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God bless ESD: get Windows 8 for just 1p

August 21, 2009

Windows 7 Picture the scene. October 2012, Moon Station 1: Steve Ballmer invites President Bill Gates on stage to launch Microsoft's next-gen desktop and mobile OS: Windows 8 - available to loyalty card customers for just 1p.

Far-fetched? Yes. Possible? Certainly. (Apart from the President bit: Gates likes actual power too much.)

Eidos recently did a clever, thing. The games developer offered up the latest iteration of its flagship football management sim - Championship Manager 2010 - for as little as 1p. After paying a data fee for the download, the punter can pick his price (I'm not being sexist: it almost always is a he).

This is exciting if you're looking to waste time while eating junk food. It's also indicative of the changing face of the software industry. And the big winners are set to be you and me, dear reader.

First, some history. Championship Manager once was the dominant market leader, loved by millions of aspiring gaffers, detested by their spouses. Then a bunch of developers jumped ship to rival Football Manager, and Eidos spent several years shedding market share, crying all the way home from the bank.

By delivering the game as a download, Eidos incurs none of the costs associated with burning discs, printing artwork and shipping. If you pay only a penny, Eidos adds 1p to its bottom line. Software is, after all, just code, and ESD (electronic software distribution) changes the game. If you're at all interested in football games, you've no excuse not to buy. You've certainly got no excuse to download a dodgy licence.

Despite Windows Vista's lukewarm reception, market share isn't a problem for Microsoft. Good will is. And the company desperately needs to ween Vista-scarred users off Windows XP and on to Windows 7.

That's why there are so many 'special offers' and multiple licence deals for Windows 7. Microsoft may not yet be prepared to drop the top-line price, but like a bottle of wine that's permanently on offer, it's happy to take a hit on profits to sell more. (Given that in a better world Win7 would be Vista called SP2, this is only fair.) Shop around for Windows 7.

Right now, Microsoft's nervous about selling an operating system as a download: an insider told me recently that she didn't think people would have the patience. The fact that 4 percent of PC Advisor readers are ALREADY using Windows 7 RC - available only as a download - should change its mind. Eventually. Mark my words.

Once you've built and sold a single software licence, selling the second one is, in essence, free. Market forces dictate downward pressure on prices. And as the cost of delivery drops, aggressive pricing and ESD help to combat piracy, too.

We may not see a 1p OS as soon as 2012, but the cost of keeping up with the Ballmers is going in only one direction - the right one.

Related articles:

Windows 7 forum

Posted by: Matt Egan

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Comments

Posted by korgo on August 21, 2009 :

thats silly stuff

~korgo
www. eightforums . com

Posted by Mat Bailie on August 24, 2009 :

"Once you've built and sold a single software licence, selling the second one is, in essence, free."

R&D is the prime cost. Not production and distribution. This quote only shows a trivialising and niaive view of the world.

I can just imagine the Pharma industry turning around and saying "after the first pill is produced, we'll drop the prices to the cost of just eh materials".

Balony.

Posted by Matt Egan on August 24, 2009 :

"a trivialising and niaive view" possibly, but drugs are made of materials, software is code.

Posted by botfly on August 24, 2009 :

Deliciously optimistic,so all we need is time travel to maximise benefit from falling prices. Who would bother to come back?

Posted by MalcolmF on August 27, 2009 :

Posted by Matt Egan on August 24, 2009 :

"a trivialising and niaive view" possibly, but drugs are made of materials, software is code.
And of course, it just materialises out of thin air. Nodoby actually spends time writing it. Nobody who would appreciate being paid for doing it, that is.
There have been software offers like that, but only for the stuff that either has already earned its keep and can be passed out as a leader, or stuff that nobody except its inventor and a few of the more gullible board members thought was a good idea anyway, and was thus almost unsellable.

Posted by Big Paul on September 15, 2009 :

Windows 7 & IE8
big problem wont save fileto multiple HDs within a system.
7 emails & 2 tel calls from MS Tech Support who beleived it to be a IE8 problems but when they blamed the RC of Win7 they washed their hands & dropped it like a hot spud.
GREAT SUPPORT MS

PC Advisor staff
Blogger Daily news, views and thoughts from the PC Advisor staff as they put together the magazine. Collectively the PC Advisor team has over 100 years of computing experience, so as you'll imagine they're never short of an opinion or two.
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