Posted on 06/30/2009 5:20:24 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
A top Microsoft executive today denied reports that European users will pay more for Windows 7 because of the company's wrangling with antitrust regulators.
In a statement first posted as a letter to the Financial Times Web site, Bill Veghte, the senior vice president for the Windows business group, said "nothing about this [case] will mean higher prices for Windows 7 in Europe."
Today, Microsoft's public relations firm forwarded the same Veghte statement to Computerworld.
Veghte was countering a Financial Timesstory last Friday that noted that because Microsoft has unilaterally decided to strip Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) from Windows 7, users would need "a fuller version of the new software when they upgrade." The newspaper, however, also made it clear that Microsoft was selling that software, dubbed "Full" or "Full Packaged Product" (FPP) to differentiate it from editions labeled "Upgrade," at the lower prices of the latter.
Microsoft has said it will price the full editions of Windows 7E -- the "E" stands for "Europe" -- at the lower upgrade prices until at least Dec. 31, 2009. Windows 7E is part of Microsoft's campaign to head off European Union antitrust regulators, who have charged the company with illegally tying Internet Explorer (IE) to Windows, from mandating even more drastic measures.
Microsoft is making the price concession on Windows 7 because of technical issues involving upgrades from Windows Vista. Microsoft will block customers in the EU from doing "in-place" upgrades, which would leave some version of IE on the machine. So it will not be selling "Upgrade" editions in the market, at least not when Windows 7 launches in late October.
Veghte explained the move in his statement. "We typically offer two Windows versions to retail customers: a full version for use on any computer and an upgrade version -- at a lower price -- that can only be used on computers that are already licensed for Windows," he said. "In light of recent changes we made to European versions of Window 7, we will not have an upgrade version available in Europe when we release the new operating system." Those Upgrade-labeled editions, however, are high-priced compared with the same versions offered to U.S. users. The "full" version of Windows Professional will cost EU users €285, or $400.28, at Tuesday's exchange rate, even though that edition will be priced at the "upgrade" amount. In other words, EU customers will pay twice the $199.99 U.S. price.
Microsoft disputed that today through its public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom, calling Computerworld's story "inaccurate" when it forwarded Veghte's statement to the Financial Times. Later, another Waggener Edstrom spokesperson argued that the Computerworld headline -- "Microsoft to charge Europeans double for Windows 7" -- was inaccurate because the EU prices include the VAT (Value Added Tax) consumption tax. The spokesperson claimed that the VAT accounted for 17-18% of the price of Windows 7.
She was unable, however, to provide pre-VAT prices. "There is no way to quote you the prices without VAT without misleading people about what they will pay since VAT is always included," the spokesperson said in an e-mail.
The difference between EU and U.S. prices, however, are not as dramatic as she claimed. According to Pennsylvania-based Vertex, a software developer that specializes in high-end tax automation for corporations, the average combined sales tax burden in the U.S. -- state, local and city sales taxes -- was 8.6% in 2008 ( download PDF).
Veghte, however, also warned that European prices could climb even higher. "In the future we may have an upgrade offering of Windows 7 available in Europe, and at that time we would revert to differential pricing of the full and upgrade versions, as we have in the rest of the world," he said in his statement.
At some point after Dec. 31 -- the only date Microsoft has given as a possible end to the lower "Upgrade" pricing -- the company could conceivably figure out the technical issues involving "in-place" upgrading Vista, which has a browser, to Windows 7, which won't. With a true "Upgrade" edition available, Microsoft would, Veghte indicated, price the "Full" versions at their higher numbers.
The full version of Windows 7 Professional has been priced at €309, or $433.99 at today's exchange rate, while Home Premium will cost €199.99, or $280.89. Those same editions in the U.S. are priced at $299.99 and $199.99, respectively.
Microsoft did not make an executive available to explain the pricing strategies of Windows 7 or why the same editions cost significantly more in Europe.
I don't get why Microsoft is being so disingenuous, claiming it doesn't cost more in Europer. OF COURSE they're going to charge more in Europe -- the EU forced MS to make some pretty large changes to the product, and actions have consequences.
Microsoft should grow a pair, and tell the EU, "Okay you got what you asked for. Here's what it costs. Done."
Microsoft could charge $1.00 and I would think they are gouging.
Maybe the EU should develop their own O/S.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I tried IE8 last week. What a joke!
It was removed within 24 hours; so fast it left speed burns.
The good news... I was able to install IE7, and so far so good. Sort of.
I agree with the point of your post, but a link to the actual article would have been nice.
I like Mozilla Firefox.
> Maybe the EU should develop their own O/S.
Oh, the the EU has Linux to play with if they want an alternative OS. And if Microsoft keeps screwing around long enough, maybe somebody will figure out how to make Linux useful to Ma and Pa AverageUser. Maybe. But that's a different discussion.
What I meant was, Microsoft should stop apologizing. They don't need the European market that much. They've still got the American business and consumer markets by the balls and know how to squeeze those.
Win7 is a solid product and will sell well.
BTW, with regard to the OS wars, I don't have a dog in that fight.
Why? They've got a good product (Win7 Ultimate) that's easily worth, say, $100. I'd pay that happily. $400, no.
I paid Apple $200 for a 5-pack of 10.5 Leopard and felt good about it -- that's $40 a copy. But Apple makes its money on its hardware, not software. That's why they can drop 10.6 Snow Leopard down to $30 or whatever it is.
Microsoft doesn't have that option. $100 for a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate is entirely reasonable. Of course, I'll see that pricing when pigs fly...
Windows 7 could be the greatest product ever made, but most of us have been burned my Microsoft so many times that we will hang on to XP Pro as long as we can. I doubt Microsoft ever sells like it once did. They really cooked their own goose with Vista, and nearly killed the personal computer industry by trying to force hardware manufacturers to install Vista.
I wish I got an apple.
Yep,you got it down.I had windows 2000 corp.version and it was great.Now I have vista and it totally stinks.
Screw th EU...I’d gouge ‘em...
I've tried all the browsers on Windows and Linux - and my favorite, by far, is Opera. I particularly love their "speed dial" feature (a special page of favorites that are presented as thumbnail screenshots).
It's the browser I prefer for Free Republic due to the ease of managing multiple open pages. The speed dial is much faster than the default MSNBC.com home page for Internet Exploder.
Try it now. The Admin Moderator fixed it.
If MS doesn’t gouge europe, then americans are getting ripped off. There’s no reason why I should pay the same for windows as a euro does.
FWIW, I had a lot of trouble with IE7 on Windows XP. It was very slow to load, often froze on loading, and I frequently had to close it several times using Task Manager before I could get it to function. I stripped it down as much as possible, but it was still almost non-functional.
When I installed IE8, it was also slow at first. But it stopped IE7’s habit of freezing when loaded. And when I did the security upgrades last month, it started loading nice and fast. Now it’s working at least as fast as IE6, yet it has the tabs and other functions that are useful.
FF 3.5 is out now and its much faster than 3.0
Bear in mind many extensions/addons have not updated, so wait a bit of you use lots. If your experienced then nightly tester tools addon can make them compatible.
You sound like a real baseball fan.
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