My wife expressed an interest in Microsoft’s Vista (although she was pretty cool about it I know her well enough to see that she was taken by the blurb we’re now getting on it.
I looked up the price on Amazon .co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KCIA3W/ref=amb_link_38562865_2/202-2298067-2079813 and found it to be £210.99. I thought that was a bit steep so I looked at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Premium-VERSION/dp/B000HCZ9AW/sr=1-7/qid=1170167349/ref=sr_1_7/102-5700181-3672912?ie=UTF8&s=softwareand and found its price to be $226.99. So I have to pay $414.15 for the same product.
I tried to think of reasons for this disparity. All I could come up with is:
1 We’re being conned here in the UK (my favourite reason at the moment, because the phrase “rip-off-Britain” is quite common here).
2 Because the EU got upset with Bill Gates and caused him some trouble, fines and changing XP to conform to new regulation etc., he’s getting his own back.(perhaps Microsoft have had to modify Vista as well)
3 There’s loads of hidden taxes that US citizens have to pay that brings the prices vitually equal. (I dont believe this for one minute, but I could be wrong).
Anyone know of a better reason for this price difference? What’s the cost of this item in your part of the world?
I would guess that it’s a mix between item #2 (probably MS had to do a bunch of extra stuff for the EU market and they’re offloading that cost) plus that it was probably a later release for the UK so you’re still seeing the markup to get the bonus cash off the people who have to have it first.
You’d be upgrading from a previous form of windows, wouldn’t you? You can get the home premium upgrade version for 140 pounds here. That’s still over a hundred dollars’ difference, though (the US upgrade version is 153 USD). Hmm.
I think it must be microsoft related, since UK Sims players always report that the prices for the games/expansions are roughly equal to what we pay in the US so being screwed on US software isn’t universal.
There’s no sales tax for products sold online in the US, but the UK price does include the VAT. That’s very likely not the whole difference, but at least a part of it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t a large soda cost about a pound, and lunch out cost from 5-10 pounds? I pay about a dollar for a large soda, and lunch out is about 5-10 pounds. If I remember correctly from being in England in March, a beer at the pub was 2-4 quid, I’d expect to pay 2-4 bucks here.
So, although you’re money is “worth” more in the international market, you have about the same amount of purchasing power with a couple hundred units of currency. Or, I’m full of shit.
I don’t know how much M/S software reduces in price over time Sage Rat, in my limited experience not very much. The price seems to hold up too well, whether that’s due to M/S or the retailers I don’t know.
I don’t know if I can upgrade from an OEM version of XP but in any case it appears to be rather more convoluted than previous operating systems after reading another thread here somewhere.
I’ve just worked out (correctly I hope, that VAT on £440 is about £72) so that is a sizeable part of the difference I guess.
Personally I’d never pay £4 for a pint of beer but it’s true that food and drink do seem to cost more here.