Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 23, 2002 11:44 PM
"No way Dell is paying Microsoft $100 for a _bundled_ version of Windows XP pro, I think somewhere in between $10 and $20 is more accurate."
That's the stated price - keep in mind, most OEMs will respond that you're not paying for any of the software when you buy a PC from them - that it's "free". It's not, it's a hidden cost. Dell and the other OEMs, under further inquiry, will probably state a rebated pricetag of $10 to $20 US for those OEM software units, but I suspect that it works out to being a bit more in hidden costs that the OEM's don't want to disclose for fear that they'll bust open their "The software is really free" mantra.
These are play numbers - the real cost is made up elsewhere. Be careful about how you break these things down.
For example, the per-license cost could be $10 - $20, but the cost for getting the media could be a once-a-year subscription price of $100,000. That's how they get around a lot of this, delayed or bulk pricing combined with rebates and bulk discounts.
Incidentally, the rebates often come from exclusionary agreements - so both the OEM and consumer are paying in loss of flexibility as well.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Re:OS = a few percent?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 23, 2002 11:44 PMThat's the stated price - keep in mind, most OEMs will respond that you're not paying for any of the software when you buy a PC from them - that it's "free". It's not, it's a hidden cost. Dell and the other OEMs, under further inquiry, will probably state a rebated pricetag of $10 to $20 US for those OEM software units, but I suspect that it works out to being a bit more in hidden costs that the OEM's don't want to disclose for fear that they'll bust open their "The software is really free" mantra.
These are play numbers - the real cost is made up elsewhere. Be careful about how you break these things down.
For example, the per-license cost could be $10 - $20, but the cost for getting the media could be a once-a-year subscription price of $100,000. That's how they get around a lot of this, delayed or bulk pricing combined with rebates and bulk discounts.
Incidentally, the rebates often come from exclusionary agreements - so both the OEM and consumer are paying in loss of flexibility as well.
#