Karen Challinor

UK

staring at clouds

if someone asks for XP why don't microsoft simply sell it to them as is with no support beyond the normal MS update system, they have a database of all the licenses don't they, so it's an easy job to find those issued after a particular date and deny telephone or written support for them, they could even make it a downloadable iso with a license purchased separately so the cost to Microsoft would be around a gigabyte of web space plus a secure purchasing web page

in fact this could be done for all the earlier versions of Microsoft operating systems

costs to Microsoft - practically nil

benefits to Microsoft - in monetary terms it's vast as people exercise their purchasing choice and in non monetary terms goodwill alone would almost guarantee return customers, simply knowing they are available would raise Microsofts stock points in many eyes

yes I understand there is a significant investment in Vista and the soon to be released Windows 7 that Microsoft needs to recoup

but at the end of the day both these and their earlier products have a 'long tail' on the sales curve which they are missing out on

revenue is revenue and it doesn't matter which product is generating it

just one thing though, if someone from Microsoft reads this and picks it up, please don't indulge in the typical internet pricing trick of 'oh you are in the uk that'll be £300 please' / 'oh you are in the us that'll be $199' lets have the same price everywhere for a change, after all it won't cost you anything