Are you going to buy Win7 at these Prices

fseal · 20 May 2009

MasterEvilAce said:

Gotta be fake.. $200 for the starter edition?
I don't think so.

What I'd like to see (although would PREFER cheaper.. such as not $50 increments.. and would like to see ultimate at ~200$)

Starter $100
Home premium- $150
Professional - $200
Ultimate-$250

I think you've nailed the real street/oem pricing.

Virtually NO ONE pays suggested retail for Windows ever.

Go to any online tech store, or computer store, buy a new HD or a new sick of ram, CDROM whatever and get the OEM copy for half the retail cost. You can't parallel install it but you CAN serial install it as long as there has been 6 months or something between them, I.e. you CAN do a full machine upgrade with it a second or third time.

Everyone else will get it preinstalled for even less.

And though the Windows 7 is hot on the heels of Vista (two years). I was around for the 5 years and 5 "upgrades" of OSX qhen it first came out that cost $135 each flat out once a year.

Apple was "earning" a hell of a lot more money from each mac user during that time than microsoft has made from individual customers ever and only /now/ is MS even close close to catching up...

Still, I agree, a killer price deal and the taming of the version madess seems ilke a sane thing to do. I can see it now though, if W7 home was $60 and W7 Pro cost $100 MS would be sued by Apple, RedHat and everyone else for monopoly abuse all over. :/

Captain Zero · 20 May 2009

This discsussion is essentially moot for a number of reasons.

1 - As said, suggested retail is simply a guideline. It's rarely baseline.
2 - With the launch, there will be piles of incentives, programs and contests.
3 - New systems will be quick to bundle with W7 in an effort to make up for lost sales over Vista.
4 - An upgrade program is inevitable for disgruntled Vista users.
5 - For many, the cost will not be a factor, further making any notion of pricing vs. distribution irrelevant.

Night Hawk · 20 May 2009

The XP Pro SP3 oem disks were seen for $130 while the SP2 retail is seen for the $197.99 at the same time! Which one do you think right off would be the seller for anyone still looking for the older version?

Obviously SP3 already being included solves a great deal of things right off. But if you walk into a Walmart don't be surprized to see XP SP3 retail for about the same price as newegg has listed for the SP2! Once SP3 was out on disk all retail store restocked with those replacing the SP2 disks.

daniel101 · 20 May 2009

Dissapointed if those prices will stay when final copy comes out, but yer, i would probly end up buying home premium, wont be spending any more over that.

Night Hawk · 20 May 2009

I ended up being stuck with Vista Home Premium when that was first out due to how fast the Ultimate edition flew off of shelves! I can imagine the overnight wait along with the crowds for the doors to open at retail outlets once 7 is available!

Yoiu'll be in good shape just being able to grab a copy of the Starter or Basic edition at that time. People will be shelling out the do re' me just to get their own copy by the way things are going for 7 so far!

Dark Nova Gamer · 20 May 2009

I wouldn't want to pay anything over $175 for Windows 7 Home Premium (x64).

Though I wont have to worry about it so much as I'll be buying a new desktop PC (this laptop stinks with gaming) sometime next summer :)

Night Hawk · 21 May 2009

Personally I already know which choice I'll be making once 7 is out. I'm still hoping to see 7 Ultimate priced better then Vista was back in 2007 however since I won't be settling this time around for anything less then the full retail releases. By that time I'll have just about all of the updated versions of the softwares used on a regular basis along with a few new ones.

daniel101 · 21 May 2009

Yer, might actually wait til i buy new desktop, since when Win7 is out, most Desktops will be sold with Win7 on it, so new desktop with Win7 probly better idea than spending $200+ for a copy of Win7

Cyberwolf · 21 May 2009

I think Microsoft needs to look into their pricing structure.

I am not a fan of Mac's myself, but you can buy a copy of Apple's latest OS for $129 USD, right from the source (not a discount reseller for example)

Mac OS X v10.5.6 Leopard - Apple Store (Canada)

I will buy either the Pro or Ultimate versions because I very much enjoy what Win7 offers me. However for the average user, they probably won't shell out the money.

The pricing seems to be targeted at enthusiasts and power users instead of the every day user (since power users will shell out big bucks for the newest and latest)

Night Hawk · 21 May 2009

For the typical novice user you wouldn't expect them to be interested in network configurations and virtual machines while the more advanced user will spend the time along the extra to get the best suited editions. Here I have several things where the Ultimate would be the best edition to even consider.

When Vista originally saw the higher price tags many "newbies" as the expression goes were simply told to stay with the Home Premium while some still went for the Business edition there. The gamers on the other hand were rushing out for the 64bit Ultimate with the impression that 8-20gb of memory would solve all performance issues besides the latest top end video cards.

There's one thing to consider namely the 64bit oem disks will certainly sell out much faster with 7 seeing a much improved 32bit emulation as well as the trend for larger softwares needing a bit more ram then seen previously.