On June 11, 2008, VMware announced the pending release of ThinApp 4.0 along with relevant pricing. The base product package consists of a copy of VMware Workstation and 50 client licenses of ThinApp for $5000. Additional client licenses are $39 each. So a site looking to cover 200 clients would need to buy the base package for $5000 and another 150 clients for $6000, for a total of $11,000. That's not unrealistic for a SMB budget pool. But I still think it's a bit high to compete with how Microsoft usually plays in this sandbox.
Granted: Microsoft currently hamstrings SoftGrid to having Software Assurance on the desktops and then asks for a nominal per-client fee on top of that. However, no one can rule out the possibility they might eventually give it away. They did that with Virtual PC and forced VMware to move GSX from a cost product to a free product (as "VMware Server"). Microsoft has deeper pockets than EMC does, so they can eat a loss to gain market share. They normally do that as everyone knows. I suppose EMC is just trying to suck in some revenue quickly before they end up giving it away later on.
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