In what may be an unprecedented decision, Microsoft has lowered the retail prices for several flavors of Windows Vista.
For those in the U.S., Microsoft has cut prices only on the higher-end versions of Vista, and only for the upgrade version used to move from XP or another copy of Vista. The suggested price for Vista Ultimate drops to $219 from $299, while Home Premium falls to $129, from $159.
Other developed markets will also see price cuts. In fact, it is expected that customers in some developing countries will see cuts of as much as 50%. In emerging markets, Microsoft is eliminating the distinction between full and upgrade versions of Home Basic and Home Premium as it attempts to convince more users there to use genuine software.
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Microsoft finalized Windows Vista in late 2006, but held back its retail launch of the product until January 2007. It has sold more than 100 million copies, largely on the back of a strong overall PC market, but retail sales have significantly trailed those of XP in its early days and Vista has received a number of critical reviews.
In an interview, newly minted Windows consumer marketing vice president Brad Brooks said that Microsoft had been testing lower prices over the past few months and was surprised to find that the amount of revenue lost was more than made up for by an increase in the number of PC buyers willing to shell out for an upgrade.
However, with 2008 widely expected to be the year when enterprise users will finally upgrade in larger numbers to Vista, the retreat also sends a negative signal to those buyers, and makes it even harder to sell the advantages of the newest version of Windows.
Meanwhile, in an interesting move the guys at Microsoft have launched a special website for the ultimate edition of vista; check out UltimatePC
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