People like things to cost less
Microsoft’s assessment of stand-alone retail sales of Vista is that it “represents an area of opportunity for additional growth…” In other words: not so great. So in order to boost sales, it’s going for the old ‘make it cheaper’ tactic.
Brad Brooks, corporate VP for Windows consumer product marketing, interviewed on Microsoft’s website, said: “In developed markets, the price changes will most notably impact upgrade retail versions of the new editions we introduced in 2007 -- Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions.”
He added: “These price changes will take effect globally with the retail release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later this year, though some markets will see reduced prices sooner as a result of promotions many of our partners already are driving, such as Amazon.com in the United States.” Hmmm.
Microsoft seemed to think it was necessary to explain why it thought making boxed Vista cheaper would lead to more sales. “Over the past year, we conducted promotions in several different markets combining various marketing tactics with lower price points on different stand-alone versions of Windows Vista,” said Brooks.
“While the promotions varied region to region, one constant
emerged – an increase in demand among consumers that went beyond tech
enthusiasts and build-it-yourself types. The success of these promotions has
inspired us to make some broader changes to our pricing structures, to reach a
broader range of consumers worldwide.”
The timing is apparently designed to prevent retail partners updating their displays more than once; they will be refreshing their inventories when retail SP1 comes out anyway, you see.
So what about Amazon?
