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China gets steep Vista discount
There's more than one way to fight piracy...

By Reuters

Published: Monday 06 August 2007

Microsoft has more than halved the retail price of its Windows Vista operating system in China.

The Home Basic edition dropped from $201 (1,521 yuan) to $66 and the Home Premium package dropped from $238 to $118.

The move was effective as of Wednesday.

The price cut is the company's latest effort to tackle the rampant software piracy in China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The theory is that if legitimate software costs less, people will be less likely to turn to pirated versions.

Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows Vista licences globally by the end of June, including 20 million copies sold since mid-May, the company said last month.

The latest version of its dominant Windows operating system was released on 30 January.