Microsoft has quietly increased the levy that it charges enterprise users of mobile devices like iPhones, iPads and Android devices to use Windows servers, reports The Register.
The per-year price that the Redmond tech titan now charges for accessing its Enterprise CAL – that’s client access license – suite, provided that the user is on Software Assurance and Microsoft’s price band A, is $135. That indicates a growth of 13% in the levy.
This is the first Microsoft-driven boost in this price since 2012, and gives the firm a valuable opportunity to amass more revenue from the rising number of mobile devices being used in enterprise. A user CAL is necessary for any device, whether or not it is Microsoft-branded, to access the company’s enterprise suite, which includes the business software of Exchange, SharePoint and Skype.
The price hike was noticed by Paul DeGroot, an expert in Microsoft licensing who told The Register: “Microsoft is capitalizing on the fact that people are using a lot of devices. It’s an interesting tax that lets Microsoft capture some of the revenue from iPads, Samsungs and iPhones.”
However, in a statement to the news site, Microsoft defended the increased charge, explaining: “We always evaluate current market conditions, the increased product value for a customer, customer deployment scenarios and other factors when determining pricing for our products and services.”
