VMware backs down, changes vSphere 5 pricing

Ram prices recently fell dramatically. (the really dramatic drop is that 8GiB modules are now priced reasonably; it used to be you'd pay 2x or more per gigabyte for higher-density modules, and now the price per gigabyte drops slightly as density increases, I mean, until you get to the 16GiB modules, which are still ridiculous.) This change has triggered a surge in ram density in newer servers.

It looks like VMware is trying pretty hard to capture most of the surplus value created by the cheaper ram.

I mean, it's been long said that VMware will look at how much money you can save by virtualizing and consolidating your old hardware, then they try to charge just enough less than that number to make the project still worth doing; In the past, I think, this has been seen as more reasonable, as vmware is helping to create some of that value.

Moving to grab some of the surplus value created by cheap high-density ram, something VMware has nothing to do with, I think, has been seen as unjustified and greedy in the SysAdmin world; it remains to be seen if still charging by the gigabyte of ram but just charging less will be accepted.

This is not a concession. For my essentials plus license I get 256gb RAM under 4, but now even under the amended new licensing I only get 32gb. Still not happy.

VMware reminds me of Palm in 2000... They start something which will change the entire industry but somehow they are loosing their lead rapidly...

They're still charging based on vRAM. I don't see this as much of a backdown, really.