Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS 'Windows Vista' in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista.
Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.
News source: NewLaucnes from Japanese source
Link: Forum Discussion (Thanks ThePitt)
Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.
News source: NewLaucnes from Japanese source Link: Forum Discussion (Thanks ThePitt)
^ One of the many pirated Windows Vista editions offered on the street.
na, just promising the usual engrish promise of 'many happinesses' for those customers who purchase it.
you know, if Microsoft were to lower the price of Vista to $1, then, instead of pirates collecting that $1 a copy, it would be Microsoft! Selling an OS for a buck would also be a great selling feature, and just about everyone on the planet with a capable computer would buy it!
We know that no more than 244 legal versions have been installed in China. How many pirate versions have been installed or are the pirates just buying them because they might be usable in the future? Choosy pirates chose XP.
Well we can probably guess that 243 legal version have been authenticated once and 1 has been authenticated 2 Billion times. Again, proof that Microsoft's anti-consumer "anti-piracy" measures do nothing except annoy, inconvenience, and down-right screw the legitimate consumer.
exactly! I'm surprised they actually sold 244 copies!
They do need to lower prices tho... I mean, if it was 50 bucks, i'd buy it right now, and I don't even want it... at $150-200 i'm certainly not going to buy it until a service pack or two is released, and maybe not even then...
GG China.
Also, pirating increases microsofts user base, greatly increasing their market power, which they won't complain about.
That said, I would never support selling pirate copies of software.
Vista (aka XP+):
Too segmented
Too expensive
Too late
Too bad
And you'll note the only version the Chinese are buying is the only proper version of Vista...Ultimate. Everything else is just MBA 101 artificial market segmentation crippleware - and everyone knows it.
Vista (aka XP+):
Too segmented
Too expensive
Too late
Too bad
And you'll note the only version the Chinese are buying is the only proper version of Vista...Ultimate. Everything else is just MBA 101 artificial market segmentation crippleware - and everyone knows it.
Have you even tried Vista you damn troll? Vista is not a "minor polish" and the rest of the versions are not "crippleware". Study your facts before you post bull****.
I'm a beta tester for Microsoft and I'm running four machines on Vista, including the 17" Macbook Pro I'm testing Vista on right now while posting this...so the answer to your confrontational, flame-bait post of ignorance would be
YES.
And I stand by my position that the ONLY version of Vista that MS should have released is the one that contains ALL of the features they are advertising, ULTIMATE. Anything less is crippleware of one kind or another, re: removing features in order to artificially lower the price of entry, with the not so subtle intention of using advertisting and nags of one kind or another to get the user to pay to update to the full version (re: Ultimate).
And if you read my post again, you'll see that my "minor polish" comment SPECIFICALLY states "as far as end users are concerned".
So while WE know there are a lot of changes under the hood of Vista, when an END USER looks at the two side by side on a store shelf (or just plain uses Vista), they find a lot of little improvements everywhere...much more like an OS X user when they upgrade a few point releases at once.
If you want to get all defensive and pretend none of this is true, go for it. But I for one am telling you exactly WHY Vista sales are weak and why end users are yawning about Vista.
It's up to you whether you decide to think about this or just troll-react.
My nose bleeds in sympathy. Try this side of the pond where they're pulling the usual dollar equivalence bollocks; seeing as the dollar is in the toilet that makes it about double what USians pay. THAT is charging too much.
USians.
I like that! Has a sort of Orwellian ring to it! Though USers might be a little more accurate.
I'm a beta tester for Microsoft and I'm running four machines on Vista, including the 17" Macbook Pro I'm testing Vista on right now while posting this...so the answer to your confrontational, flame-bait post of ignorance would be
YES.
And I stand by my position that the ONLY version of Vista that MS should have released is the one that contains ALL of the features they are advertising, ULTIMATE. Anything less is crippleware of one kind or another, re: removing features in order to artificially lower the price of entry, with the not so subtle intention of using advertisting and nags of one kind or another to get the user to pay to update to the full version (re: Ultimate).
And if you read my post again, you'll see that my "minor polish" comment SPECIFICALLY states "as far as end users are concerned".
So while WE know there are a lot of changes under the hood of Vista, when an END USER looks at the two side by side on a store shelf (or just plain uses Vista), they find a lot of little improvements everywhere...much more like an OS X user when they upgrade a few point releases at once.
If you want to get all defensive and pretend none of this is true, go for it. But I for one am telling you exactly WHY Vista sales are weak and why end users are yawning about Vista.
It's up to you whether you decide to think about this or just troll-react.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista...ons_and_pricing
Read and educate yourself before typing crap.
Ultimate is needed by a 2% of the Windows users population. Everyone's life can work just fine without BitLocker and Everyone's life can game just fine without Texas Hold'Em
And Vista sales are weak? Where the hell did you read that? They are doing better than XP's sales at this time.
I dont know if you are a fanboy, a cokehead or what but you are only lying to yourself not others and certainly not the numbers.
cause i got a copy of it but i aint installed it yet.. im giving it time to mature with drivers/software compatibility etc etc before i switch.
besides i was talking to someone about that aero thing... and from what i could tell from him it's basically just something to "play with that looks cool" more than getting any real beneficial use out of it.
You owned him.
When everyone else does (pirate it), you will be the joke paying for something that's "free".
hahahaha
it really dont matter anyways cause microsoft will contiune to have a monopoly on the pc market and they probably make most of there money through OEM crap anyways.
bottom line = microsoft is more than rich regardless of piracy so it aint like they need this money anyways.... cause of there enployee's aint getting hurt (which im sure there not) then all it's effecting is the high up people which are already more than rich so it aint like they "need" the money lost to piracy anyways.
Last edited by ThaCrip on 19 Apr 2007 - 17:34
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Vista was not even officially launched around that time
Vista is just Windows XP with what appears to be a lot of polishes, tweaks, and minor updates.
For example, standby clearly works now. I'm not sure that's something to pay $400 for. After all, it was SUPPOSED to work under XP...and NEVER did. So a lot of great bug fixes, etc. but Vista is mostly filled with stuff that finally works the way Microsoft marketing told us it did...when we all paid for it five years ago, ahem.
And since all the good stuff under the hood is either relatively invisible to the average end user, or was pulled out of Vista over the past two years, I just think most people believe Vista is ridiculously overpriced for what is, after all, a consumer OS.
Vista is just Windows XP with what appears to be a lot of polishes, tweaks, and minor updates.
For example, standby clearly works now. I'm not sure that's something to pay $400 for. After all, it was SUPPOSED to work under XP...and NEVER did. So a lot of great bug fixes, etc. but Vista is mostly filled with stuff that finally works the way Microsoft marketing told us it did...when we all paid for it five years ago, ahem.
And since all the good stuff under the hood is either relatively invisible to the average end user, or was pulled out of Vista over the past two years, I just think most people believe Vista is ridiculously overpriced for what is, after all, a consumer OS.
Right. XP works as fast, great and has as much features. Sure. Believe what you want.
Last edited by snooker on 19 Apr 2007 - 22:29
2. Its difficult to find legal software in China, because everything is pirated
3. Please keep in mind that China is a developing country and they are also 1 billion years behind GB and the US
4. China is a poor country, people cannot afford legal software, 1 copy of Genuine Vista = annual income of a average citizen yes that's how poor they are
Common-place piracy on this scale will not be good for Microsoft, but this could never happen in Europe or the US due to all the counter-piracy measures we have in place. Do companies in China running non-genuine software get shut down? They should do; it is fraud after all...
That said, the real people who will lose out here are the small-scale "bedroom" programmers, not global corporations like Microsoft. If a huge country like China pirates 99% of software, all the small companies will go down the pan, leaving only the massive companies like Microsoft and Apple left.
And yes, open-source software has a very important place in all of this, but it hardly makes a good long-term business model.
One workaround to do it is to offer two free copies of Vista Ultimate for each person who has words "driver developer" in their job title (one for work and one for home), and same (or with reduced price) to all who has words "software developer" in their job title. This could buy Microsoft the biggest selling force.
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