[PCWorld]

Post your comments for If China Gets Microsoft Office for $29, Why Don't We? here

[sharinlea]

I wish more people knew about this. If MS can get away with only charge $29 to Chinese consumers, than there is NO need for the prices they charge the US consumers. Regardless... I'll stick with OpenOffice, and continue to encourage others to switch.

[AtriusNY]

Article doesn't make sense...

Every company has different prices in different markets.

Even in a country like Turkey, which is considered to have a developed market by CIA, there are more than 1 million people making $1 or less a day. So, $29.95 - what you consider to be little money- is the monthly income of those people.

Now imagine what it would be like in China...

[ClaudeD]

Why waste money on Microsoft Office, it is clearly an over priced product. The only reason its so expensive in the US is large corporate and government purchasing and dated system adiministrators. Yes, they get a licence break but, Open Office can't be beat. Pricing is fair of free. A tight IT budget will loosen MS pricing policies. As will Linux in a few years.

[davep1]

Microsoft's pricing is a clear indication of monopoly power. It is engaging in predatory pricing to maintain that power in China (and wherever else it sees fit). Why is anyone surprised? That's how MS has always operated and will continue to operate until it is broken up (which is, at best, unlikely).

[Puni]

AtriusNY is absolutely right.

Look at this: ... Urban incomes in China now average about $1,000 a year, while in the countryside incomes still average just over $300 ...

It´s not fair to say the Chinese people have an advantage because the price of ms office is low.

Just think how much our clothing would cost if China wouldn´t produce this item for very low cost, or rice or ...

Of course the picture is much more complex - but as unfair as this article states "Why don´t we get office for $29" you could say "Don´t the chinese people deserve more for their work?"

For saying MS-Office is overpriced - it think MS puts enough effort into this product to say it´s worth it´s money - hey it isn´t perfect but to say it´s overpriced is also not true.

But as ClaudD says - use the alternatives and don´t bother wasting money - if that´s your opinion.

[AtriusNY]

Well put Poni.

Even the simplist application is sold for $20, $30 on the internet.

Microsoft Office Home and Student only costs $89 on Amazon. And it is not really asking and arm and a leg, if you consider the avarage income of an American resident.

Asking companies to lower their prices even more, basically means forcing them to outsourcing their application development to lower income countries, where they would have to pay less for the software engineers. And therefore more jobs lost for Americans.

[mattern74]

What is stopping us from buying the $29.00 legal copies of Office from a Chinese company? Unless...all they sell is the Chinese version. I know about and appreciate Open Office but Microsoft is still the standard.

[doodyman]

which version and what currency?

[rasmasyean]

Some math dudes at redmond figured the price point where it maximizes profit on the price to piracy rate curve.

Simple as that.

Getting $29 on 10% of the copies used is better than getting $500 on 0.001% of the copies used.

[rasmasyean]

@ sharinlea

Software isn’t like a normal product. The “production costs per unit of distribution” is much less than a physical item. In some cases it’s less than one cent.
They need to charge for the “license to use” to make back the money they paid to develop it and also profit for future growth however. And getting something is better than absolutely nothing from China.

[zunguri]

Hey, you're free to move to China and take Chinese wages and get your $29 software.

[mistoffolees]

"What is stopping us from buying the $29.00 legal copies of Office from a Chinese company? "
No need. They'll be on eBay any day now.

[GoneFishing]

OK guys, I'm retired and living in China, and the income difference is a major consideration, but remember that it is China, and it is in Chinese, I doubt seriously if it will install on a english computer, and besides with Open Office able to do 90% of MS office it seems like a decent deal for free, before I came here I bought Office 2002, and it does all I need, FWIW if you buy a new computer and get Vista on it, home basic costs less than 1000RMB, or less than 150USD

[kitsune17717]

I think this idea should also be extended to Microsoft's OS. Seriously, why do we have to pay 500 bucks or whatever for a new version of vista ultimate?

[rasmasyean]

You don't "have" to buy the ultimate version. The idea is to make it scalable downward for consumers. The Ultimate version has both consumer and enterprise components in there. Most people won't use any of hte enterprise components. But if you want it, for training, enthuiastic geekiness, bragging rights, whatever, you have to pay for it. The "Ultimate Extras" was just a gimmic and pretty much all of it is non-functional extras for kicks.

[rasmasyean]

You guys are so spoiled. "I will not spend money on computers...blah blah blah."
When I was a college student (considering the useful life of a computer and spreading out the cost of ownership) you payed about $3 a day to have it. And we all pirated our software by copying it from the university HD's. Yes, that worked back then. That's prolly like $6 in today's adjusted inflation currency. Now, the hardware is so cheap and the useful life of a computer is so long especially with internet functionality, you can prolly pay less than $0.25 per day for the use of your computer (often mobile!). And you're complaining about adding like another $0.25 per day or whatever for software to the cost of ownership... phht!

[Puni]

Hi Didos007,

i don´t get your point.
I don´t agree with you, that pirating software is the only way to lower prices. You stated the real solution - don´t buy it and use the alternatives if you like to do so.

I would like to know if you were a MS employee and coding for Windows or Office was your job, if you´d had the same opinion.
I don´t say MS-Software is the holy grail, but always hearing "the software is too expensive" or "they have no social responsibility" is not really telling the truth.
Of course they want to make money, that´s why the company exists. And like in the world of globalization - which big company today acts socially - yes if it fits the market strategy or they are of public interest - or maybe sometimes there even is something like social responsibility.

You could also see the positive side of things - we now have a gaming environment on pc (directx etc.) which provided the basis for all modern games. The OS isn´t that bad - i also know MAC OS and also there isn´t everything positive about it. And Linux for the everyday usage - depends on what you want to do with it.
And the office product line - it works quite well - of course there are free alternatives.

Piratery isn´t the reason why prices go down - everyone who buys the product has to pay for the ones who use pirated programs.