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.

I'm sure they have figured this out better than we have, but it seems like they would prefer a sliding scale with higher than 5% for the low end computers and less than 5% for the upper end computers.
How many computers are sold to business users for significantly higher than $1000? Maybe there are enough of these sold that they want their 5% of the higher prices.
Two words; customer support.
If you buy retail and has a problem, it is MS' job to assist you. If you have a Dell, it is Dell's job to assist you. If you bought an OEM disc from newegg, it is your job to provide customer support.
I know that MS gets about $15-25 per XP Home on a netbook... which is a little more than 5%, but they get more for their business/pro editions.
I'm sure they have figured this out better than we have, but it seems like they would prefer a sliding scale with higher than 5% for the low end computers and less than 5% for the upper end computers.
How many computers are sold to business users for significantly higher than $1000? Maybe there are enough of these sold that they want their 5% of the higher prices.
Since most of the computers (desktop or laptop... except netbooks) have Vista home/enterprice installed... will these percentage still 5%? or this is just the average?
I know that MS gets about $15-25 per XP Home on a netbook... which is a little more than 5%, but they get more for their business/pro editions.
except then alot of people would be using Linux and everyone would start writing virus's for it. Of course then Microsoft could claim its secure. I hate it when people go oh well linux is secure, oh well apple is secure. Yep they are cause no one is going to try to steal information 2% of the computer market. They are going to focus on the other 98%.
Why are pc manufacturers not going to like this? Do you think they expect to get windows for free? 5% sounds very reasonable to me.
Two words; customer support.
If you buy retail and has a problem, it is MS' job to assist you. If you have a Dell, it is Dell's job to assist you. If you bought an OEM disc from newegg, it is your job to provide customer support.
A manufacturer could state to Microsoft how much they'd be needing in the next month or so, which would mean a stable income for Microsoft. (Plus manufacturers buy thousands of copies at a time) With retail however there is no guarantee how much you'd be able to sell at a given point in time.
The fact also that Microsoft is the sole provider of Windows might have also something to do with the retail price.
PC OEMs will continue to use MS no matter what deal they are cut. The general populous works and plays with windows; this means that if they cut out windows and start with linux they will lose a vast majority of sales. Then keep in mind the compatability issues to be had with a non-windows OS.
+1
In all fairness though, it's my understanding that Rabbi Jobs does personally bless each stick of RAM that goes in a Mac, which somewhat justifies the price. /sarcasm
LAME!!!
I didn't realize that when I bought something, I was paying all tax and not like, a price. I had no idea that things didn't like, have value. How dare Microsoft charge for it's products.
Learn to read the article, 5% is the cost of the actual license for the copy of Windows. Not an additional cost over the license.