Someone leaked some 7 Retail Prices?! Real or Fake?

If anything. i could see MS waiting on pricing till the competition (if you can call it that) gets all their affairs in order. probably a mexican stand off, Mac, MS, and i guess the cave troll that brings us Linux are all staring down each others barrels, waiting to see who shoots first.

WindowsSe7en said:

I really doubt those are fake. These are the same prices as vista, but then again vista was more expensive at first.

Try an $80- price drop for the Ultimate which had been $399.95. When Vista's prices were first announced no one could figure out why they were that high to start off with.

Everyone had been used to the $180-$225 price range for XP and previous versions. When asking someone who was one of the first in line about not buying an oem disk instead that's when the mention of seeing the 64bit disk included in with the 32bit! Two for one explained the higher price tag.

In order to get more volume of sales for Vista the prices where dropped there for obvious reasons! 7 on the other hand is the new item to come soon where it is still the official MS page listing prices to watch out for.

"TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that correctly named the ship date of Internet Explorer 8 earlier this year and leaked details of an upcoming free Windows 7 upgrade program for users who buy Vista PCs after July 1, said that Microsoft will publicly announce prices for Windows 7 in mid-June.
Although Microsoft has detailed the Windows 7 versions it will ship later this year, it has not set prices or a launch date for Vista's successor.

A report last week by CNET cited a Dell product director as saying that the average price of Windows 7 would be higher than Vista, but did not go into specifics. "In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a stronger swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them," Darrel Ward, director of product management for Dell's business client product group, told CNET. "I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista."
According to TechARP, Microsoft set Windows 7 pricing for computer makers such as Dell several weeks ago. By now, Microsoft has also informed major retailers of the Windows 7 prices.
One analyst didn't have any idea what Microsoft will charge for Windows 7, but was sure of one thing: Continuing economic problems put a very big monkey wrench in Microsoft's plans. "It's such a strange time that it's hard to even speculate on prices," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "Everything has such a different feel to it because of the economic climate."" Report: Microsoft to Reveal Windows 7 Prices in June - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

That was from an article dated 5/21. Another one dated for 5/19 pointed out another price indicator.

"Dell warns Windows 7 will raise PC prices"
Microsoft's attempt to increase the prices for Windows 7 could hurt sales of PCs, Dell director of business product management Darren Ward says early this week. Without providing exact numbers, he explains to CNET that the average selling price of the OS will increase from Vista and that it should be particularly higher for Windows 7 Professional, which replaces Windows Vista Business as the mainstream work version. He adds that costs of retail boxed copies should go up but doesn't specifically address the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) prices Dell gets for its own systems.
The increase is enough that Ward is concerned Microsoft may scare away some customers by driving up the prices while customers are still concerned about the costs of their PCs. He sees the price change as sufficiently high that some smaller businesses, governments and schools simply couldn't afford to update.

"In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a stronger swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them," Ward says." Electronista | Dell warns Windows 7 will raise PC prices
The best estimate on all this is that MS is being tight lipped while trying to promote more Vista sales with the pricing slash seen back in February. With 7 soon to become the new item on stores shelves the common question has already been asked. "Will Windows 7 really cost more than Vista?" bit-tech.net | Blog - Will Windows 7 really cost more than Vista?

What you don't seem to undertsand on that is it's not the price of the disks and boxes they come in but the type of license for the application. Go out and price a corporate license to the one you pay retail for in an office supply store(They'll tend to carry all editions over places like BestBuy or Walmart).

Volume licenses allow companies and schools to install one edition on 100 machines while the home user who buys the retail disk can install on the new replacement systme once the old one has to go. Oem glues one disk per one machine.

I tend to believe that 7 will be first seen with Vista's original pricing while MS had slashed Vista's to keep pushing sales on the present version out. You see that with hardwares as well when something new comes out it's up high at first and then starts dropping in price once it's been out for a period of time.