The fact that you can buy Windows laptops for $150 to $199 surely ought to make you realize the absurdity of that claim. Even when Windows was at its marketing

The fact that you can buy Windows laptops for $150 to $199 surely ought to make you realize the absurdity of that claim. Even when Windows was at its marketing peak in the late 1990s, the largest OEMs were only paying $40-$45 for a pre-installed copy of Windows. Some were probably paying less (IBM complained to the US government when Microsoft increased its price from $9 to $27). The low cost version of Windows XP for netbooks cost $11 to $15, and Windows 8 with Bing went for $0* on systems with 8-inch or smaller screens. I don't know where you think you got your $120 from, but that number wouldn't have figured even in Ballmer's wildest dreams. * It cost $10 with a $10 refund for setting Bing as the default search engine.