Why not just drop the damn prices overall???!!
People have raved on about the pros and cons of Windows for years - and Word, etc - when the real issue all along has been price and moronic anti-piracy restrictions which slowed the pirates hardly at all, and simply pee-ed off their paying customers. How many users of Linux started off, not pro-Linux, but simply anti-MS?
They reckon half the copies of Windows on the planet are pirated - possibly rising to 70% in the Asia. Like VHS and DVDs a low retail price would kill piracy at a stroke, and probably make the profit up in numbers.
The major problem with Windows - for years - hasn't been the coding or technology - we're all free to choose as we please - or should be, at least. But MS's obscene pricing structure warps the PC market, and removes choice - take it or leave it is the option most people face when buying a PC. From about 10% of the price of a new PC in the early 90s, Windows has risen to over a third of the cost of a budget PC.
If Windows (and Word) was £30-£40 a copy, I really do suggest that MS might make more money, simply because piracy wouldn't be worth the effort. And ordinary users might be tempted to buy new or alternate versions just to try them, rather than be offput by the ludicrous costs. The root cause of Windows piracy is MS's corporate greed.
One last thing ...
IMHO, any software - MS or otherwise - that is no longer fully supported by its publishers ought to lose its copyright by law. That might make MS and others think twice about railroading customers into new versions, and free software for open source support.