Dell triples price to $150 to downgrade to XP

Quincy Pince-Nez
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December 08, 2008
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How desperate are people not to get Vista?  Dell thinks they are very desperate.  People buying already razor-thin-margined Dell computers are now being charged $150 to downgrade to Windows XP (that's 1/2 the cost of some of their more popular machines).  That is up from $50 that was charged last month.  Perhaps it is one of their best selling "features".

Maybe its time to offer all of their  machines with a no OS configuration, surely most people are upgrading from an old XP machine and can just transfer the license. (OEM licenses don't transfer.

No wonder used XP machines are selling so well. 

 

Comments (4)

Sleepydude (not verified) | December 08, 2008 - 1:41pm

You can only transfer a license if it is a retail version of Windows. You cannot transfer a OEM version of Windows. Most people have OEM versions.

Sleepydude (not verified) | December 08, 2008 - 1:46pm

Dell offers a machine with no OS installed that comes with FreeDOS that you can load on it.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 08, 2008 - 2:04pm

true my guess is that they are running out of licenses of XP so they are charging more for their limited supply. its just theory tho.... and its true they do offer plenty of systems without a OS

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 08, 2008 - 2:40pm

As I understand it:

The US courts has determined that MS has a monopoly on operating systems.

You suggest that Microsoft is artificially limiting the supply of its product, and therefore is driving up the price of its product.

The Oil cartel does the same thing - they control a large percentage of the world's oil, and by controlling the supply, they can strongly manipulate the price of oil. The exception being that only a third of oil production is in the hands of that cartel, and therefore their control is a bit limited.

As I understand it, such behaviour is illegal in many capitalist countries. I'm surprised that they can get away with it.