We knew that some prices were going to rise thanks to Brexit, due to the dive in the value of UK currency compared to the dollar following the vote to leave the EU, and following some PC manufacturers instigating increases, now Microsoft has warned that the price tags on its products are going up.
According to the Telegraph, Microsoft is set to push prices by up to 22% thanks to the slump in pound sterling. As of the time of writing, you only get $1.22 for a pound, whereas before the referendum it was around the $1.50 mark.
The larger rises will apparently hit cloud-based services with those looking at the 20% plus hikes, whereas costs for software will go up by around 13% according to the report – although that’s the cost for enterprise customers, who will be paying more for the likes of Office and presumably Windows too.
As for consumers, it seems they’ve dodged the bullet, as Microsoft said it has no plans to bump up the cost of products aimed at the average user, at least for now. Although whether that might change, who knows – particularly given there’s a somewhat bearish outlook on the pound versus dollar, still.
Unhappy new year
How long will businesses have to wait before these hikes begin to filter through into the UK market? Not long, unfortunately, with the price rises expected to come through at the start of 2017, just a couple of months away now.
There is at least some good news for companies in that existing subscriptions won’t be affected, only the likes of new plans or products purchased going forward. So if you’ve been thinking of signing up for Office, it would seem that now’s the time for businesses to make the move.
Over the summer, several PC vendors made it clear that their prices were going up thanks to the weakness of the pound, with both Dell and HP announcing price increases to the tune of 10%. HP described this year’s currency movements as the “unprecedented weakening of the pound to US dollar exchange rate”.
Slowly rising computer prices are unlikely to help the PC industry in the UK, particularly given that PC shipment numbers are already in a massive slump as it is.
