Windows 7 Pricing Revealed
By Jin Nan Goto
Microsoft released information on Windows 7 pricing. Essentially Windows 7 will be made available for the same price as Windows Vista with the exception of Home Premium which will get a price cut of $10 for the upgrade and $40 for the retail version.
From June 26-July 11 Microsoft and retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon will offer pre-orders for Windows 7 with a special upgrade price of $49.99 for Home Premium and $99.99 for Professional.
As with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft will offer free upgrades to Windows 7 for all computers running Windows Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Although as with Vista details of the free upgrade (particularly regarding extras fees) will be left up to the OEMs. a
All the OEMs will be able to ship Windows 7 for all languages by the Oct 22 launch. All languages will be made available for the retail version by the end of October. In Europe, The full version of Windows 7E (created in response to the Anti-trust investigation in the EU) will be offered at the upgrade price until December 31st when upgrade versions are expected to be made available.
So here are the Prices:
Windows 7 Home Premium (upgrade version) – $119.99
Windows 7 Home Premium (full) – $199.99
Windows 7 Professional (upgrade version) – $199.99
Windows 7 Professional (full) – $299.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (upgrade) – $219.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (full) – $319.99
Prices and details about the expected Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade where you can go from one version of Windows 7 to another higher version have not been released yet. Also no word on any type of Family Plan or multiple license discount, but keep your fingers crossed.
My Thoughts:
Overall I’m not surprised at the prices, although I had hoped that Microsoft be more aggressive with the price cutting. I didn’t expect them to cut prices as drastically as Apple did with Snow Leopard ($129 was cut to $29) but a 10% discount across the board in this economy would have been nice. Still the special offer for preordering Windows 7 gives pretty substantial savings so I suggest that people take advantage of that deal.
