Microsoft cuts Windows 8.1 licencing fees by 70 percent: Report

According to a recent report, Microsoft is planning to thwart its low-cost PC OS competitors, Chrome OS and Linux, by slashing the price of its Windows 8.1 OS licences by 70 percent, aiming to get a strong hold in the low-cost PC segments.

It is being reported that now manufacturers will be only charged $15 instead of the usual fee of $50 to get the Windows 8.1 licence and sell it pre-installed on devices costing less than $250.

A report by Bloomberg also adds that the discounted price can be applied to any product without any restrictions of the size or type of device.

It is being speculated that by cutting down the licensing fees, Microsoft would be able to bump-up its share of $80 billion tablet market and surpass Chromebooks and other notebooks running on Google's OS.

Recently, a video which appeared online, revealed more subtle tweaks that hint at Microsoft's intention to relegate the entire Modern UI to a non-essential role for users of non-touch desktop and laptop PCs.

Modern apps in the Windows 8.1 Update 1 are said to have a title bar that appears when the mouse cursor approaches the top of the screen. Apps can be also minimised, closed, or docked to either side of the screen via the Windows Snap feature. They can't be reduced in size to run in their own floating windows, but that's something rumoured for the next major release of Windows.