Posted on 02/29/2008 6:33:47 AM PST by raybbr
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will cut the price of some versions of Windows Vista, the software maker said late Thursday.
The move came a day after court filings revealed internal dissent over which Windows XP computers would be considered capable of running the new operating system - and a feeling on at least one executive's part that the company had "botched" the marketing of computers as "Vista Capable."
Only copies of the year-old operating system that are sold in boxes directly to consumers are affected by the price cuts - not the versions pre-loaded on personal computers. The cuts will range from 20 percent to 48 percent.
The reductions are to coincide with the late March release of Vista Service Pack 1, a collection of security fixes and other improvements.
Microsoft said the new prices will apply to the Home Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista, in both their full editions and the editions that upgrade an older or more basic operating system.
Both versions serve the tiny percentage of users who install an operating system on their own; most people get the latest version of Windows only when they buy a new PC.
Windows Vista's January 2007 launch was plagued by delays. To keep consumers buying PCs in the holiday season of 2006, Microsoft and PC makers promised free Vista upgrades later to shoppers who bought Windows XP computers.
At the launch, Microsoft was widely criticized for offering too many versions of the operating system - including Home Basic, which didn't have the snazzy new signature look called "Aero" - and for setting the price too high for the high-end versions.
Brad Brooks, a corporate vice president for Windows marketing at Microsoft, said in an interview that the company has since tested lower prices and found "product was moving much, much faster."
Brooks said he expects so many customers to buy Vista at the new prices that the price cuts will increase Microsoft's revenue, not subtract from it.
A federal judge recently said consumers could pursue a class action suit against Microsoft for labeling PCs as "Vista Capable," even though many were not powerful enough to run all of Vista's features, including the Aero interface.
Company e-mails produced in court chronicle Microsoft settling on a plan to market a wide range of XP-based PCs as "Vista Capable" after company officials realized in early 2006 that 30 percent or fewer of computers on the market could run the full-fledged version of Vista with Aero.
That realization apparently caused computer makers like Dell Inc. (DELL) to worry that people would stop buying PCs for almost a year - until Vista launched.
The e-mails also showed Microsoft lowering the bar for "Vista Capable" to protect Intel Corp. (INTC)'s sales of some widely used chips that weren't powerful enough for the full Vista experience.
Microsoft employee Anantha Kancherla was particularly blunt in his March 2006 response to a question about whether a certain PC configuration would be considered "Vista Capable."
"Based on objective criteria that exist today for "capable," even a piece of junk will qualify," he wrote. "For the sake of Vista customers, it will be a complete tragedy if we allowed it."
According to the e-mails, Jim Allchin, the executive in charge of Windows at the time, wasn't involved in the decision to brand a wide swath of XP computers as "Vista Capable."
Upon learning the details, Allchin wrote, "We really botched this."
Any machine capable of running full-boat Vista will still run more quickly and responsively with XP or Windows 2003 on it. Vista is just a bloated, resource-intensive dog.
I’m with you (still using 98). I have one annoying problem. When I try to open movie files that I receive in e-mails, an error box appears that says, “STUDIO.EXE can not be found.” I can live with it. Whenever I see the windows logo on an attached file, I know that I cannot open it, so I just delete the message.
I’m not a Microsoft fan boy, but I agree with your assessment of this lawsuit.
“OEMs and customers themselves have some responsibility to be less dense than a rock. Minimum system requirements have never meant that if you have that system it will run that software well, and with all the features enabled.
Greedy trial lawyers have gotten way out of control under our screwed up court system.”
I have Win XP running on an Athlon 64 box I put together and I won’t go to Vista. I have multi boot and can do XP 32; XP 64 and Ubuntu. I do XP 32 most often as my apps that I use most are on that partition.
I’ve been using Vista for four months on three machines. Works just fine.
The same complaints have been made here on FR all the way back to the "new" Windows 98.
Kobe Tai couldn't make some of these guys happy.
No, but it will make your Pentium 4 into one.
I have found Vista to be rather ho-hum. The added features are no great thing. They are much ado about nothing, including the security. I still get spyware in my testing, and I have had three naturally infected Vista boxen cross my bench so far- All that with UAC and all other safety features turned on.
Likewise, While everyone seem to be howling at the moon about major troubles, I have not found many problems either. A few peripherals needing driver updates, a few networking issues, particularly with wireless connections, but no really spectacular failures whatsoever.
My biggest impression is one of irritation, particularly wrt silly rearrangements of directory structures, renaming of control panel items, and useless changes to common tasks and operations designed to be more intuitive, I suppose, but succeeding only as a sure way to piss me off, and causing a lot more help desk type calls that seriously eat up my time.
We're happy fore you Bill, but the fact remains that vast numbers of people see no advantage over XP. Throw in the fact that it is infected with DRM and there's just no reason to use it. I hope they lose a ton of money and continue suffer humiliation as people refuse to "upgrade" and get it right next time, minus the DRM.
Speaking of indescribably bad software, has anyone else had a look at the software for Zune. No words in the language are adequate. You have to see it for youself.
Debian did.
I put Vista on this machine and still no problems.
Of course it will. That's been true of most every upgrade of Windows.
Vista's Aero offers some nice features. The desktop is much more scalable to different resolutions. There are lots of ways in which it is a little more aesthetically pleasing.
However, it takes more processing power to provide those features.
For top end systems, it's not a large portion of that system's processing power. For low end systems, it is very significant.
However, the processing power of computers being sold doubles roughly every 18 months.
If you're buying a new computer and Vista's features offer benefits that you want, buy it. If you have an older computer, I would recommend sticking with XP.
If you're buying a bargain, low end laptop with integrated video, I'd recommend staying away from Vista.
Consumers need to try and figure out what is best for them by educating themselves, or by finding someone more knowledgeable to help them.
However, people shouldn't be able to sue just because they bought something that didn't suit their needs, even though information that would have helped them make a better decision was available.
If Vista doesn't suit their needs, consumers should just not buy it. If a computer that comes with Vista on it isn't the best choice for them, they should buy a different one. If the retailer loads Vista on everything they sell for simplicity sake, buy from a different retailer. If that isn't a viable option, then I guess they will have to decide if they really want that particular computer bad enough to buy it with Vista, and then load a different OS on it later.
The choice should be theirs. However, they should NOT be able to sue simply because they didn't get the particular choice they wanted for the price they wanted.
Nope.
You guy have this all wrong. This isn’t desperation. MS is offering this price reduction because the volume on Vista is so high the manufacturing costs have come down... :-)
Smartest thing anyone inflicted with Vista could do.
On the other hand, the clock works fairly well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.