Vista Pricing Cut Worldwide

• By Michael Domingo
• 03/04/08

Microsoft last week announced that it would cut the price on Windows Vista. The timing of the price cut would coincide with the retail availability of Vista Service Pack 1.

Brad Brooks, Microsoft corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing, stated in a press release that timing the price reduction with SP1 would make it "as easy and efficient as possible for our retail partners to update their displays once."

Targets for price cuts are retail versions of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions that are sold in developed countries. In emerging markets, features of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium editions will be combined and sold under a single retail SKU, with pricing set regionally.

A Microsoft spokesperson stated through e-mail that developed countries might include the United States and Canada, most of the European Union, Australia and Japan, and emerging markets might include many parts of Central and South America, parts of southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Still, Microsoft was hammering out details as of this writing.

The spokesperson also noted that some countries would be excluded, like China, since Vista "prices there were reduced last summer in a highly publicized anti-piracy campaign."