Pricing Potential Spoilsport for Windows 7 Adoption: Dell

[btarunr]

Thanks to Microsoft's free sneak preview of Windows 7 in the form of its downloadable release candidate. Users world over are enjoying a fully-functional license of Windows 7 Ultimate that will expire in June 2010. In the mean time, Microsoft expects you to get a hang on the new OS, help it with mass-testing, and gear-up for its commercial launch later this year. The pricing of the OS however, seems to have people like Dell's Darrel Ward, director of product management worried. "If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP," he said, in a telephonic interview with CNET.

"In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a strong swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them. I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista. Schools and government agencies may not be able to afford [the additional cost]. Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like," he added. Apart from its pricing, Dell however, feels optimistic about Windows 7. The OS seems to have already built up a lot more momentum, and enthusiasm than what Windows Vista could manage.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[KainXS]

I cannot believe for one second microsoft would charge people more for windows 7 than vista than it was at its release, that is a big load of BS, were not talking about a new OS here, 7 is nothing but a fixed vista at most, this is really f-cked up.

I thought they were gonna let people like me who bought vista get a discount on 7 when it was released

 

[Triprift]

I dunno i woudnt think there wouldnt be much difference in price. Sales will be interesting considering the economic meltdown were seeing worldwide.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

In "Tough Economic Times" theres always torrents. & the beauty of it is, they dont charge a penny for downloading unless its a requirement by the site host

the other day I saw Microsoft Office Enterprise Edition or something....guess how much it cost!!! £600+ !!!!! thats a lot of fucking money to spend for something that any backwards version of star office can do.

Its because of this daylight robbery that there are such things as torrents. because big companies like M$ seem to think average people are earning £300k a year. the last O/S i bought was Windows XP Pro, Im not totally against buying legit software. but then there are things big companies have to realise & see what their doing wrong, good luck to M$ if they think i'l be buying windows 7

 

[a_ump]

I cannot believe for one second microsoft would charge people more for windows 7 than vista than it was at its release, that is a big load of BS, were not talking about a new OS here, 7 is nothing but a fixed vista at most, this is really f-cked up.

I thought they were gonna let people like me who bought vista get a discount on 7 when it was released

too true, i expected vista prices at most, going higher simply doesn't make sense cause u urself stated, it's still vista underneath...mostly anyways.

 

[Zehnsucht]

I think they have calculated losses due to piracy.
What is better, 1 sold and 9 pirated, or lower price with 5 sold and 5 pirated?

 

[Mussels]

is this price rise for the OEM copies, or for the retail copies? MS could well raise retail costs, while still offering it competitively to OEM manufacturers.

You must admit one thing, MS do not want to see PC's with 7 selling for less than vista, they have a reputation they want to uphold and selling 7 cheaper would say "forget vista! it sucked! buy this!"

 

[KainXS]

So the economy is messed up and they raise the price thinking people will not notice this when they are looking for the best prices cause the economy is messed up(makes no sense)

and they could think that raising the prices will make up for piracy who in the world told them that, people will pirate it more if they price gouge everyone.

this makes no sense

i am confused now


all i know is I better get my discount on it.

 

[lemonadesoda]

MS need to have a a pricing structure that reflects economic reality of where it is being distributed.

The EU version should clearly be more expensive due to the liability of doing business with the fine-slap-happy EU.

Sure, a person in the UK could buy a grey market US version. But then there would be no local support for it.

I am happy for MS to claw back the hundreds of millions it has lost through legal processes.

After all, that is exactly what EU governments are doing to it's citizens right now... clawing back money for its fuckups through higher taxes, lower savings rates, bigger gvt deficits, etc.

 

[Triprift]

And the Aussie version should be cheaper so we all here in Oz die of shock at cheaper software for a change.

 

[Mussels]

And the Aussie version should be cheaper so we all here in Oz die of shock at cheaper software for a change.

as i just told another aussie i know

http://www.digitan.com.au/product.php?productid=44818&cat=1624&page=2

$135 for vista Home Premium x64 is not priced badly.

I could probably find it cheaper (or in stock) elsewhere, but i hadnt looked very hard to find that.

 

[Triprift]

Nice find Mussels like you said maybe could find cheaper but that is reasonable for Oz.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

Why all the mention about discounts, I thought that If you bought Vista last year or even this year your not getting squat, that this discount scheme from Microsoft was for OEM machines that come with vista once 7 is released, am I wrong?

oh and thats a nice price on VHP, heck, my shop (somewhere in Melbourne) sells it no where near that price.

 

[Mussels]

for the aussies:
www.staticice.com.au

It'll find everything you need thats IT related, in every webstore in au. it follows boolean search rules, so your tricks from google tend to work there too.

On topic for this - it probably wont cost a huge amount more. 10% maybe? they arent going to suddenly make vista disappear off the shelves, they're going to shelve XP and leave vista and 7 the two options. 7 Is more desirable, therefore it will have a higher price.

 

[KainXS]

wow . . . that is cheap

i live in us though

 

[Triprift]

Yeah i know about staticice excellent resource.

Id say it will sell very well as its reputation already is superior to what Vista's was most are expecting the best ms os ever.

 

[Mussels]

wow . . . that is cheap

i live in us though

it aint expensive in the USA either.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

it claims the licence cant be transferred to another PC, but ive heard reports that its easy to call MS over the phone and say you replaced the motherboard and need to reactivate.

 

[KainXS]

whoa i did not know about those, thanks for the link

 

[newtekie1]

Ok, here is the deal with Win7 pricing. So far, the only information we have on it, is still a rumor, however it puts prices at the same level as Vista.

Home Premium is to sell for $259.95, the exact same price as Vista.
Business Edition is to sell for $299.95, the exact same price as Vista.
Ultimate Edidition is to sell for $319.95, the exact same price as Vista.

Sources: windows7center and Microsoft

I don't know where this jackass from Dell is getting that Microsoft Windows 7 has a higher average selling price, unless you count some of the versions that the consumers couldn't care less about.

And yes, OEM is the way to go if you know what you are doing, and don't need to call Microsoft for tech support(Microsoft does not provide free tech support for OEM copies). They can also only be legally installed on one computer EVER. Meaning if you buy a new computer, you need to buy a new licence, and a new system is defined as changing the motherboard. Though, as someone already mentioned, you can easily get around this by simply calling to activate and answering the few questions correctly.

Here is a list of OEM copies of Windows on Newegg, you can get Ultimate Edition for $180.

Usually when pricing information is released, people try to compare the retail pricing on the new OS, to the OEM pricing of the previous. I've seen it done when Vista came out, and now that Win 7 is coming out. Both times, people bitch about how much more expensive the pricing is compared to the older OS, and both time the pricing has been identical.

 

[Mussels]

To add on newtekies post: Those are retail prices. the ones that have unlimited reinstalls, no 'limits' on how many PC's they can be activated on and such. The ones you buy at walmart, Kmart, or whatever mart they have in your country.

The ones i posted earlier are OEM copies, they have a few limitations (and known workarounds) but they're a lot cheaper.

newtekie did an edit

 

[LiveOrDie]

windows 7 release date is december 2009 (2009 holiday season) so not long to wait for the retail

 

[newtekie1]

@Mussels: My ninja edit skills are weak this morning...

 

[btarunr]

Dell is referring to OEM copies / paper licenses of Windows 7, as that's the only form in which Dell would sell the OS to its customers.

 

[DonInKansas]

Pffft. Dell should shut up. They'll pay whatever price MS asks so they can go on their "Vista sucked! Buy our shiny comps with the uber-awesome Windows 7!" campaign.

 

[iStink]

My friends Lisa and Matt bought a gateway computer from best buy and then found out they're eligible for a free upgrade to windows 7 when it comes out.