5 ms·

Windows 7 to sell in UK for half the US price

19 points by nreece 17y ago

danw 17y ago
That makes for a change. In the UK Adobe CS3 sells for £1000 more than the US. It's possible to fly to New York from London for £230-280.
- nailer 17y ago
  Macs are similarly much more expensive in the UK. Perhaps the difference is the UK has a greater percentage of the population involved in the creative industries (particularly ad agencies and visual effects companies) than the US?
  - jodrellblank 17y ago
    It's often because $1 ~= £0.65, but prices transfer at $1 -> £1, so prices end up 50% higher than a currency exchange would lead you to expect. Dell monitors do this too - a good 24" LCD is $550 (=£357) in the USA but £550 here (=$846).
    - nailer 17y ago
      Sure, but the question I'm wondering about is why they transfer at $1 -> £1, when this isn't the exchange rate.
      - adw 17y ago
        It's not quite so simple: don't US prices exclude sales tax? VAT in the UK's 17.5%.
        danw 17y ago
        VAT is currently 15%, will rise to 17.5% again in January 2010
        adw 17y ago
        Doh, yeah, right you are. Forgot about that cut.
        nailer 17y ago
        US retail prices for Apple products generally include taxes. Compare apple.com to apple.co.uk (or .co.ie, or .com.au, or any other country).
        rbanffy 17y ago
        15% and soon to be 17.5% is also not the exchange rate. And mind you, those boxes are not being shipped over from Redmond.
      - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
        It has been the exchange rate, it might again. Part of the issue is that the exchange rate changes over time.
        pbhjpbhj 17y ago
        I very much doubt it, you'd think they would have chosen a rate close to the minimum boundary rather than completely outside of it. In Sept 2008 the rate was about $2(USD) =Â£1 (GBP) and had been reasonably stable for a time. A divisor of $1.5 (USD), so a $75 music player would be Â£50 would then still have been more profit (sales taxes excluded).
  - bd 17y ago
    Couldn't it be because of different default configurations of notebooks in US vs EU? I noticed this recently when buying Thinkpad. At the first sight, EU prices looked crazy high compared to US, but when I tried to configure exactly the same specs, the price difference was minimal (~10% more in EU). The trick was that US default configurations were much worse than few preconfigured EU models.
rbanffy 17y ago
I wonder why people chose to put up with companies that behave like this... This practice could be acceptable in the 80s, when it would not be as easy to uncover such discrepancies, but not today... It's rather insulting. Perhaps Microsoft feels its grasp on US clients is stronger than over European ones and needs to compensate slashing margins in Europe while compensating for them in the US. It's also very confusing. I can't quite see through their strategy here and I doubt they can do it themselves.
dotcoma 17y ago
is it because people in the UK are half as dumb? ;-))
- dotcoma 17y ago
  "only" half as dumb, I meant.
abalashov 17y ago
Arbitrage opportunity, here I come!
dtf 17y ago
Makes a change from yesterday's PS3 pricing: $299 in US €299 in Europe ($422) £249 in UK ($408)
pmjoyce 17y ago
UK users can save another £5 if you buy Vista Home Premium from Amazon before Windows 7 comes out as you get a free upgrade and Vista is cheaper. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000321063 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000321063
- petercooper 17y ago
  I'm not sure why this keeps getting voted down. That's not an affiliate link and from what I can tell, pmjoyce is right. The Amazon page states that Windows 7 in the UK is only available in a full, non-upgrade form BUT you can get a free copy even if you only buy a Vista upgrade which you can get for £60.75. Admittedly this isn't a great savings over buying Windows 7 direct but if you really want to save a fiver, it might be worth a try.
  - pmjoyce 17y ago
    Apologies if it wasn't clear. What I meant was UK users can get Vista HP (Upgrade) for £60.75, if you buy this now they'll give you Windows 7 for free when it comes out. As only complete versions (not upgrades) of Win 7 will be ship in the UK you could therefore save yourself a fiver on the full version. As petercooper mentioned, it's not an earth-shattering saving but in these times it doesn't hurt to point it out. Plus it's definitely not an affiliate link. I ensured it was stripped of all the usual Amazon tracking data and only contained the URL parameters need to read that article, before posting.
pbhjpbhj 17y ago
Assuming this to be true it showing that MS believe the buying power in the UK to have shrunk considerably, isn't it. I expect the price in Kenya, say, to be lower still.

19 points by nreece 17y ago

danw 17y ago

That makes for a change. In the UK Adobe CS3 sells for £1000 more than the US. It's possible to fly to New York from London for £230-280.

nailer 17y ago
Macs are similarly much more expensive in the UK. Perhaps the difference is the UK has a greater percentage of the population involved in the creative industries (particularly ad agencies and visual effects companies) than the US?
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  It's often because $1 ~= £0.65, but prices transfer at $1 -> £1, so prices end up 50% higher than a currency exchange would lead you to expect. Dell monitors do this too - a good 24" LCD is $550 (=£357) in the USA but £550 here (=$846).
  - nailer 17y ago
    Sure, but the question I'm wondering about is why they transfer at $1 -> £1, when this isn't the exchange rate.
    - adw 17y ago
      It's not quite so simple: don't US prices exclude sales tax? VAT in the UK's 17.5%.
      - danw 17y ago
        VAT is currently 15%, will rise to 17.5% again in January 2010
        adw 17y ago
        Doh, yeah, right you are. Forgot about that cut.
      - nailer 17y ago
        US retail prices for Apple products generally include taxes. Compare apple.com to apple.co.uk (or .co.ie, or .com.au, or any other country).
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        15% and soon to be 17.5% is also not the exchange rate. And mind you, those boxes are not being shipped over from Redmond.
    - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
      It has been the exchange rate, it might again. Part of the issue is that the exchange rate changes over time.
      - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
        I very much doubt it, you'd think they would have chosen a rate close to the minimum boundary rather than completely outside of it. In Sept 2008 the rate was about $2(USD) =Â£1 (GBP) and had been reasonably stable for a time. A divisor of $1.5 (USD), so a $75 music player would be Â£50 would then still have been more profit (sales taxes excluded).
- bd 17y ago
  Couldn't it be because of different default configurations of notebooks in US vs EU? I noticed this recently when buying Thinkpad. At the first sight, EU prices looked crazy high compared to US, but when I tried to configure exactly the same specs, the price difference was minimal (~10% more in EU). The trick was that US default configurations were much worse than few preconfigured EU models.

rbanffy 17y ago

I wonder why people chose to put up with companies that behave like this... This practice could be acceptable in the 80s, when it would not be as easy to uncover such discrepancies, but not today... It's rather insulting. Perhaps Microsoft feels its grasp on US clients is stronger than over European ones and needs to compensate slashing margins in Europe while compensating for them in the US. It's also very confusing. I can't quite see through their strategy here and I doubt they can do it themselves.

dotcoma 17y ago

is it because people in the UK are half as dumb? ;-))

dotcoma 17y ago
"only" half as dumb, I meant.

abalashov 17y ago

Arbitrage opportunity, here I come!

dtf 17y ago

Makes a change from yesterday's PS3 pricing: $299 in US €299 in Europe ($422) £249 in UK ($408)

pmjoyce 17y ago

UK users can save another £5 if you buy Vista Home Premium from Amazon before Windows 7 comes out as you get a free upgrade and Vista is cheaper. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000321063 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000321063

petercooper 17y ago
I'm not sure why this keeps getting voted down. That's not an affiliate link and from what I can tell, pmjoyce is right. The Amazon page states that Windows 7 in the UK is only available in a full, non-upgrade form BUT you can get a free copy even if you only buy a Vista upgrade which you can get for £60.75. Admittedly this isn't a great savings over buying Windows 7 direct but if you really want to save a fiver, it might be worth a try.
- pmjoyce 17y ago
  Apologies if it wasn't clear. What I meant was UK users can get Vista HP (Upgrade) for £60.75, if you buy this now they'll give you Windows 7 for free when it comes out. As only complete versions (not upgrades) of Win 7 will be ship in the UK you could therefore save yourself a fiver on the full version. As petercooper mentioned, it's not an earth-shattering saving but in these times it doesn't hurt to point it out. Plus it's definitely not an affiliate link. I ensured it was stripped of all the usual Amazon tracking data and only contained the URL parameters need to read that article, before posting.

pbhjpbhj 17y ago

Assuming this to be true it showing that MS believe the buying power in the UK to have shrunk considerably, isn't it. I expect the price in Kenya, say, to be lower still.