Earlier reports suggested that Microsoft would charge OEMs between US$90 and US$100 for Windows RT licenses. An informal poll by VR-Zone suggests that the average price will only be slightly less than that. Conducted during last week’s Computex event, most vendors reported that licenses would cost between US$80 and US$95, with US$85 being the most commonly quoted price.
High license costs will make it difficult for vendors to compete with devices with similar specifications but running Android. Google does not charge licensing fees so Android devices have an immediate price advantage. The report adds that NVIDIA’s bill of materials (BOM) adds at least US$100 which will make it difficult to hit a US$500 price point. At launch, Windows RT tablets could sell for between US$549 and US$799 with premium models going for as high as US$899.
It’s unclear how many vendors participated in the poll and whether any of these were tier one vendors such as Hewlett-Packard. Larger vendors will benefit from volume discounts that will likely not be available to smaller ones.