Microsoft announces price reductions for selected stand-alone versions of Windows Vista.

Yesterday Microsoft announced global price reductions for stand-alone versions of Windows Vista. Although the vast majority of Windows Vista sales have been through having the operating system packaged with new PCs, there is still a healthy market for the stand-alone editions that you can pick up from computer shops. Just over a year after Windows Vista was launched, Microsoft are looking at increasing this market through a series of worldwide price reductions to tempt people into making the move to Windows Vista.

Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing at Microsoft, in an interview with PressPass explained the price reductions: 

“Today we announced a variety of price reductions for copies of Windows Vista sold on retail shelves. In developed markets, the price changes will most notably impact upgrade retail versions of the…Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions. In emerging markets, we are combining full and upgrade Home Basic and Home Premium versions…and instituting price changes to meet the demand we see among first-time Windows customers who want more functionality than is available in current Windows XP editions. In addition, we are also adjusting pricing on Windows Vista Ultimate in emerging markets to be comparable to price changes developed market customers will see.
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.”

You can read the full interview here.