Why is Windows so expensive?

So Bill Gates can make money.

Bill Gates does not make money off Windows. He is a shareholder, and as much as people say he owns Microsoft, NO he does not. I don't think he is even the largest shareholder anymore.

Windows is expensive for a few reasons. First, the development time. Windows 7 took about 1000 programmers to make (I read an article from one of the project managers), then far more marketing, sales, and distribution people, all of which have to get paid. Just speaking of programmers, if on average a person made $90K (varies wildly by experience), $90K x 1000 = $90 MILLION. It cost far more than that. Development, R&D, testing, graphic designers, managers, packaging, and more.

They have to get the money back somehow and make a profit.

Intel does the exact same thing. It typically costs over a billion dollars for R&D, engineering, manufacturing, and much more to make a CPU. Actual cost of the chip is usually under $50, but they have to get that money back somehow, and make a profit, so they charge $200 for the CPU. ALL technical companies do this.

If you think Windows is expensive at an average of $120 for the home version, you should see the cost of their ENTERPRISE software, such as SQL, Exchange, and Visual Studio. Some of that stuff runs between $1000 to over $25,000, depending on features and licensing. Those are intended for businesses.

Again, Bill Gates is not making money off every product sold. He owns shares, and everybody that does gets a dividend. He used to be majority shareholder, but not anymore. For those of you who insist that he gets most of his money from Microsoft, think again. Look at his public portfolio. I read only about 15% (I forget exactly) of it is Microsoft, the rest is many other companies he invests in.