In its bitter row with the company, Vobis Microcomputer AG claims that Microsoft Corp insisted on computing discounts for its existing operating systems – Windows and MS-DOS – based on Vobis’s total personal computer shipments, and that in August, just after Microsoft’s consent decree was signed, the Redmonder proposed a contract to Vobis that estimated its annual shipments of 88 models at around 475,000 and quoted a Windows price of $28 a copy based on that total; Vobis wanted a discount based on lower estimated sales, so it could accommodate customers that may ask for OS/2, but Microsoft wouldn’t quote a price based on a smaller number of shipments, and instead said Vobis would have to pay $63 for each machine under the per-copy licence; Microsoft says Vobis wasn’t being required to put Windows on every machine he shipped in order to receive the $28 price – it would pay that price only on copies it used and if the number came to less than 475,000, the royalty rate would be renegotiated next year; Vobis insists that once it agreed to a price based on total shipments, it would be forced to use Windows on that many machines, regardless of what customers wanted.
