In order to push the sales of its latest operating system and to combat the software piracy Microsoft decided to cut the price of Windows Vista in China.

In a bold move, Microsoft reduced the price of Windows Vista as much as 67 percent. According to the company, form August 1, the new price of Windows Vista Basic will be only $66 from a previous $200 price tag, while Windows Vista Home Premium will be only $118 instead of $238.

Unlike Windows Vista Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium includes the new user interface Windows Aero, Windows Media Center capabilities and integrated DVD burning and authoring.

Tough Microsoft’s decision to dramatically decrease the Windows Vista’s price may attract negative reactions from other countries.

Last month, Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft, announced that Windows Vista sold more than 60 million legal licensees, and that the Windows-powered PCs will surpass the number of cars produced in the world by the end of fiscal year 2008.

Windows Vista is promoted by the Redmond company as the most secure OS ever shipped by Microsoft. "There have been just 12 serious vulnerabilities reported with Vista over the first 180 days versus 25 for Windows XP over the same period.” said Ballmer.

In fact, the strong sales of Windows Vista, together with those of Office 2007 helped the company to compensate the 1-billion-dollar charge to repair faults in its Xbox 360 gaming console.

According to the financial results for the fourth quarter announced by Microsoft, the sales in the client division, which is dominated by Windows Vista, rose 14 per cent to 3.81 billion dollars, compared to 3.35 billion dollars a year ago.

Windows Vista was launched on January 30, after 5 years of work and close to $6 billion spent.