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Microsoft Holds the Line on Windows 7 Pricing, Launches Limited Time Promotion

Jun. 25, 2009 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

This is from this morning's WinInfo, but I want to make sure everyone caught it.

Microsoft this morning announced its retail pricing plans for Windows 7. First, the good news: Contrary to rumors, the company is not raising prices. The bad news? It's not significantly lowering prices either. In fact, most versions of Windows 7 will simply cost exactly the same as their Windows Vista predecessors.

In the US, three versions of Windows 7 will be widely available at retail, Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Pricing for the Upgrade versions of these products breaks down as follows:

Home Premium (Upgrade) - $119.99
Professional (Upgrade) - $199.99
Ultimate (Upgrade) - $219.99

Full product pricing includes:

Home Premium (Full) - $199.99
Professional (Full) - $299.99
Ultimate (Full) - $319.99

In each case, Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate is priced identically to its Windows 7-based predecessor. Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade) is $10, or 8 percent, cheaper than Windows Vista Home Premium (Upgrade). And Windows 7 Home Premium (Full) is $40, or 17 percent, less expensive than its predecessor. (Similar pricing is available in other markets as well.)

To help avert criticism, Microsoft and its retail partners will temporarily offer steep discounts on the Upgrade versions of Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional only. Consumers who preorder these products online between June 26, 2009 and July 11, 2009 in the US and Canada will pay just $49.99 for Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade) (a $70 savings) and $99.99 for Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade) (a $100 savings). The deals will be made available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Microsoft, and at other participating online retailers. Consumers in Japan, France, Germany, and the UK can also preorder Windows 7 for similarly short time frames, though the exact dates vary.

Microsoft also announced that it would allow consumers who purchase a Windows Vista-based PC between June 26, 2009 and January 31, 2009 to receive a free copy of Windows 7. Called the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, this program is global and completely free. Microsoft hopes it will address the problems caused by Windows 7 not shipping in time for the back to school PC selling season, which is currently underway.

The company also revealed that it will offer consumers in the EU the Full versions of Windows 7 only through at least December 31, 2009 because of antitrust issues there which preclude it from bundling Internet Explorer with the OS. During this time period, EU users (excluding the UK) will be able to purchase the Full versions of Windows 7 at the Upgrade prices. Traditional Upgrade versions of Windows 7 will appear in the EU eventually, Microsoft says, at which point it will return to its usual pricing structure.

There's a lot more going on here, including a few pricing issues that have yet to be resolved. For more information, please refer to my Windows 7 Pricing article on the SuperSite for Windows.

Discuss this Article 168

DRWAM
on Jun 25, 2009
Also, Avro, a Xeon WS is hundreds to thousands cheaper from Apple than Dell or HP.
DRWAM
on Jun 25, 2009
Wow, Michael Jackson dead at age 50!
shark47
on Jun 25, 2009
"@DRWAM don't forget that most Mac buyers get education discounts and throw in an iPod Touch and cheap 3 year AppleCare and the price looks very competitive indeed." Well, if you look at it that way, I used to get Windows for free when I was in school, through the program we had with Microsoft. So, big deal.
robertsjoe
on Jun 25, 2009
"Mossberg: New MacBook Pro has best battery life "ever tested"" As they say, you get what you pay for. Yet Windows users are too cheap and prefer cheap crappy laptops and PCs.
de Silentio
on Jun 25, 2009
@Shark47: "I doubt they even care about Windows 7..." Well Said.
CompactDstrxion
on Jun 25, 2009
Brandon LeBlanc responded to my comment on the Windows Blog and confirmed the UK *will* be getting the E-editions.
techboy2000
on Jun 25, 2009
I'll probably jump on the 49.99 deal because I am an enthusiast. Then again I really like Windows Defender in Vista and don't want to give up the Software Explorer built into Defender.
26mb
on Jun 25, 2009
I just need clarity on this. I see a matrix that says the only possible upgrade path for Vista Ultimate is Windows 7 Ultimate. Are they referring to in place upgrades or clean installs also? I have no issue doing a clean install myself, but like many people I see no need to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate and want to move to Home Premium or Professional and take advantage of the special pricing. In my mind even though these are "lower" editions, this is still an upgrade moving to the new OS. I mean, going from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Starter is technically still an "upgrade" is it not? (and yes I know Starter is not a retail SKU but it gets the point across). I guess I really don't understand the logic in all this. It seems that it should be the same price to move to the corresponding Windows 7 version. To tell people they will have to pay more to upgrade Ultimate->Ultimate than they would have had they stuck with Home Premium is crazy when they already paid a premium price last time around. How are they checking these anyway, do you have to enter your Vista key to qualify? Bottom line, if I can purchase Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional Upgrade and do a clean install on my current Vista Ultimate machine I'll be fine. If not, I'm going to be very upset.
benjwah
on Jun 25, 2009
@mikegalos - I didn't say it was unfair, it implied that it was stupid when you take in to account the current environment. Read my post again, no need to be sarcastic, I'm not having a dig at you or Microsoft, I love their products, I just don't think their prices reflect a realistic assessment of the market at the moment. And making the point that their prices are "Fair" is non-sensical: Of course they're fair. You can choose to pay or not. A price of $2000 is a fair price, because you're quite entitled to look at that price and say "Nope, I'm not paying it". It would be unfair if there were no alternatives, but there are plenty of alternatives and they are priced EXTREMELY competitively. No more talk about fairness: Let's see them COMPETE.
Avro
on Jun 25, 2009
@ Shark 47 What I did was no different than Paul pointing out that Microsoft provides multi-user licenses for its Enterprise customers. Both Microsoft and Apple look after their main customer base.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Jun 25, 2009
benjwah "No more talk about fairness: Let's see them COMPETE" First off, I'm happy to discuss fairness even if you aren't. That's a huge part of why I'm here. But if you only are interested in talking about competing, I'd just say this: Windows operating systems: 95% Unix and Unix-like operating systems (OS X, Linux, Solaris, etc): 5% I'd say that a 19:1 ratio is competing rather well. (And I rounded in favor of the non-Microsoft architecture)
Avro
on Jun 25, 2009
@ mike Windows' marketshare is down below 88% now. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&... 95% looks like 1996
crankenstein
on Jun 26, 2009
I would have been willing to pay about $50 to upgrade my Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate... But it doesn't even look like 'Ultimate' is included in the "special deal".
crankenstein
on Jun 26, 2009
*edit* Ok, after reading a little further I now realize you can do a clean install with the upgrades.... I guess I might be willing to install 7 Home Premium over Vista Ultimate... for $50 bucks it's a pretty good deal.
g6672D
on Jun 26, 2009
Windows Vista Ultimate upgrades to any Windows 7 edition, but it's a downgrade to pay for Windows 7 !Ultimate. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=... With Vista, Australia got ill treated with much-more-expensive-than-U.S-pricing, and I doubt 7 will be different. Certain programs will get backported to Vista. There's not enough additions to justify the higher price. It still has WGA and an unfriendly EULA. I'm not switching back. Sadly, your normal humans won't notice. They buy PCs, with it preinstalled, at an invisible cost.
g6672D
on Jun 26, 2009
OOPS SORRY DISREGARD FIRST BIT. I read X to mean "Upgrade is supported" So, Ultimate->Ultimate only, and another annoyance for would-be-upgraders who won't notice this.
shark47
on Jun 26, 2009
"@ Shark 47 What I did was no different than Paul pointing out that Microsoft provides multi-user licenses for its Enterprise customers. Both Microsoft and Apple look after their main customer base." Not really. You were using that as an example to show how cheap Macs are, while I was using MSDNAA pricing as an example to show how cheap Windows is.
Avro
on Jun 26, 2009
@ Shark Microsoft doesn't make hardware. What on earth is MSDNAA? - sounds like something DRWAM should be treating.

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