Manufacturers will reportedly be able to purchase the Windows 8.1 license at $15. This would be $35 dollars cheaper than the previous $50 price tag. This discount will only apply to products that meet a certain price limit, but besides these restrictions Microsoft does not plan to put restrictions on anything else in order to apply the discount.
Experts who analysed Microsoft's potential move say that that the company is considering this move because of Windows 8 and 8.1 slow adoption rate. While Microsoft sold more than 200 million licenses of Windows 8 since October 2012 to this date, these figures indicate a slower adoption rate compared to the company's previous operating system Windows 7.
The operating system' license price decrease could also help Microsoft get a bigger share of the operating system for the tablet market which is currently dominated by Apple and Google. These two companies count for 95% of this market and Microsoft also wants a piece.
