a company gets sued they have to raise prices to make up for it
(even if they win, there are lawyer/court costs). Unfortunately, for some
reason, most Americans have gotten the idea that money is somehow magically
generated by companies (and the government) and that suing and/or
taxing/fining anyone who isn't "me" won't cost "me" anything. That simply
isn't true and every time something like that happens someone has to pay for
it. The cost is *always* passed along to consumers and the person who ends
up paying is "me."

Try and remember this the next time people are all excited about a class
action that's going to get people $5.00 each, lawyers $30,000,000 cost the
company $500,000,000 and end up costing "me" $50.00 in the long run when
prices are raised on a product we all need to purchase on a regular basis.

-Mike
 
You didn't find sales on XP for the first year either, did you?

--

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!
 
Andre said:
A Sale is different from the everyday regular price. XP Pro full version,
normally retails for $300, the same applies for Vista Business which
analogous to XP Pro.
Click to expand...

But MS lied and said that catching pirates will make prices lower. I see
you don't care and will just ask how high when MS tells you to jump.

Alias
 
Alias Wrote:

"But MS lied and said that catching pirates will make prices lower. I see
you don't care and will just ask how high when MS tells you to jump."

I see from this and *most* of your other posts that you are like a bored
child who is happiest when entering a bathroom stall in which the toilet has
not been flushed, so that you can put in your stick and start to stir.

However, given the unlikely chance that you actually are able and wish to
understand my point, I'll offer this reply:

I wasn't talking necessarily about M$; what I wrote was more a comment on
the American society. People seem to believe that there is "free" money, but
there is not; someone always has to pick up the bill, and that is invariably
the consumer and taxpayer. When you are running a business (any business)
you *must* make a profit or your business ceases to exist. Any fine,
judgment, etc. that costs your business money *must* be made up for. If your
source of revenue is selling products, you *must* raise prices and/or sell
more of your products to do this. Clearly we need fines and court cases to
keep the most egregious companies from acting criminally, but we have
reached a point where "quick draw lawsuits" are so common that prices and
taxes are regularly driven up by frivolous lawsuits.

Don't even get me started on abuses of the welfare system.

-Mike
 
I have a full copy of XP MCE that came with my PC which qualifies me for the
upgrade price.
 
Alias Wrote:

"But MS lied and said that catching pirates will make prices lower. I see
you don't care and will just ask how high when MS tells you to jump."

I see from this and *most* of your other posts that you are like a bored
child who is happiest when entering a bathroom stall in which the toilet
has not been flushed, so that you can put in your stick and start to stir.
Click to expand...

So... you're comparing microsoft.public.windows.vista.general to a toilet
that hasn't been flushed? :oP
However, given the unlikely chance that you actually are able and wish
to understand my point, I'll offer this reply:

I wasn't talking necessarily about M$;
Click to expand...

We are. :o)

MS is a monopoly. With no real competition to exert a downward force on
prices, the price they charge has little to do with the costs of
production or their business overhead - witness their unusually large
profit margins and massive bank account. To say that they would reduce
prices if piracy and lawsuits were ended is to claim that they would
charge less than consumers will pay, just out of the sheer goodness of
their black little monopolistic heart.

Looking at that from the other end, MS has done extensive market studies
to determine the maximum they can get away with charging. Piracy and
lawsuits do not increase the maximum that consumers are willing to pay,
thus they do not increase the price of Windows.
 
Arachnid wrote:

"Piracy and lawsuits do not increase the maximum that consumers are willing
to pay, thus they do not increase the price of Windows."

That is a somewhat naive and short sighted position. You do have one basic
premise correct: Neither M$, nor any other corporation is going to accept
making less profit. Thus, when expenses increase, so do prices. When a
corporation's expenses are increased by hundreds of millions (or billions)
of dollars, they do not simply say, "Well we'll just make 663 million less
in profit this year." They say, "alright, lets find out where we're going to
make an extra 663 million to cover that expense." Those who don't, file
bankruptcy and/or go out of business. It is also true that once prices go
up, they rarely go down.

-Mike

P.S. At this point I'd have to agree about that
Microsoft.public.windows.vista.general is much like a toilet that hasn't
been flushed.
 
Lower than what?
Lower than what the price could have been?

What did Retail Windows 95 normally sell for in the US when released?
How about Retail XP Home when originally released and to this day?
All of them about $200.
Taking into account for inflation, Windows has gotten quite a bit cheaper
over the years.
Even with the current pricing schedule of Vista, it is cheap when a longer
view is taken.

And you often seem happiest when doing whatever is necessary so you get the
best view of the negatives.
 
Ok, can you explain what you need to qualify for upgrades to the Vista
Premiums etc ?

I have XP OEM, XP Home Upgrade and XP Pro Upgrade. What can I upgrade to ?
 
I believe Win98se, full install, was $179-199 also.

Windows NT 4.0 was $299.00 for the full install.

Windows 2000 was $199 for the upgrade install.

Vista is in the right ballpark.

--

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!
 
Which is still far too expensive comparing to
the prices of PCs (and hardware in general)
which went down. Microsoft applications
relatively went up, by not going down
as prices hardware did.
 
I am curious as to why you frequent this newsgroup. You are so
anti-Microsoft and you contribute nothing except negativity that's neither
constructive nor helpful. I don't know how old you are but maybe there's
still time for you to get a life?
 
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