Microsoft Wants 5% Cut of Each New Windows PC
It's the Microsoft tax.
Microsoft has historically been rather hush hush when it comes to it's share in the sale of a new PC that includes an OEM copy of Windows, but one general manager of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft revealed some interesting figures.
While none of this information is official, and we're sure that Windows licensing costs vary from one OEM to the next depending on negotiate deals, it seems that Microsoft takes about $50 per PC that costs around $1000.
"If you think of the $1,000 PC, which has kind of been the benchmark for the last decade or so, then we've always charged about $50 for the copy of Windows for that PC," Songhurst revealed at the Jefferies Annual Technology Conference, as reported by Ars Technica.
"So that's five percent. So if you think about charging $100, $200 or if you think about a super high-end PC, you know the Sony Vaios or anything that's there for around the $1000 mark, or the Alienware PCs that are even higher, if we can get that constant percentage then we should be indifferent to the number five points in the market," Songhurst continued.
Clearly, taking a $50 cut from a $300 netbook is something that most OEMs would probably find to be disadvantageous, which would make one think that alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu would have the upper hand. But Microsoft seems to think that it would be happy if it could score five percent from every new PC sale, particularly with the increased range of PC prices with the advent of netbooks and $300 laptops at Wal-Mart.
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Oh what a shame I build mine myself then
But Microsoft aren't taking a $50 slice out of a $300 netbook are they. 5% is $15, although that is still a fair amount if you're not running a huge profit margin.
Since I pay for the OEMs myself, they're getting even more from me. I'm not fussed. I just spent £120 on two copies of 7 and I think it's worth the money. I need it to run my hardware anyway.
Does it really matter that you are paying out $50 per unit when you are paying nothing like that for the software in the first place ?
Its like you buy this off me at X and if you sell it on i want 5% of the whole sale, which by the way is still less than what the OEM version costs to the public.
The companies reduce the outlay and MS get to sell probably higher volumes than they would and get to take advantage of any price rises as well.
Mactronix