国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Microsoft slashing prices on Windows, Office

By Wang Xing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-08 19:00

Software giant Microsoft yesterday announced plans to reduce the retail price of its Windows and Office products by as much as nearly 60 percent in China, hoping to win customers from pirate software dealers.

Microsoft said it would cut the price of its Windows XP Home Edition from 960 yuan to 399 yuan in the next 12 months. The retail price of Microsoft Office 2007 software will also be cut from 699 yuan to 398 yuan.

Related readings:  Microsoft taps Yahoo exec to lead web business  Microsoft ready to face the challenge from competition  Yang's exit opens door for Microsoft  Microsoft spending $1b to boost R&D  Microsoft sued over alleged patent violations  Microsoft not playing fair: Lawyer

"Many Chinese consumers still have the conception that genuine software is expensive," said Wei Qing, consumer and online marketing officer of Microsoft Greater China. "We want to tell Chinese consumers that it is not." 

Having entered the Chinese market in 1992, Microsoft's sales revenue in the country has long been sluggish due to pirated software.

Although the company has successfully convinced government agencies and computer venders in China to adopt genuine software in recent years, pirated software still prevails among individual consumers.

Critics said it is Microsoft's high pricing that forced many Chinese users to turn to pirated software. Windows XP home edition was sold at 1,498 yuan in China last year, loosely equivalent to the average monthly income of city dwellers in Beijing.

As a test, Microsoft launched a promotional campaign in October in which the company reduced the price of its Office 2007 software (which could only be installed on a single computer) from 699 to 199 yuan during the weeklong National Day holiday.

The campaign turned out to be a great success as actual sales were 10 times better than earlier estimates, according to Wang Jianhua, president of Beijing Federal Software, one of China's largest genuine software retail chains.

Wei said Microsoft would extend the October promotion campaign to the upcoming Spring Festival.