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Windows 8 touch-screen laptop price cuts coming

With Microsoft expected to give PC makers a discount on Windows 8 licensing fees, price cuts for touch-screen laptops will follow, Asia-based sources tell Digitimes.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Asus Taichi: An expected Windows 8 licensing fee discount for PC makers should yield Touch-screen laptop price cuts.
Asus Taichi: An expected Windows 8 licensing fee discount for PC makers should yield Touch-screen laptop price cuts. CNET

Expect to see significant price cuts on Windows 8 touch-screen laptops if Microsoft's expected Windows 8 discount on licensing fees for PC makers is implemented.

Those price cuts could range between 10 percent and 20 percent, according to a report in Digitimes, which cites sources at Taiwan's retailers.

Those same sources indicated that touch-screen laptops now account for about 10 percent of sales, but this could jump to 20 percent in some cases with discounts from Microsoft.

Reports Tuesday in Digitimes and the Wall Street Journal indicated that Microsoft will lower the price of Windows 8 for PC makers in the coming months.

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An IDC analyst quickly chimed in on Tuesday telling CNET that cheaper Windows 8 tablets and hybrids should follow.

The discounts for PC makers has become necessary because Windows 8-based products aren't selling very well.

"The problem is the PC market is horribly stalled so they have make some pretty dramatic moves to reignite the market," IDC's Bob O'Donnell told CNET on Tuesday.

Digitimes sources also noted that $500 will be the new "sweet spot" for touchscreen laptops.