Microsoft to cut price of retail versions of Vista
WinInfo | at | by Mike
And that will be great news for the 17 people who buy Windows that way each year. Microsoft announced yesterday that it will be cutting the price of the retail boxed versions of Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate by 20 to 48 percent. (They don't actually specify what the new prices are, however.) The price cuts will take place concurrently with the release of integrated versions of Windows Vista and Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft says, which will happen by the middle of 2008. Here's the thing: This doesn't affect much at all. Retail versions of Windows have always amounted to less than 5 percent of all Windows licenses sold, so it's unclear whether this change will make much of a difference to consumers or Microsoft. And it certainly doesn't affect the prices of the versions of Windows people really do buy, whether they're bundled with new PCs or sold to corporations as licenses.