Windows 7

Company earns profit simply by selling what it produces or what it provides. Producing sufficient quantity of products in previous days was a big challenge for all companies across the globe. Now situation has changed after industrial revolution and globalization. A single product, which is marketed by a company in different countries, will have diverse marketing mix like customized product, customized price, customized distribution and customized promotion method.

Microsoft doesn’t have a flat price rather has different price structure for different countries. The substantial price difference in China is an attempt to cut down on piracy of the software. Most of the Chinese people earn considerably less money than most Americans and if Microsoft charged the same price for the software cost in US, it might be very expensive for most people in China and will lead to usage of pirated software whereas the lower price can bring volume in business.

Microsoft is charging almost $200 more in Australia for the same version of Windows 7 as their overseas counterparts. Microsoft doesn’t have any justifiable reason to charge Australian customers almost double for the same identical product. As per Microsoft’s general manager of Windows consumer marketing James DeBragga “we don't talk a whole lot about pricing because we don't set it, we can't set pricing, the channel sets the pricing”, because in Australia Microsoft sells its products through channel marketing and they set the prices.

The goal of a company is to make money. If a company can afford to make higher percentage of profit in a different country then I would say why not. At times we have experienced the first entrants of a company to a new market have risks but also sell their products for a higher price. Up on arrival of competition it slides down and then with multiple competitors the price focus changes to product or quality etc….Ford & GM are making