why is Micro$oft Vista so expense?

Answer 1

another example of rip-off Britain.

simple example, prices taken from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

amazon.co.uk
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Edition DVD
£168.99 or $335 ( £1 / $1.98 at yahoo conversion)

amazon.com
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic FULL VERSION DVD
$191.99 or £96.98 ( £1 / $1.98 at yahoo conversion)

in the US you can buy it for £97, but here in the UK you pay £169.

how can Billy get away with charging us an extra £70?

Answer 2

Marketing: make it too cheap and no one will want one (cache effect), make it too pricey and no one can afford it (elitism) - make it just within reach of most and you get the cache and they get your cash.

So the answer is money - they want as much as they can squeeze out of you, and making it slightly pricey makes you want it all the more. The more people who want it the more will buy it and the more money MS makes - of course the quality of the product, it's usefulness, the value added benefits from XP, none of that enters the minds of the buyer - because if you looked at what they've produced you'd be wowed by the flashiness but seriously disappointed with the actual benefits of upgrading.

Maybe there's another reason - the PC is on the way out. There are now Web/Net equivalent versions of the Office suite and free Offices suites available, which have most of the features present in MS Office. It won't be too long before buying software like Vista in the way that we do at present is finished. So maybe, just maybe they're milking it for all its worth as pretty soon it'll be worthless anyway.

Still, I wish I could afford a copy, don't you.

Answer 3

Becuase the obvios goal of any large corporation is to maximize profits, Microsoft knows that people are going to dish out alot of money for the Vista operating system so why not charge them what people are willing to pay? If the product works and is an advancement in the way we interact with our computers and in technology than it is well worth the added expence. Microsoft is one of the largest corporations in the world and just becuase Bill Gates is the CEO doesnt mean that millions of others have invested money into Microsoft and one day hope to get a return on their money. Im sure they are happy to hear that Microsoft is trying this new idea called maximizing profits as well. And I havent tried Vista yet, might not even be worth it, windows xp is good enough for me.

Answer 4

Lots of reasons. Vista has been in development for about seven years now. You figure a team of 200+ developers, each making over $100,000.00 per year for seven years, plus all the other people working on the project, and Microsoft spent a fortune to create it. They need to recoup their losses and then make a profit. Also, there is the problem of piracy - over 114,000,000 copies of XP were pirated, which represented a huge loss of money for the company. So they inflated the cost of Vista to help make up for that loss. It;s like any other business - those of us who are honest end up paying for the criminals.

Answer 5

when new things come out, they are generally expensive. I want that computer too, but i am going to wait until june and see what happens. that's when they have end of school sale. so the price should be lowered. and in september, there is a back to school sale. so the price in september should be lower that june's price and june's price should be lower than right now's price. so i am going to wait until september to get my vista computer. or i might get a mac since they are only $1000 with out shipping and tax fee. wist, i know it is a hell of a buy, but expensive. how much are they anyway? $5000? well i'm sure it's more than a dell, $500 and more than a IMAC$1000

Answer 6

If u buy vista money goes to bill gates
and bill gates devlop another useless operating system
i use linux buddy no tension of useless windows
windows xp is ok
but vista i hate it
ubuntu is gr10

Answer 7

Capitalism - people want to make as much money as possible
MS knows people will buy their software because everyone uses it and it has the broadest software support so they purposely gorge up the prices to make more profit.
Vista required a lot of money to create (in terms of designing)
Piracy is on the rise, so they need to regain the money they "lost" from piracy.
MS is greedy.
A higher price won't hurt their market share, because piracy will fill in their loss.

Answer 8

Vista is just like a new broom looks to sweep better. When errors was found automatically its price will go down. But the price now is worth for its new interface, more user friendliness and security.

Answer 9

The way microsoft converts money and prices is just change the $ sign for a £ sign.
Yep..welcome to rip off Britain folks.

Answer 10

anytime Microsoft comes out with a new operating system its gonna be costly, but also keep in mind it has tons of features as well, Vista home Premium has Media center and i think that has alot to do with it.