Quote :

Microsoft announces Windows 7 prices





In the UK, Windows 7 will be sold at around half the normal retail price for the first few months after release.

Microsoft announced the deal, in which the Home Premium edition will cost £79.99, as part of the Windows 7 prices revealed today.

But that price is more than a promotional discount. Microsoft’s recent decision not to bundle its Internet Explorer web browser with the Windows 7 operating system in Europe means that only the full version, not the cheaper upgrade version, will be ready in Europe at the time of launch.

No upgrades for Europe
Microsoft is trying to avoid penalising those Windows Vista users who would have been eligible for the less expensive upgrade version by selling the full version to all European customers at a reduced price.

“We know that there are a number of customers that will just want the upgrade. It’s a lower price and they don’t need the full version,” says Leila Martine, Windows marketing leader in the UK.



“...So a consumer, irrespective of whether they are upgrading or putting it on a seven-year-old XP computer, can get Windows 7 for £79.99. That’s our way to ensure our customers are not being negatively impacted.”

The deal will bring the cost of a full version of Windows 7 for someone in the UK roughly in line with what an American customer will pay for the upgrade version, $119.99 (£72).

Full-priced Windows 7
When the introductory offer expires on December 31, Home Premium (the edition targeted at home users) will sell for £149.99. Meanwhile, the Home Professional edition (targeted at business users) will rise from £189.99 to £219.99 and Ultimate (the most complete package) from £199.99 to £229.99.

The Microsoft decision to not include its latest browser with Windows 7 in Europe was a response to the early 2009 European Commission judgment, which called Microsoft’s selling Internet Explorer as part of Windows a violation of a competition laws.

Browser bundling
The final difference to most consumers may be minor, however. Windows UK marketing leader Leila Martine says that PC makers are still free – and likely – to add Internet Explorer, a browser with which they are familiar, to the machines they sell: “We have a great deal of confidence that they are going to continue shipping with the browser.”

Microsoft has also outlined an upgrade deal for people who buy Vista PCs before January 31 2010, in which participating PC makers will offer Windows 7 for the Vista machine for free (or with a small charge for shipping and handling).

Another deal will let pre-order customers buy Home Premium for £49.99 and Home Professional for £99.99 between July 15 and August 14.

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I think that will be one to pre-order go microsoft woot.

im on win7 now and i love it but i think ill wait for a torrent or my dads friend that might get it...who knows

No thanks...... stupid prices and why the **** dont Europe get the upgrade option

Actually no it's the EU's fault with it's anti-trust consumer choice stuff again.

Criminal pricing. Gogo monopoly.

Quote from trebor901 :

No thanks...... stupid prices and why the **** dont Europe get the upgrade option

we get the full version at the upgrade price!!!!

I think it's a pretty good deal really....

so... GUIZ.... How many of us are gonna pay only 30$ to upgrade to our next operating system.

Oh wait... there's too many Windows users here, so barely any will be only paying 30$ to upgrade.

I'm happy with £80. I think it's a fair price, considering the function of the OS.

And there's no point in comparing Mac and Windows OS prices, Dustin, since the Windows OS price isn't subsidised.. unlike the ludicrous Mac hardware prices.

How is it subsidised? I already have the hardware, and I pay 30$ to upgrade to a new OS... It's not like I'm going to buy a phone for 0$ (with 3 year contract at minimum of 50$ a month). I have the computer already, and I pay for the operating system.

No one cares about your stupid mac. This thread is about windows not mac. Since windows doesn't need special hardware to run it. But mac needs a £1250 computer

I care? Other Mac users care (and laugh in the face of you PC users paying 5 times more for an upgrade than us Mac users are).

are you really that childish that you will argue over a piece of software? how much more geeky can you get?

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I care? Other Mac users care (and laugh in the face of you PC users paying 5 times more for an upgrade than us Mac users are).

Quote from trebor901 :

we couldnt care about Mac because as you're displaying most mac users are stuck up and tbh its pretty pathetic arguing over a piece of software.

http://is.gd/1dmeW


Or, if you'd prefer my analysis in a visual form:

Quote from Jakg :

http://is.gd/1dmeW

:nut:?

And what's wrong with youtube links?

Apparently he thinks the superior Safari browser cannot view youtube links, so he tried to make it easier for it to browse. Too bad Safari, being superior, works perfectly.

Oh well, maybe it will help those paltry Firefox and IE users.

Um. It's called a short URL. SAME SHIT. works exactly the same in every browser. Stop being a fan boy and start being a power user.

honestly, MAC fan boys can just sit on it and rotate. I'm not against macs, actualy, I like them. But this thread is about windows 7 prices and has nothing to do with mac os prices. Besides, $30 for an OS upgrade? Sounds sketchy to me, I wonder how much the poor bastards that worked on that actualy got payed.

How does it sound sketchy? It's the same type of upgrade that Windows 7 is, yet Windows 7 costs 5 times more.

That sounds so very great. Microsoft releases a "code cleanup" and charges 150$, but Apple does the same and charges 30$ and Apple is doing it wrong?

Looks like you need to go burn some money if you think that what Microsoft is doing is fine.

The difference is that Apple haven't included copy-paste yet

No, who really cares. I don't think Microsoft will see too many customers leave for Mac because of their pricing. Whilst I quite like aspects of Mac OSs I could never own one instead of a main Windows machine.

considering how much of a f#$% up vista was, they should sell this a bit cheaper after so many people bought vista and were dissapointed with it. This is the first windows i would consider buying since it seems to work so well so far, but at that price i dont think so.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Looks like you need to go burn some money if you think that what Microsoft is doing is fine.

You do understand the irony of heralding Apple's pricing policies when they've been relentlessly ripping off their customers for years.

Hey everyone, buy our iPhone at a massive premium with loads of missing features. Now buy the new one with some of the bits we should have included in the first!

Except your point is moot as all the features with the "New iPhone" you can use on the original iPhone, except where it's hardware limited... so "OMG NO DIGITAL COMPASS!".

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Except your point is moot as all the features with the "New iPhone" you can use on the original iPhone

At a cost?

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

...except where it's hardware limited...

Oh, only the hardware limited stuff. Nothing important then.

I vote we ban dawesdust_12 from writing in any thread which involves mac, windows, apple, software, hardware, computers, laptops, browsers, phones and ipods.

Quote from Migz :

I vote we ban dawesdust_12 from writing in any thread which involves mac, windows, apple, software, hardware, computers, laptops, browsers, phones and ipods.

But those threads will be dead boring then.

Quote from durbster :

At a cost?

No. The iPhone updates are free.

The iPod Touch ones are but only because of different licencing agreements. The iPod Touch ones can't be free as there's some sort of laws (to my understanding) that prohibits Apple from releasing free updates to the iPods (and the iMac's if you remember the Wireless-N upgrade) without killing the Applecare warranty. The iPhone ones can be released for free as the iPhone has a "subscription based" licencing agreement to the software (due to the AT&T or other carrier agreements).

Quote from durbster :

Oh, only the hardware limited stuff. Nothing important then.

So you expect Apple to be able to build a digital compass in software, when it needs hardware to do it. That makes perfect sense.