Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Rare Clues Emerge About Windows OEM Prices

A few rare beams of light are shining into the always murky closet of Windows OEM pricing.

Per Redmond magazine columnist Mary Jo Foley's ZDNet blog, an executive with ZTE told TrustedReviews.com that the Chinese phone maker must pay Microsoft $23 to $31 per copy to license the Windows Phone OS.

The amount seems really high to me, although I admit I don't know much about the relationship between the list prices you see for phones and what the carriers actually end up paying the phone manufacturers per device. (Care to enlighten me on a background basis? E-mail [email protected] or leave a comment below.)

In another interesting development on the pricing front, a report by Taiwan-based DigiTimes cited unnamed notebook vendor sources as saying that Microsoft's and Intel's combined fear of damaging PC pricing appears to be forcing Windows 8 tablets based on Intel chips into the $600-to-$900 price range.

According to the report, the pricing decisions may drive them to choose ARM solutions rather than the Intel platform to keep their Windows 8 tablet prices competitive with the market's dominant device, the Apple iPad. The iPad 2 retails from $500 to $830, but may come in less expensive options by the time any Windows 8 tablets ship due to pricing pressure from the $200 Amazon Kindle Fire.

Posted by Scott Bekker on January 20, 2012


Featured

  • World Map Image

    Microsoft Taps Nebius in $17B AI Infrastructure Deal To Alleviate Cloud Strain

    Microsoft has signed a five-year, $17.4 billion agreement with Amsterdam-based Nebius Group to expand its AI computing capabilities through third-party GPU infrastructure.

  • Microsoft Brings Copilot AI Into Viva Engage

    Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Engage is now generally available, extending Copilot's AI-powered assistant capabilities deeper into the Viva platform.

  • MIT Finds Only 1 in 20 AI Investments Translate into ROI

    Despite pouring billions into generative AI technologies, 95 percent of businesses have yet to see any measurable return on investment.

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.