Bill Gates on the price of Vista

[IBBoard]

I know things are normally cheaper in the US than in the UK (especially with current exchange rates!), but it's always bad when it's dollars for pounds and it's some physical item that we're getting ripped off over.

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft is selling upgrades at £100 to £250, with the American prices at $100 to $249. With the current exchange rates that means we're paying double what the Americans do. With 'normal' rates of $1.6 to the £1 then we'd be charged ~£60-£150.

The best bit is Bill Gate's quote as to why we're paying the dollar price in pounds and getting ripped off:

We try to keep our prices largely in line from country to country... but with price you do generally get some things that get a bit out of alignment as currencies go up and down.

So, following that logic, when was the last time that the dollar was exactly equal to the pound? To the best of my knowledge, never!

Thank goodness I'm not planning on 'upgrading' to Vista any time soon (if at all)!

[TGSC]

Apparently in 1985 it was about $1.28 to £1, presumably due to all the stagflation.

http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/etc/USDpages.pdf

(I was curious!)

EDIT: "At its lowest, the pound stood at just US$1.05 in February 1985"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_ster ... .S._dollar

[IBBoard]

You just had to go and find somewhere when it was around £ for $!

Although 1985? That makes it longer since it was at that rate than you are old, and nearly as long as I am old. Everything I remember in the 90s and Y2K has been $1.5 to the £1 or above.

Unfortunately the first document won't open for me at the moment

[TGSC]

I thought I'd dig this thread up seeing as the £:$ exchange rate has hit the $2 mark, and...

In the early 1980s the pound moved above the $2 level as interest rates rose in response to the monetarist policy of targeting money supply and a high exchange rate was widely blamed for the deep recession of 1981.

Uh oh, exchange rates are going up (and due to go up even more, seeing as we've missed the target massively ) at the moment due to inflation/strong pound, we might be looking at a bit of a crash soon. *wonders if he'll still get 5.5% on an ISA if the economy crashes*

[IBBoard]

On the plus side, if the economy does crash then at least the housing market may get back to a more reasonable price!

From what I know of ISAs, you'll still get the rate until the ISA is due for renewing, at which point you'll get something a little above whatever the current interest rate is.

[IBBoard]

Just as an update, it seems like the £:$ is staying around the $2.004 mark at the moment On the plus side of that it means the 50c I'd normally have to pay per GB of additional bandwidth is only 25p at the moment. That's cheaper than a bag of crisps