New
#1
MS: Why does Windows cost more with fewer features outside the US?
When Windows 10 was launched, Cortana was one of its most-hyped new features. As a hitherto never-seen digital assistant, it was said to help users around the world "get more out of Windows". Here is what Microsoft said on the day of the Windows 10 launch, July 29th, 2015, quoted verbatim:
Source: Cortana: World travellerAs everyone’s favourite personal digital assistant debuts in new countries around the world, we find out how Cortana is being customized for each individual region and culture.
Cortana has been helping to manage the lives of Windows Phone users in select countries (such as the UK, China, and U.S.) for over a year now.
Soon, with the launch of Windows 10, she’ll be traveling to new destinations, including France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. In the coming months, she’ll also be available to customers in the Windows Insider Program in Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico, and in English in India.
Officially, Cortana was announced to be available in quite a lot of languages, in quite a lot of regions:
Screenshot from Cortana's regions and languages
However, today, Cortana is only available in USA, for US users. I noticed this already half a year ago, when Cortana simply stopped working in Insider Fast Ring builds, as my tweet from October 2019 shows:
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) View on Twitter
Since that, I have not been able to use Cortana. It is also not working in any other language and region than US English in USA / Canada in Windows 10 version 20H1 (2004).
That would be OK, if having one of the most crucial, essential features of Windows 10 missing was reflected in the product's price. However, we Europeans, and users in Asia, Oceania and other parts of the world, still pay a lot more for Windows 10 than American users. Yet we get fewer features, including this all-important one. Also, new features designed only for the US market are coming: The last Insider Fast Ring upgrade introduced a News Bar. That, too, is only available for US users in the USA, right now. My bet is that it will remain available only for users in US when it's out of Preview stage. That's not right.
At the moment in Insider builds, and in the upcoming Windows 10 version 2004, Cortana and News Bar are only available for American users in the USA.
Please do not take me wrong, some of my best friends are Americans, but it's commonly known that Americans are less interested in news of the world ("not America" news) and the world outside USA in general, than for instance we Europeans. Ask an average American to show Switzerland on the map: most probably cannot. We here in Europe, and the rest of the world, we generally are more interested in the world and global news. Yet, the News Bar, with its almost 5,000 news sources, is available only for US users in the US. There's no good reason why for instance UK users could not get the same service, or me here in my adopted home country Germany. Why is this feature available only for those who don't really use it? Again, that's not right.
Let's see some real data. Windows 10 Pro costs $199.99 in the US today. For that, a user gets all its features. To compare, some other regions, which do not get Cortana and / or News Bar: In the UK, Windows 10 Pro costs £219.99 ($276.33 at today's exchange rates at14:00 (2 PM) CEST). That's over 38% higher, with fewer features. In the European Union's Euro region, Windows 10 Pro costs €259, or $284. That's 42% more than in the US. Take Japan next: there today, Windows 10 Pro costs ¥ 29,380 which is $264.36. That's 32% higher than in the US. You get the idea: I could go on but the point remains more or less the same.
Sales taxes and such cannot explain the difference. It looks as if Microsoft has adapted the doctrine of current US administration: "America first, screw the rest". Microsoft: "We offer full features for our American users, The rest of you, try to adapt!".
A simple question to Microsoft: why do we non-US users pay more for less?
Kari