Microsoft sued over Vista promotions

The term ‘Windows Tax’ is a running gag and has been around for a long time. If you are unfamiliar with the saying, it is referring to the price paid after Windows releases a new operating system. The tax is what you the consumer often spend after the purchase of the software or new computer to upgrade just to keep inline with the growing specs Windows requires.

Shortly before Microsoft released Vista, the chief concern among consumers was the jump in required hardware. The ‘Minimum Requirements’ for Vista are several gigabytes of disk space and at least one gigabyte of ram. To curb the worry of consumers, Microsoft started a marketing campaign shortly before Vista’s release that labeled software, and more importantly hardware ‘Vista Capable.’ It is those same stickers designed to assure consumers that the hardware will in fact work with Vista that is the root cause of the troubles Microsoft now faces.

Dianne Kelley, Camano Island in Washington State, has filed the suit and is seeking class-action status against Microsoft for what she claims as deceptive practices. The deception comes from the fact that Microsoft allowed PC manufacturers to label a computer as Vista Capable without detailing what type of Vista the computer would run.

The filed court documents focus on Microsoft and several computer makers alleging that in order to prevent a lull in computer sales, they assured, and sold computers as ‘Windows Vista Capable.’ However, most of Vista’s features, such as Aero, Flip 3D, and Media Center PC would not work on these computers that were built for Vista Home Basic only. Microsoft said the claim overlooks the efforts to separate the differences between the Vista versions and the different marketing techniques used to for different versions.

"We feel as a company we went beyond what we've ever done to try to educate people so that they understood and could make the right purchase decision,” said Linda Norman a Microsoft associate general counsel. Backing that statement she pointed out that Microsoft had created different logos. ‘Vista Premium Ready’ is one such example and that is on high-end laptops and desktop systems. It is there to indicate that the system meets the minimum requirements for Windows Vista, such as the one-gigabyte of memory. This distinction between ‘Premium Ready’ and ‘Vista Capable’ however, was never made.

“In sum, Microsoft engaged in bait and switch -- assuring consumers they were purchasing 'Vista Capable' machines when, in fact, they could obtain only a stripped-down operating system lacking the functionality and features that Microsoft advertised as 'Vista,' ” the complaint says. Because of that, the suit said, people were buying machines that couldn't run “real Vista.” There is also mention of Bill Gates himself lending to the deception, when he appeared on the Today Show in January to report that anyone could upgrade to Vista for $99. The suite points out that for $99 you get the stripped down version of Vista known as Home Basic.

“In fact, one can only 'upgrade' to Home Basic for that price, which Mr. Gates and Microsoft know is a product that lacks the features marketed by Microsoft as being Vista,” the suit said

The suit seeking unspecified damages, and class action status was filed last week and currently is waiting for a court date and hearing.

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