iTWire is reporting that, and I quote, “Vista costs more than a computer in Australia”. Sure. Let's talk about that though, shall we? Windows Vista will be available in a number of flavours, among them Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. In Australia, the just-announced pricing for Ultimate will be $751. Which is pricey, sure. Looking on the Dell.com.au website, I note that desktops come, and I quote again “from $798”.
OK, so close. But iTWire is comparing apples with solid gold bricks. A cheap, low-end, I-Wouldn't-Be-Seen-Dead-With-It desktop machine is only slightly more expensive than the “holy crap, this thing does everything”, bells-and-whistles Vista Ultimate, which rolls in pretty much the works. Got that? cost of lowest-end PC == cost of highest-end Windows. By contrast Windows Vista Home Basic full version will cost $385 on the streets (and significantly less when purchased with a machine from an OEM), which by my mathematics is around half the price of Ultimate, and would be far more appropriate for the Pig Truck grandma machine I just looked at for $798. So itWire is being disingenuous in its choice of headline, which should be:
“Vista Ultimate costs more than a crappy computer in Australia”
Three cheers for lazy journalism, hip hip.....
posted @ Monday, October 9, 2006 2:26 PM