Microsoft pays retailers for selling Windows 8 PCs

Microsoft pays retailers $5 to $10 for every Windows 8 PC they sell. The company hopes to stimulate the sales of Windows 8 PCs this way. The incentive is valid on 21 specific models. Microsoft announced the news on its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).myce-windows-rt

Microsoft calls the incentive program TouchWins and hopes that it will stimulate retailers to sell Windows8 PCs. Microsoft latest operating system was released in October 2012 but hasn't met its expectations. Windows 8 should have contributed to the growth of the PC market but the operating system is now often blamed for a shrinking PC market.

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Retailers receive $5 to $10 if they sell any of the 21 devices that are included in the Touchwins program. Among the 21 devices are both PCs and tablets from Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. Microsoft states that the $10 incentive is for the Microsoft Surface Pro. During the WPC Microsoft partners are also able to buy Surface tablets themselves for heavily discounted prices. The Surface RT 64GB with touch cover is available at $99.99 (Best Buy lists it at $599) and the  Surface Pro 128GB standalone at  $399.99 ($999 at Best Buy).

Besides trying to convince retailers to sell Windows 8 devices, Touchwins could also be an opportunity to clear inventories before Windows 8.1 will become available. Manufacturers get access to Windows 8.1, the first large update to Windows 8,  in August this year.

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