By Colin Barker, 26 February 2007 09:20
NEWS
As businesses and consumers grapple with Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, one question is increasingly being asked: why is it so much more expensive to buy Vista in the UK than the US?
Anger over the issue has prompted an e-petition on a government website that acts as a forum for public petitions. In less than a day it had collected more than 1,000 signatures with a regular stream of people signing up.
The petition is posted on the 10 Downing Street section of the government site and will be sent to the Prime Minister's office after it closes on 20 April. It calls on Tony Blair to put pressure on Microsoft "to stop them overcharging the UK for its Vista operating system".
It points out the "huge difference in the price that people in the US and the UK are paying for Windows Vista", claiming that Vista Ultimate (the premium version) costs £350 in the UK but can be bought for £150 ($298) in the US.
It's not clear where these figures come from, as retail prices vary. For example, according to the recommended retail prices on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, Vista Ultimate is pegged at £203 ($399.99) in the US, and £369.99 in the UK.
For the purposes of the petition, the organisers have picked on the most extreme difference in price between Vista in the UK and in the US. Generally, many versions of Vista, which comes in multiple flavours, are nearly twice as expensive in the UK as they are in the US. But Vista Home Basic, the version for people who qualify for an upgrade to Vista, costs £99 in the UK and £81 ($159) in the US - a UK premium of almost 20 per cent.
Colin Barker writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
There are 20 comments. Join the discussion
1. Stuart Fawcett
It seems to be a common occurrence with US software - more cost and often less support.
Sign here :- http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/VistaOvercharge/#detail
2. Karen Challinor
gosh another petition for the PM to condescend to us about and ultimately do nothing
we pay more for everything in this country, because the manufacturers know they can get away with it
it's not just microsoft, it's everyone
if you have a complaint then write to your MP you might get somewhere but don't waste time with the petition website
3. Karen Challinor
I've just had a quick trawl through the closed petitions and the responses fall into the following categories
1. point at existing legislation regardless of whether the petition calls for a change in it or not and say "we believe this is fairer"
- saying no
2. point at comittees which will give their results sometime after the event they are reporting on has occurred and say "we can't comment until then"
- prevaricaton/delaying tactics
3. agree with the petition and point at legislation that purports to support that point despite it not having anything to do with the petition
- misdirection
4. ignore the petition
- the petition was frivolous, but it's going to stay there as we'll point to it on a later date when you eventually ask us to hand over the reigns of power, it's an example that you are not capable of wiping your own nose never mind fit to be running a country
5. agree with the petition and point at existing legislation the petitioner forgot about or missed
- the petitioner made a mistake (see 4)
6. say that for reasons of national security we regret that this issue can not be discussed in an open forum
- we've already made our minds up or (see 1)
basically the petition website achieves nothing of merit, the government does not deviate from the course it has set no matter how loudly the oarsmen complain unless the petition is for some trivial matter or happens to be something the government was going to do anyway
my apologies if these posts are duplicates I wasn't sure they went throught he first time
4. Peter Lewis
Perhaps we should petition the PM to abolish taxes.
People are complaining about 'a tad under 20% price difference between UK & US'. Strange that, considering that the UK has 17.5% VAT & the US adds sales tax (where applicable) after the event.
5. anonymous
Surely Gates & Balmer aren't trying to punish EU countries for pulling them up on past (?) monopolistic activity!!
6. Andy neale
...It's called freedom of Choice...You don't have to buy Vista...vote with your wallets (or purses)
7. Nick Cole
It's all part of rip off Britain. Don't charge what it costs to produce/develop with a reasonable overhead, but charge as much as possible. Swapping a dollar sign for a pound sign is the easiest way of achieving that!
It is all down to the greed of the importers and UK senior management.
8. Graham Coles
Given that the majority of what you're paying for is DRM that Microsoft developed for Hollywood so that you can (or can't as the case may be) play HD content on your computer, this would seem like a good time to consider an alternative system.
Peter Guttman's article, 'A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection' is a great indication of some of what you are paying for, and why your hardware (especially graphic cards) will also be more expensive.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
9. anonymous
A petition that could actually have some effect. UK government is a very large user of Microsoft products so has some leverage over extreme pricing for effectively monopoly software such as Vista. It should be said that I don't see this as Microsoft bashing, most other vendors hanker after the dollar=pound pricing regime so Redmond is going with the flow. However a strong response to this petition should raise the profile of the UK surcharge issue in the mass media. So go sign!
10. Jeff
The petition is pretty pointless.
Microsoft will just say that the US is a much larger market than in the UK.
It is therefore easier to get the investment in the US version of Vista back.
It is like MS Money. They stopped making a UK version because it simply was not economical.
It is just a shame that there is not a viable alternative to Microsoft Products
11. misceng
Overcharging is universal in UK. When I wanted a digital camera I searched the internet for a bargain. I found that for ALL major makes the cheapest price for identical cameras in UK was always around 25% higher than USA prices. The comparison was made on prices before adding VAT to make it truly valid. Since at the time there was no sales tax on internet purchases in USA the actual cost to UK customers was 46% higher after tax.
12. anonymous
I thought I read somwhere that Windows costs the same in every country... I'm sure there was a row because it seemed (ridiculously) expensive in developing countries.
On a related note, has anyone else noticed how much XP (as updated) has slowed down recently, now that Vista is on sale?
13. Malcolm Wilson
Apple are just as bad with the Tiger OS. It retails in the US at $129*, which equates to £65.50 in the UK. Here we pay £89** which in turn represents a 35% markup.
I still love the superior OS but we Mac users also get a less than fair deal here and it seems that nobody is prepared to do much about it.
Sources:
* Apple's website in the US
** Apple's website in the UK
14. Ian Savell
XP is being killed off by "pernicious" upgrades and lack of a service pack.
The release via "automatic updates" of Internet Exporer 7 has ripped through the XP world like a virus. It causes many software failures and grinds PCs to a halt encouraging people to buy a new PC, which brings in Vista. I have banned IE7 throughout the organisation. If you uninstall IE7 it reverts to IE6 and generally sorts out the problems, but for full functionality to return you should move to Firefox.
By refusing to issue a service pack for XP, new XP installations have to load 88 critical updates, a process that takes several hours and you can bet this will extend as MS issue new updates and turn server capacity over to Vista.
Clearly abuse of a monopoly. I'm happy to run PCs with Windows, I don't want to move to Mac or Linux which have their own problems, but I wish someone could control MS' avarice and incompetence.
15. Sarah
I remember this being an issue when Windows 95 came out so is nothing new.
Welcome to rip-off Britain.
Totally agree with Karen Challinor. All the petitions are a waste of time. Just something else for our spin machine to ignore.
16. anonymous
Colin,
You appear to be comparing different versions of Vista. The recommended price of the upgrade version of Home Basic on the Amazon website is $99 and £100. Amazon UK have discounted the price to £83 ($159) however.
CNet also want $99 for the upgrade according to the email they sent me
17. James Collings
It's not just the price. I suspect there are data protection issues that are not resolved. Are the Microsoft servers that collect data in relation to licensing in the UK?
See:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/mar/ep-cttee-pnr-report.pdf
US DP laws are different to those of the UK. So is the data collection that Microsoft require to comply with their draconian license agreements legal?
18. Simon
Ian Savell writes "I'm happy to run PCs with Windows ... but I wish someone could control MS' avarice and incompetence."
Well then, here you are bleating about the cost, but then saying you are ahppy with the situation. As long as people continue to pay, MS will continue to charge - it's as simple as that. People like you continue to pay their rip-off prices and so that makes YOU part of the problem. I for one have refused to pay their exorbitant taxes - but what I'm most bothered about is that all the crap they have thrown into Vista to prevent you using it will have a knock on effect in the cost of hardware that is going to run something more sensible.
Why should I pay a 25% premium (estimated extra cost of re-engineering video cards for example) for my hardware because some clueless f***wits in Seattle have just bent over and allowed themselves to be shafted by the movie industry.
19. Amy Holtz
It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a techie) to point out that everything - from iPods to CDs to DVDs and most computers - costs twice as much in England than it does in America. Add to that the fact that the English average income is half that of decent areas in the US, we come to the conclusion that Britain is a rip-off.
If only shipping rates from America and import tax weren't so expensive...
20. Karen Challinor
I could set up an import company in the UK and ship things in from the states for only a slight mark up on the american price taking into account shipping and VAT at this end
however as I would not be an "approved channel" for importing these goods I would be laying myself open to prosecution under the copyright act
so I could not sell the goods at a lower price than the manufacturer sets without removing any and all branding from the product
this would not really be for selling counterfeit goods this would be for infringing the manufacturers profit margin by selling their own goods cheaper than they are willing to
so I could ship in copies of Vista but I would then have to somehow remove the words Microsoft and Vista and any other trademark from the product before I could sell it
the major problem there is the copyright act which allows foreign manufacturers to effectively set the price of goods in the UK
now if a group of people were to get together and make a collective foreign purchase and arrange to have that shipped over and then distribute it I think you would be ok and you would make a large saving on the same product purchased locally
so if you don't like the price find a large group of people who want to purchase the same thing and ship it in yourselves, I pretty much guarantee someone will try and stop you
alternatively write to your MP and complain about the copyright act as it applies to imported goods