Microsoft ponders increasing Windows 8 OEM licensing fees

Windows 8 is slated for release in just a few months, and Microsoft still has some tough decisions to make. One of those is how much to charge manufacturers for a Windows 8 license. According to DigiTimes’ ever-insightful supply chain sources in Taiwan, Microsoft is considering a price hike.

What does that mean at this point? Not much, really. There are only three ways Microsoft can go with Windows 8 licensing fees: they can charge the same as they did for Windows 7, they could charge less, or they could charge more. All three options have no doubt been discussed in great detail in Redmond throughout the Windows 8 development process.

The other thing to consider is that no one really knows what Microsoft charges OEMs to license Windows 7 anyway. It’s widely believed that pricing varies from vendor to vendor, and major partners like HP and Dell almost certainly pay a smaller fee than boutique PC builders. How are we to know for sure whether their new prices are actually higher than the old prices when chances are quite good that we’ll never see either one officially revealed?

It’s entirely reasonable to think that Microsoft might be planning to increase some manufacturers’ fees — like those who didn’t end up assembling as many licensed Windows PCs as their original agreements with Microsoft said they would.

Even if Microsoft does alter its prices, it’s unlikely that we’d ever notice the difference on retail shelves. PCs have always gotten cheaper over time, and it’s hard to imagine Microsoft increasing Windows 8 licensing fees to a level where it would impact prices on the street.

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