[Razor VinT]

The Home Basic edition dropped from $201 (1,521 yuan) to $66, and the Home Premium package dropped from $238 to $118. The move was effective as of Wednesday.

The price cut is the company's latest effort to tackle the rampant software piracy in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. The theory is that if legitimate software costs less, people will be less likely to turn to pirated versions.

Source: c|net

[Soduka]

Er.....? What kind of theory is that?

[splitfire]

a chinese tale i dont have money for vista, so yarrrrr scruvy cur...

[ShamusHand]

Makes sense in my opinion...

[rahuljin]

good move against piracy !!!

[j4f]

If they can lover the price in China, then why not do it everywhere.

I dont have Vista yet, but if the price was lower, i may upgrade.

[ShamusHand]

j4f, on Aug 3 2007, 01:47 PM, said:

If they can lover the price in China, then why not do it everywhere.

I dont have Vista yet, but if the price was lower, i may upgrade.

Because only 244 copies of Vista where legally bough in all of China, which has a population of over 1 Billion. The other millions were pirated and illegally used. So, to encourage people to buy, not steal, they lowered prices there (better sell cheap than not at all). Notice how they didn't lower Ultimate too, to prevent people from other countries from buying in China and using language packs. If they lowered it everywhere though, they would lose millions! As for us, well, you know, we're Honest Abes.

[The Silent Warrior]

Quote

Because only 244 copies of Vista where legally bough in all of China..

This is a misinformation made up by slashdot. Microsoft said that the "sales data in China is inaccurate," though it failed to specify how many it sold. Instead, it said that the first month's sales of Vista in China were doubled those of XP during its first month.

[Ron1n]

its kinda logical but at the same time not, why pay 66$ when you can pay 0$

kinda funny...

[ShamusHand]

Ron1n, on Aug 3 2007, 04:16 PM, said:

its kinda logical but at the same time not, why pay 66$ when you can pay 0$

kinda funny...

Because the more something costs, the more compelled someone is to steal it rather than buy it.

[TheGreenMan]

It's a good move.

[timbertide]

Order Vista online from chinese websites!

[Kalphite]

-Y- 1,512 ? that's still mad expensive in china, ppl will pirate anyways, it's like paying $1,512, ridiculous, the yuan has the same buying value as in the $ in their own countries

[ShamusHand]

timbertide, on Aug 6 2007, 08:03 AM, said:

Order Vista online from chinese websites!

You'll just wind up with a Chinese version of Vista. Since they didn't lower the prices on Ultimate, and you can't use language packs with any other versions of Vista, there is no advantage of buying from China.

Kalphite, on Aug 9 2007, 07:33 PM, said:

-Y- 1,512 ? that's still mad expensive in china, ppl will pirate anyways, it's like paying $1,512, ridiculous, the yuan has the same buying value as in the $ in their own countries

1,512 Yen isn't $1,512... It's like $70.

[Kalphite]

it's the yuan...
i lived in china recently and 1yuan there buys you a bottle of coke. $1here buys you a bottle of coke. the products are cheaper because people make 8x less money than here. so microsoft's product is expensive