The recent document that is being published on the Microsoft OEM’s Partner Center site has revealed how much Microsoft is charging its PC maker partners for Windows 8.1 Intel based tablets.
The pricing model for Windows 10 has not been declared by the Microsoft in the public yet. But, with this document Microsoft has shown its intentions about how much they are planning to charge from the PC makers with the current Windows 8.1.
Windows 8.1 OEM pricing
Last year, Microsoft made an announcement that they would make Windows 8.1 available for “zero dollars” to its partners PC makers for the devices with the screen size less than nine inches. With respect to this, Microsoft has launched the new version of Windows 8.1 as “Windows 8.1 with Bing” that are meant for those devices having screen sizes either nine inches or more than that. With Windows 8.1 with Bing SKU, all OEMs are required to make Bing search engine and MSN.com as a default. These default setups can be changed by the user if they desire to do so.
To increase the market of mobile devices running Windows operating system, Microsoft has come out with another SKU known as “Windows 8.1 with Bing and Office 365 Personal” having the same default setup for OEMs just like ‘Windows8.1 with Bing’ although the setup can be changed later. With this SKU a free, 12 months subscription to Office 365 Personal is included.
Earlier it was assumed that the Windows 8.1 with Bing is free of cost, but after getting the Microsoft OEM pricing information the actual price of the new version is known. The price of Windows 8.1 with Bing device with less than nine inches of screen is $10 per copy for small Intel-based tablets which after configuration discount of $10 turn out $0 means free for OEMs. For those devices with less than or equal to 10.1 inch screen size, same will result out to be $15 per copy for OEMs.
The price of the version Windows 8.1 with Bing and Office 365 Personal is same as those of Windows 8.1 with Bing. The only difference is that the above version is giving 1 year of subscription of Office 365 Personal to OEMs for free. Stay tuned for more information as “Windows 10: The Next Chapter” event is going to held on January 21 where Microsoft might make some more announcement.
