Microsoft Drops Prices for Windows 7, Offers Upgrade Deals
Microsoft, trying to revive its flagship PC operating system in the middle of a recession, said today that it will price the primary edition of Windows 7 for home users 17 percent below the retail price of its predecessor.
The unusual move was one of a series of Windows 7 pricing announcements made by the company Thursday morning in preparation for the scheduled Oct. 22 launch. Under the plan, Windows 7 Home Premium will be available for $199.99 in stores, $40 less than Windows Vista Home Premium.
Even before adjusting for inflation, that matches the original price of Windows XP Home -- which was released in 2001.
Microsoft also will offer current Windows XP and Windows Vista users an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for $119.99, or $10 less than the comparable Windows Vista upgrade price.
In addition, the company is rolling out a promotion designed to spur early Windows 7 sales, saying it will offer Windows 7 Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional upgrades for $99.99 to people who place pre-orders during the next two weeks in the U.S. and Canada, with different offers and time frames in several other countries around the world.
The maneuvers reflect the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Windows 7 release. In addition to the economic turmoil affecting companies around the world, Microsoft is trying to overcome the troubled tenure of Windows Vista -- which never regained its luster after hardware and software compatibility problems plagued its January 2007 retail release.
[Related post: Big Windows breakthrough: Now you can actually open the box.]
Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, who took over after Vista's development, is looking to make the Windows 7 release more smooth. Among other things, the company is being more deliberate in its communications with PC makers and other key industry players, making sure that Microsoft is confident in its timing and plans before going public.
Preliminary versions of Windows 7 have been greeted favorably. Reviewers cite new features such as simpler home networking and a "snap" functionality that lets users quickly adjust open windows to half the size of the screen by dragging them against the side. Software and hardware vendors are looking to take advantage of Windows 7's touch-screen technologies and other new features.
Now, with the Home Premium price reductions, Windows 7 appears to be "off to a good start," said Richard Shim, an industry analyst with the IDC research firm.
However, Microsoft isn't going as low as Apple is with its OS
pricing. The Mac maker has said it will offer users of its existing Mac
OS X Leopard the ability to upgrade to its upcoming Snow Leopard update
for $29. Users of the older Mac OS X Tiger operating system will be
able to move Snow Leopard through a $169 package that includes the
operating system and the latest versions of Apple's iLife and iWork
suites. Snow Leopard is due out in September.
Starting Friday, Microsoft will offer a "technology guarantee" program to people who buy new Windows Vista-based PCs from participating retailers or PC makers. That program, running through January, will give those PC buyers free upgrades to Windows 7 when it comes out. Microsoft says the offer applies to PCs purchased with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate.
Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 is available to current users of Windows XP and Vista, although people on the older operating system will need to conduct a "clean install," which doesn't preserve existing data or programs as a standard upgrade process does.
Apart from the lower Windows 7 Home Premium prices, and the pre-sale promotion for it and Windows 7 Professional, the upgrade and retail prices for Windows 7 are the same as they were for Windows Vista -- continuing Microsoft's practice of essentially holding the line on Windows pricing for consumers.
Here's a rundown of the Windows 7 retail pricing details announced today
Home Premium: $119.99 upgrade; $199.99 retail; $49.99 pre-sale promotion. Microsoft is positioning this Windows 7 edition as the primary one for home PC users. Includes Media Center PC functionality and new features such as Home Group, which simplifies the process of networking computers and devices.
Professional: $199.99 upgrade; $299.99 retail; $99.99 pre-sale promotion. This version is targeted to small businesses, with all the features of Home Premium plus others designed forworkers
Windows 7 Ultimate: $219.99 upgrade; $319.99 retail. The big enchilada -- with corporate-oriented features from Windows 7 Enterprise edition, such as BitLocker file encryption, as well as features from Home Premium and Professional.
Read more of Todd Bishop's posts at TechFlash.com.
Gullyborg on June 26, 2009 at 04:12 PM
But I still like XP... Doesn't anyone at MS give a crap?
james on June 26, 2009 at 04:32 PM
is 7 going to totally replace XP...i like my HP...dont want to loose it..or doesnt anyone care at MS as previous comment states
Ken Mitchell on June 26, 2009 at 04:37 PM
I've been using the Windows 7 "Evaluation Build" for a couple of months now on my Core 2 Duo machine with 4GB of RAM and 1TB of hard drive space. I've been using PCs since DOS 2, and Apple IIs starting in 1979.
Vista stinks. Windows 7 doesn't stink quite as badly, but this isn't what I'd call "good". When this eval build expires, I'm either going back to XP Pro, or upgrading to Kubuntu or some other Linux distro. Unless M$ deals with the issue of piggish bloatware, they can take a flying leap.
Aric A. on June 26, 2009 at 04:45 PM
@Ken: What bloatware are you referring to? A lot of tools have been condensed and a lot of Vista's cruft was taken out in Win7, to the point that I have no problem running it on a sub-1GHz laptop. Not saying it's perfect or that there's no room for improvement, but I wouldn't call it bloated.
Now, that's based on the release candidate--I'm sure OEMs will bog down a new shipping laptop or desktop with lots of useless branded junk like they always do...
DaveS on June 26, 2009 at 05:22 PM
I agree with Aric. Win7 is much lighter and responsive. It's what Vista should have been.
Incidentally, I think most people who trash talk Vista don't even know why they don't like it--it's just the "in" thing to do--but that's a different topic altogether.
Michael Ronayne on June 26, 2009 at 05:40 PM
I have been running the Windows 7 Beta for over a month now on a Dell D610 with 2GB of RAM and I can tell you it is rock solid and fast. When I first upgraded to Windows 7 I only had 1GB of RAM in the D610 and performance was still good. The D610 is not even considered Windows Vista compatible but Windows 7 runs on it. Four weeks ago I had minor annoyances with the audio driver for the D610 but Microsoft is upgrading the software daily and the audio problems stop about a week ago after one of the updates. I run an auto update every 24 hours at 3AM and have never had a problem. The system runs itself.
Microsoft has a winner this time. I have seen the future and it works!
Michael Ronayne
Nutley, NJ
memomachine on June 26, 2009 at 06:38 PM
Hmmmmm.
Frankly I'd rather they just maintained XP.
Shane on June 26, 2009 at 09:32 PM
Last week I dumped Vista Home on my Toshiba laptop and replaced it with Ubuntu Linux. I was already using Mozilla FireFox and Thunderbird and have been quite happy with the results over IE and Outlook.
Frank on June 27, 2009 at 03:47 AM
I've been pretty happy with XP pro on this Dell laptop (dual core, 2 GB); I also occasionally boot Ubuntu 8.10 on it and, after a little config file jiggering, it's as fast and stable as XP. A lot of XP's bells & whistles aren't there, but honestly I don't miss them.
So OK, my mind is open now... sell it to me: why would I want to move this box to W7? Why wouldn't I just stick with Linux once M$ drops support for XP?
David on June 27, 2009 at 04:41 AM
As someone who was pretty soured by my experience with Vista, all I can say is it's totally on MS to win me back. There are just better OS's out there to choose from, and they really need to give me a reason to come back. I'll see what the reviewers say as Windows 7 launches, but so far "Not as crappy as our last one" is a bit underwhelming.
Rick on June 27, 2009 at 04:51 AM
Save yourself even more heartache...buy a Mac.
Oh Jeez on June 27, 2009 at 08:01 AM
Oh, Jeez. Only 12 hours for a discussion of windows to complete the "you oughta go linux or mac" comment train.
Yes, we know Macs are nice. Yes, we know Linux is a good OS. But they're not the topic of discussion here. The evil, dominating, machiavellian Microsoft is. Let's try to keep on topic, huh?
It's like the observation that blog discussions die when the nazi card is played.
We're talking wintel here, folks, let's not mix apples and Finns.
Aric A. on June 27, 2009 at 10:11 AM
"So OK, my mind is open now... sell it to me: why would I want to move this box to W7? Why wouldn't I just stick with Linux once M$ drops support for XP?"
@Frank--take this for what it's worth, since I'm typing this on my home Ubuntu 9.04 box. :) But I'd say the first reason to consider it is the "file jiggering" you referred to to make Ubuntu stable. Win7 is stable out of the box, and will automatically configure itself around the gear you have installed--no driver installs needed. My Win7 partition recognized all the gear I have, from video card to Wacom tablet, and it all worked on first boot. I even switched video cards on it and all I had to do was wait five seconds for Win7 to recognize it and configure it.
Ubuntu does the same thing, but device support is spotty; it's better than it's ever been but you still can't assume any given piece of hardware is supported under Linux, and frequently you have to putz around with config files to get your device recognized. In Win7 you can drop it into any computer and all your hardware's ready to go right away. It "just works".
Francis W. Porretto on June 27, 2009 at 01:01 PM
I can't imagine that Windows 7 Pro could be so superior to XP Pro as to justify an upgrade price of $199. I intend to stay with XP for as long as it remains physically possible. I expect that to be approximately forever.
Kitty on July 10, 2009 at 11:42 AM
The part about OS X isn't true.
Only 30% of existing apple users, by apple's own admission will qualify for the upgrade, and another 10% won't be able to upgrade for various reasons. In addition to this, OS X sells you what windows deems service packs, so you have to factor that into the equation as well and multiply the cost of OS X vs windows by at least 2.5.
fathers day gifts on October 27, 2009 at 05:14 AM
You can get Home Premium for $100 @ NewEgg w/ a code. Of course, I don't have the code anymore... since I already used it and tossed it, but if you got one, you're golden.
discount moncler down jacket onlines sales on February 26, 2010 at 11:17 PM
I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have ed hardy clothing you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. http://www.edfashionclothes.com/
sweetie bracelets on June 30, 2010 at 06:48 PM
Every girl will be happy with inspired links of London jewelry which make her look dazzling and outstanding; every girl will be happier to obtain brand jewelry with less money which makes them a sense of achievement. That's why girls all like links jewelry where various links of London jewelries are at most keen prices
More http://www.linksjewelry.co.uk/Bracelets/