4 ms·

Apple has historically made its profit through selling hardware, investing into the software to make the hardware and software work well together but extracting

by rcchen 14y ago

Apple has historically made its profit through selling hardware, investing into the software to make the hardware and software work well together but extracting negligible returns on software. What would pursuing this type of upgrade pricing mean for a company like Microsoft, which relies primarily on software for revenue?

ConstantineXVI 14y ago
It's possible they've realized that your average person isn't interested in spending $100-200 to upgrade Windows; so they're making the price more palatable. More upgrades, less people stuck on old Windows, easier for developers to consider targeting newer Windows APIs (who then buy new copies of MSVS). Everyone wins. Also, I'm under the impression MS charges OEMs much less than the retail price for Windows licenses. I doubt they're taking much of a loss, if any.
fleitz 14y ago
Historically Apple (remember Apple from 1985 to 2001) has been a severely under performing company, in the last 10 years they've made boatloads of cash by optimizing their supply chain and extracting huge volume discounts on the latest technology. Microsoft needs to figure out how to get its hardware and its OEMs hardware prices inline with Apple. If MS and their OEMs put pressure on manufacturers they'll no longer be able to offer the same discounts to Apple. OEMs, VARs, volume licensing holders already pay close to this price for windows and make up the bulk of purchases. Making Windows available to retail at ~$40 will not have a significant impact on revenue. Not dealing with Apple's competitive prices on phones and tablets will spell death for MS. MS at this point could give a shit about cannibalizing Windows retail upgrades for desktop operating systems. The key is to leverage their desktop OS, developer base and corporate relations into something thats competitive in mobile and tablets.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mutagen 14y ago
This upgrade pricing is good for Microsoft. Currently they face more competition from current windows users not upgrading to Microsoft's newest OS than they do from OSX and Linux. Microsoft gets people off XP and Vista, an old operating system and its widely reviled successor. They get to tout fast adoption rates and wide availability of the new features which helps them with both developer relations and with goes hand in hand with their tablet strategy.
stonemetal 14y ago
A move to hardware? The recent surface demo and this as a hint of a more Apple like MS to come.
cooldeal 14y ago
I would guess most of Windows' revenue comes from selling with new PCs rather than upgrades. It's mostly power users that that take the pain to upgrade OSes(risking breakage). Most regular users seem to think the upgrade is not worth the hassle of things breaking. I've seen this attitude even in enterprises. The OS(and even Office) is almost never upgraded on the same machine, but if you get a new machine, it comes with the latest Windows and Office(provided it's compatible with the apps/network etc.).

by rcchen 14y ago

ConstantineXVI 14y ago

It's possible they've realized that your average person isn't interested in spending $100-200 to upgrade Windows; so they're making the price more palatable. More upgrades, less people stuck on old Windows, easier for developers to consider targeting newer Windows APIs (who then buy new copies of MSVS). Everyone wins. Also, I'm under the impression MS charges OEMs much less than the retail price for Windows licenses. I doubt they're taking much of a loss, if any.

fleitz 14y ago

Historically Apple (remember Apple from 1985 to 2001) has been a severely under performing company, in the last 10 years they've made boatloads of cash by optimizing their supply chain and extracting huge volume discounts on the latest technology. Microsoft needs to figure out how to get its hardware and its OEMs hardware prices inline with Apple. If MS and their OEMs put pressure on manufacturers they'll no longer be able to offer the same discounts to Apple. OEMs, VARs, volume licensing holders already pay close to this price for windows and make up the bulk of purchases. Making Windows available to retail at ~$40 will not have a significant impact on revenue. Not dealing with Apple's competitive prices on phones and tablets will spell death for MS. MS at this point could give a shit about cannibalizing Windows retail upgrades for desktop operating systems. The key is to leverage their desktop OS, developer base and corporate relations into something thats competitive in mobile and tablets.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mutagen 14y ago

This upgrade pricing is good for Microsoft. Currently they face more competition from current windows users not upgrading to Microsoft's newest OS than they do from OSX and Linux. Microsoft gets people off XP and Vista, an old operating system and its widely reviled successor. They get to tout fast adoption rates and wide availability of the new features which helps them with both developer relations and with goes hand in hand with their tablet strategy.

stonemetal 14y ago

A move to hardware? The recent surface demo and this as a hint of a more Apple like MS to come.

cooldeal 14y ago

I would guess most of Windows' revenue comes from selling with new PCs rather than upgrades. It's mostly power users that that take the pain to upgrade OSes(risking breakage). Most regular users seem to think the upgrade is not worth the hassle of things breaking. I've seen this attitude even in enterprises. The OS(and even Office) is almost never upgraded on the same machine, but if you get a new machine, it comes with the latest Windows and Office(provided it's compatible with the apps/network etc.).