Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 25th Jun 2009 14:01 UTC
After a long wait, Microsoft has finally unveiled the pricing information for the next Windows release, Windows 7, which will arrive at the shops on October 22. Interestingly enough, Europe will get full retail copies for upgrade pricing because of the whole Windows 7 E thing not being tested when it comes to upgrades.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Software has an insane amount of R&D cost. Microsoft says they have about 80 devs working on windows. At an average of probably about 90k/yr, that is 14.4 million dollars (assuming a 2 year release cycle) just for developer salaries. And developers are just the tip of the iceburg. It mounts up pretty quick; testers, manufacturing/shipping, marketing, support (retraining at least), technical writing, artwork, usability testing, 3rd party licensing, legal, etc, etc, etc.
130$ is next to nothing, considering the amount of work going in to an operating system. If you look at the size of the potential market, if Apple isn't losing money on osx, they are about breaking even. The only reason they are even making OSX is to sell their hardware. It may not be exactly the same thing as selling cheap bread to get people in the door, it is close enough that the analogy stands.
130$ is next to nothing, considering the amount of work going in to an operating system. If you look at the size of the potential market, if Apple isn't losing money on osx, they are about breaking even. The only reason they are even making OSX is to sell their hardware. It may not be exactly the same thing as selling cheap bread to get people in the door, it is close enough that the analogy stands.
I wouldn't say you're too far off with the 'cheap bread' analogy given that it was Steve Jobs who said that Mac OS X is the heart of a Mac; without Mac OS X, Apple computers would be just yet another x86 PC out there with some minor tweaks here and there.
With that being said, if Windows 7 is all they can produce after throwing millions or possibly billions at the project - then I'd hate to see what a failed project looks like.
Edited 2009-06-26 11:29 UTC
RE[5]: Comment by Kroc
by google_ninja on Fri 26th Jun 2009 12:23
in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by Kroc"
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Member since:
2006-02-05
Software has an insane amount of R&D cost. Microsoft says they have about 80 devs working on windows. At an average of probably about 90k/yr, that is 14.4 million dollars (assuming a 2 year release cycle) just for developer salaries. And developers are just the tip of the iceburg. It mounts up pretty quick; testers, manufacturing/shipping, marketing, support (retraining at least), technical writing, artwork, usability testing, 3rd party licensing, legal, etc, etc, etc.
130$ is next to nothing, considering the amount of work going in to an operating system. If you look at the size of the potential market, if Apple isn't losing money on osx, they are about breaking even. The only reason they are even making OSX is to sell their hardware. It may not be exactly the same thing as selling cheap bread to get people in the door, it is close enough that the analogy stands.