The Internet briefly erupted in mass hysteria Wednesday afternoon, when Microsoft abruptly lowered the price of Windows 8 Pro to £45 (about $68) on its UK website.

The story spread through the interwebs like wildfire, fanned by earlier news of an Office 2013 price drop. Everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Digitimes reported the news, and they're all working on retractions now.

"Due to an error in our system, Windows 8 Pro was available on the Microsoft Online Store in the UK at a price that was advertised lower than our regular Microsoft Store price," the company said in a statement. "The pricing error has been corrected and we are honoring all legitimate purchases that occurred while we worked to resolve the issue. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience our customers may have experienced."

Technology reporters should have probably known something was fishy given the fact that only a month ago, Microsoft quintupled the price of Windows 8 from $39 to $199.

The news puzzled publications like PC Advisor, which could scarcely fathom a reason why Microsoft would offer Windows 8 Pro for half the cost of the standard edition, and why they would do it so "quietly."

Well, there now seems to be a clear answer to the conundrum: it was all a mistake.

The rumor probably gleaned some credence from recent true news about Microsoft's efforts to speed adoption of Windows 8, as well as the company's decision to begin allowing users to transfer their Office 2013 license to another PC.

A large price reduction for Windows 8 would also make sense since the operating system's chief competitor, Apple's OS X Mountain Lion, retails for $19.99.

Microsoft released their latest iteration of Windows 8 more than four months ago and the OS has been struggling to find traction ever since. Perhaps it would have been wiser to allow the error to stand.