Preston Gralla's picture
Preston Gralla

Seeing Through Windows

Don't believe the $120 Windows 7 pricetag

Yesterday Microsoft announced that it will charge $120 for upgrades to Windows 7 when it ships. But don't believe that price; I expect that permanent discounts will ensure consumers will always pay less.

Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group, told Computerworld that the $120 pricetag is simply too high, especially considering that upgrades to Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard, will only be $29 in certain instances. Apple is also offering a five-license pack for $49.

He told Computerworld:

"Apple's Snow Leopard pricing model is much more appropriate to driving adoption and raising customer satisfaction levels. This is a direction I would have much preferred to see Microsoft head."

Microsoft's two-week deal to pre-sell Windows 7 Home Premium for $50 has been a raging success, even taking the top spot at Amazon's best-seller list. I'm betting that Microsoft will use that success as a model. I would expect there to be constant special deals like that --- a similar deal upon product launch, for example --- so that the operating system will always be available at a marked-down price. If not, I don't think Windows 7 will be as much as a success as it should be.