In a move said to quash piracy in China, Microsoft has slashed prices on Windows Vista and Office 2007. Vista Home Basic has been dropped by over 66%, from $201 to $66, while the Home Premium product has been lowered from $238 to $118.

Reported piracy rates in China are reported at 82%, and Microsoft feels this move will cause piracy to lower dramatically.

The above figures are reported at the Betanews site, yet other industry sites have reported figures much lower, such as the ability to obtain Office 2007 for as little as $3 (legally) with Vista at nearly the same cost. The reasons given are not only the combating of piracy, but also the efforts of Microsoft to remove any desire for Linux of any flavor there.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this, and how long Microsoft will allow/encourage piracy there before dropping the hammer when the company magically decides that its goals have been met.

With this as an object lesson, it would seem that the remedy to high costs of Microsoft software is more, not less piracy.

Buccaneers, get out there and do your stuff! (g)

[tags] Microsoft, China, piracy, Vista, Office 2007, retrograde logic [/tags]