Vista - why so expensive?
Much has been said recently about Microsoft’s new OS - Windows Vista, however why is it so expensive over here in the UK - in the USA (from Amazon.com) the upgrade edition to Vista Home Premium is $153 with free shipping (around £78 at todays exchange rate, but they won’t ship it to the UK) however to buy the same package over here from Amazon’s UK site, costs £135 (Amazon.co.uk) an astonishing £57 more for exactly the same thing.
Why is Vista Upgrade around 75% more expensive in the UK than in the US? Microsoft wonder why people pirate their OS’s - with this kind of pricing imbalance, I’m not surprised.
I know if I shopped around, I could probably find that upgrade package cheaper in the UK - but not by much… and major retail stores are pretty much charging “dollar for pound” conversions - a well known computer retail chain in the UK is selling the package for £150!
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One the first real day of snow this Winter you rant about Vista. Tom, you are truly a geek.
Maybe because they know they can get away with it in the UK because people will just accept it. A bit like Sky - £10 per month to enable the recording mechanism of your recorder, £10 per month to watch a limited number of HD channels, £10 per month to watch in a another room…erm, if people actually stopped to think about it they’d realise what a rip-off this is.
I sometimes wish I could just broadcast a message to everyone to say don’t be such an easy target! Let’s just hold back for 6 months on Vista (probably sensible anyway!). If they don’t sell any, then you can be sure the price will come down.
Snow? What snow!
Dave - yes, I am.
Chris - see the next post…
you’ll find almost all software companies do this. adobe products are the same, except they charge $999 in the US and £999 in the UK. it’s almost cheaper to fly out and buy a copy.
Interestingly, we buy from a well known manufacturer at trade price, and there is no difference in price between XP Professional and Vista Business on new machines. Would that be the same in the UK?
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well as far as i see it what is the point in paying over £100 for something that is going to become near off obselte in a year or two time and for something that will run certain programs its just barbaric that people are actually stupid enough to pay out so much for something so… basic… i just don’t see the point in out of control pricing….
no wonder bill gates is so rich especially if thats the price he’s charging for a system base