Microsoft slashes Vista price for China
updated 09:45 am EDT, Fri August 3, 2007
MS Vista Chinese Price Cut
Microsoft will officially cut the price of Windows Vista in China to combat piracy in the area, the company announced on Friday. The developer says it will cut the prices of the full Home Basic edition from the equivalent of $201 to about $66 -- a third of the original price, the company notes. Home Premium will drop by about half from $238 to $119 while OEM and upgrade editions should also see price cuts. The move is said to be an essential one for Microsoft, which has struggled with sales in China as its prices are virtually the same as for the US despite far lower average incomes.
Microsoft has so far boasted of Vista sales topping 60 million since the launch of the OS in January but has typically shied away from touting its Chinese sales, which have struggled as Chinese buyers frequently turned to far less expensive bootleg copies of Vista or to Linux-based systems. Microsoft's sales rate has remained largely static at about 10 million Windows licenses sold per month.
