Windows so expensive?

nintenjo · 15 Jul 2007 at 11:49

I have been looking to get some old versions of windows for a PC..

IE XP or Media Centre Edition.. And there still going for silly prices like £70 which is pretty much the as new price on 4 3 - 4 year old software..

I even found Windows 98 for sale for £60.. ..

Wtf is going on.. at these prices i might as well just buy VISTA..

Will_3rd · 15 Jul 2007 at 11:50

I think the old adage of supply and demand comes to mind

nintenjo · 15 Jul 2007 at 21:01

Thats all well and good..

But look at games when they become unpopular, you pick one for for a fiver.. the same should be with Windows surly?? No one should be paying £60 for a copy of windows Me in this day and age!

stickroad · 15 Jul 2007 at 21:06

Its also down to competition, their is no O/S that works like XP so Microsoft have no need to drop their prices. I certainly wouldn't.

Energize · 15 Jul 2007 at 21:10

Microsoft are stupid thats why, they must think people will pay £60 for 98 when they can get vista for the same price. :rolleyes:

In reality they just lose loads of money making windows 98 cds when no one buys them.

mattyrigby00 · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:41

most of the people who need 98 etc already have a copy. vista is worth asmuch to someone with a new pc as 98 is to someone with an old pc. i doubt they even make the disks anymore for 98 and they might still make afew xp's but not many, if they where like 10 quid each idiots would buy like 5 for the sake of it. 98 is a useless os now, no recent programs support it.

Glaucus · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:45

They will also keep xp prices high to force people over to vista. It's perfect business. If you want to buy outdated software, you'll have to pay the price.

Smithy · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:46

They are different Operating Systems with different functions and different hardware requirements. That's why they remain highly priced.

People who are running P3 1GHz systems would think twice before buying Vista or XP, 98 or ME might appeal to them more. As someone said before; If there is still a demand, it's pointless dropping their prices.

Thats not Microsoft being stupid, thats Microsoft being very clever. Hence their domination of the world in terms of OS's.

4T5 · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:52

Buy a 2nd hand copy from M&M, 20 - 25 quid, JD.

GraemeUK · 15 Jul 2007 at 23:03

Energize said:
Microsoft are stupid thats why, they must think people will pay £60 for 98 when they can get vista for the same price. In reality they just lose loads of money making windows 98 cds when no one buys them.

It probably costs Microsoft less than £0.01 to make a windows 98 cd and the boxing/shipping is negligible for the amount of units they will ship. Apart from that they won't have made them for ages, but will have thousands of copies all over in storage anyway.

Vicar · 15 Jul 2007 at 23:56

how much is Win 2K going for these days?