Comments on: Win 7 upgrade pricing is a missed opportunity

By: Des

Des — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:54:44 +0000

Just because the RRP is high:

$119 for Home Premium
$199 for Professional
$219 for Ultimate

Doesnt mean at least after launch that Microsoft wont run promotions to make the deal sweeter like they did with Vista free/discounted Ram, HD, Router etc with upgrade.

Hopefully we will see some of these offers to tempt Vista users to upgrade… I would buy Windows 7 at $119 if I could get a decent N router or a 1TB external hard drive with it for free.

By: Ian Rountree

Ian Rountree — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:25:49 +0000

And yet a large number of manufacturers have signed on to provide “Free Upgrade” coupons to consumers who purchase new PCs between now and the end of January 2010. While the pricing of Win7 is the subject of contention, it sounds like there’s a bigger plan behind it.

Most people own a single computer for how long? Four years, if they’re lucky? Retail warrantee extensions are usually three years tops, and most of my customers ditch their old toys for the New Shiny after that period anyway, which will likely mean new Win7 computer for the average person within – let’s be pessimistic and say two years, average? I don’t think MSFT will be suffering for lack of licenses within the first twelve months, if that’s the case.

Also, given the extended public Beta test of Windows 7 (I’m writing this from my Win7 laptop right now) the good press and good user experience is a bonus already realized.

Could they have priced the upgrades cheaper? Yes, likely. But I expect it’s encouragement to go with a new macine rather than replace the software on an old unit. Unfortunately, the cost of adoption – especially the premiums usually placed on early adoption – is never clear cut as we’d like it.

By: Raz

Raz — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:18:13 +0000

It is actually a brilliant case of supply and demand. Microsoft is fully aware just how fed up people are with Vista and are willing to pay almost any ransom to get a decent experience again.

By: David

David — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:30:57 +0000

Hi,

I’ve just read the ZDNet article on this and it suggests that most Apple customers do not qualify and will have to pay over $100′s to upgrade.

This could be good marketing from Apple, rather than a price drop of $100 per user on their traditional upgrade path.

I don’t know the answer, however you probably do.