Rutar

People are running the full version of 7 on Netbooks already and it works with them unlike Vista.

Ultimate was created for stupid people with promised extras that never came.

If there are only 2 versions, people would be sure they pick the right one, hence they would not hold off with their purchase.



The problem with the Trade commissions could be solved by giving 2 CDs, one with the OS and one with the programs.

jmke

from a customer's perspective you are right Rutar, from a company's perspective who's aim it is to make profit, the multi-version Vista makes it possible to sell the same product with a higher profit margin to the high end.

comparable to the Extreme and Black editions of Intel/AMD

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Rutar

I am speaking from a company perspective, price differentiation can backfire on the profit.

Besides the higher cost (which are underestimated because a lot of the additional cost are not visible), there are consumers who just do not buy because they want to avoid the risk of making a wrong decicion (experiments were conducted with goods that are far easier to judge, like marmelade, and the results were impressive).

That can quickly cost you more than what you earn by charging some customers higher prices.


2 versions would still seperate the high paying business customers from the home users.

Kougar

Customers can't "just not buy", they still need an OS. For the average user Linux is not a viable alternative, and neither is OS X.

They still need a 3rd version for developing countries, because they can't price Windows 7 Home at <$30.

Rutar

They can hold of their PC or Laptop purchase or they can choose to stick to XP.


MS can lower the price, but they still won't make basic 30$:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...price-cuts.ars

Kougar

If they NEED a laptop, to replace a broken one or to get their work done then no they cannot. And (unfortunately) XP is only available on a minority of laptops. And on many of those it costs extra to get.

Exactly. Which is why they need a Starter edition. I believe its sold for as little as just a few bucks in some countries. They don't need a Home Basic, just three or four versions.