Microsoft recently reportedly cutting cost of the Windows 8.1 licensing fee by 70% for cheaper devices.
Microsoft recently has been on offense against perceived competitor in a form of Apple iPad & Chromebook powered by the Google's Chrome OS , & now they are taking the fight straight to their Windows licensees by slashing the cost they will be required to the pay by 70%.
The reported cuts bring the cost per device for Windows 8.1 RT Operating System down to the $15 for devices that will retail for less than $250. The standard licensing cost is $50, though it can be brought down closer to $30 when marketing incentive funds are factored in.
Microsoft is seeking to speed up development & introduction of the new devices. It won’t require products that use the cheaper licensing to complete logo certification, a process that verifies hardware compatibility, one of the people said. Devices aren’t required to be touch-screen compatible, sources said.
Adoption of Windows 8 has steadily grown, though unlike with previous releases there was little difference in sell-through rates when the new OS was released. As of earlier this month, Microsoft reported that they had sold more than 200 million licenses for Windows 8.
Microsoft tried a similar strategy back in 2008, slashing the licensing cost for Windows XP for netbooks. That move may have backfired, for the proliferation of lower-priced netbooks ended up taking a $465 million bite out of Microsoft's revenue, forced them to lay off 5,000 employees, and saddled a generation of computer users with sub-par hardware.
The reported cuts bring the cost per device for Windows 8.1 RT Operating System down to the $15 for devices that will retail for less than $250. The standard licensing cost is $50, though it can be brought down closer to $30 when marketing incentive funds are factored in.
Microsoft is seeking to speed up development & introduction of the new devices. It won’t require products that use the cheaper licensing to complete logo certification, a process that verifies hardware compatibility, one of the people said. Devices aren’t required to be touch-screen compatible, sources said.
Adoption of Windows 8 has steadily grown, though unlike with previous releases there was little difference in sell-through rates when the new OS was released. As of earlier this month, Microsoft reported that they had sold more than 200 million licenses for Windows 8.
Microsoft tried a similar strategy back in 2008, slashing the licensing cost for Windows XP for netbooks. That move may have backfired, for the proliferation of lower-priced netbooks ended up taking a $465 million bite out of Microsoft's revenue, forced them to lay off 5,000 employees, and saddled a generation of computer users with sub-par hardware.
Comments
Post a Comment