Microsoft Brings Down Vista Prices

In an effort to push up sales of the ill-fated Vista, Microsoft has announced a slash in the prices of stand-alone Windows Vista packs. This announcement will be effective along with the shipment of its first update to Vista, Service Pack 1, in March.

The strategy will be different in developed and emerging markets. Price-drops in the US and other developed markets will be for the upgrade versions, and many people might not even see a difference, if one factors in already-existing discount offers. In emerging markets, like India, Microsoft will eliminate the distinction between the full and upgrade versions of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium.
The strategy for poorer countries seems to make sense because many people in these markets have never bought a genuine copy of Windows; if Microsoft wants to see some of that happening, a price-cut is in order, and so is the elimination of the distinction between the upgrade and the full versions. In developed markets, the reduction in price will range from 20 to 48 percent, but like we've mentioned, it will not make a difference to a majority of would-be buyers because of existing promotions.
Still, Vista Ultimate will now cost $219, down from $299; Home Premium goes down to $129 from $159. But remember that as of now, only 10 percent of stand-alone Vista packs are sold through online and offline retailers. There will be no price cuts for PC manufacturers who install Vista on their machines.

Analysts have been surprised by the move: "I can't remember a big price cut like this," said analyst Chris Swenson, who tracks retail software sales for NPD Group. "It's very unheard of." Microsoft's new Windows Consumer Marketing Vice President, Brad Brooks, has pointed to the increase in sales when the company made a price cut (to manufacturers) for Windows XP Media Center Edition.

It was initially pitched as a high-end version, something above XP Professional, but when Microsoft lowered the price to not much higher than Windows XP Home, it became the dominant consumer version: "It went from a run rate of about 1 million (copies) a year to a run rate of several tens of millions a year," Brooks said. We can't possibly expect anything like this for Vista, of course, for reasons starting from driver compatibility and going all the way to the question of why upgrade "when XP's fine". In fact, the price-cut seems to be yet another giveaway of Microsoft recently admitted, though not officially: that they knew Vista wasn't ready.

i dont know why vista is such a big flop in india agreed that its 10% slower than xp and eats up your pcs resourses but still...most people i know who got original vista it with their laptops are formatting it and installing xp(no so original) on it.