I’m looking at Microsoft’s Win 7 pricing that they’ve announced today and have to wonder what they were thinking. Here’s what we’re looking at.
$119 for Home Premium
$199 for Professional
$219 for Ultimate
Oddly, Microsoft is doing a limited promotion where you can pre-order a “full” copy of Windows for less than the upgrade price. Home Premium is $49 and Pro is $99. Of course, these are only available for a limited time and to limited numbers. Good luck trying to snag a copy :) BTW, the European situation is even more odd, where Microsoft views one dollar as equal to one pound.
The reality of it is Windows 7 is not a major update to Windows. It is Windows Vista done right and what Microsoft customers should have delivered a long time ago. The $49 initial price is nice reward for loyal customers but the “real” upgrade pricing is way off for what the market will likely bear, especially during these economic times. Of course the irony is that most corporate customers won’t pay anything near these prices thanks to things like volume license agreements so it’s small business and the consumer that’s going to get pay the higher costs. My advice, if you really want 7, try to get pre-order before “supplies” run out (Microsoft isn’t saying how many copies they’re making available at this price, perhaps we are seeing the great Windows 7 shortage of 2009).
This is a case where Apple showed the way. Snow Leopard is also not major update but rather an enhanced version of Leopard. With an upgrade price of $29, that’s about where MSFT should be for the Home Premium version of 7. This is a missed opportunity that could have catapulted MSFT into the spotlight. For now, I expect a lot of Windows consumers are going to just stay where they are.
Posted by Gartenberg 
