Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, June 29, 2009 with stories from ComputerWorld.
Microsoft is running a two week promotion to sell Windows 7 upgrades at half price, even though the product won’t ship until October 2009. Amazingly, orders are flying in. To add confusion, newly announced European pricing is almost double the price in the US.
At Amazon.com, the Windows 7 upgrades were the number one selling product. Pre-orders of Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade at $49.99 was #1, Windows 7 Professional Upgrade at $119 was # 2 and Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade, a $219.99 non discounted price, was # 4.
It’s hard to conceive that people will pre-order; however, the product has received good word-of-mouth and trade press. The free beta upgrade for one year is extremely popular. I like it but drivers are still not firmed up for many of the devices I use including my video card.
Both Dell and HP are offering their customers free upgrades to Windows 7 on computers sold from now on.
“The pre-order discount prices are valid from June 26 through July 11 in the U.S. and Canada, but end July 5 in Japan. ” said Microsoft in a press release.
Considering Apple is only charging $29 of OS X Leopard Snow, Microsoft is proving to be quite greedy. Computers are pricing in the $500 range for both laptops and desktops these days. Is Microsoft providing 20% or more of the value in a computer system? It seems steep.
Europeans can only wish for the same pricing. They are expected to pay around $150 for the upgrade to Windows Home Premium, or three times the US pricing during the pre-order discount-daze. After that, they pay a 40% premium for living on the other side of the Atlantic.
Windows 7 Professional will cost $400 in Europe versus $199.99 in the US. Will shipping and duties keep product from moving across the ocean or will Microsoft restrict licenses by country?
To add insult to injury, the EU version will have IE 8 removed to head off a negative the EU ruling.
UK, France and Germany will be able to buy Windows 7 upgrades at discount for a short period beginning July 15.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License – NJN Network Inc.
Leave a Reply