Microsoft unveils 'screaming deals' for Windows 7
Summary: Earlier this year, Microsoft promised aggressive offers to win over would-be Windows 7 buyers. Today, the company made it official, touting a "screaming deal" for anyone willing to order a Windows 7 upgrade more than three months before the software officially goes on sale. Is a 50% discount enough to get you to buy now?
Move over, Crazy Eddie. Step aside, Cal Worthington. Ron Popeil, you’ve been pre-empted.
Earlier this year, Microsoft promised “aggressive offers” to win over would-be Windows 7 buyers. Today, the company made it official, touting a “screaming deal” for anyone willing to order a Windows 7 upgrade more than three months before the software officially goes on sale.
First hints of the “special, time-limited offer” first surfaced several weeks ago when a memo from consumer electronics retail giant Best Buy was leaked to Engadget. The details in that memo were correct; in fact, the program is actually more widespread than it first appeared. Here are the details:
- The program kicks off tomorrow, June 26, in the United States, Canada, and Japan. It’s scheduled to end July 11 in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5 in Japan—”or while supplies last,” Microsoft notes.
- The discount is 50% or more over the normal estimated retail price (ERP) of the two mainstream consumer editions. In the United States, you’ll be able to buy a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for $50 or get Windows 7 Professional for $100. Outside the U.S., Microsoft says, “the special low pre-order price will vary by country.”
- The offer is available online at Best Buy and Amazon.com. For the first time that I can remember, the online Microsoft Store will match these discounted prices instead of sticking with the full list price.
- If you live in the United Kingdom, France, or Germany, the pre-order period will open on July 15 and close on August 15—or while supplies last.
- Update 11AM PT: There's a per-person limit of three copies of each edition, according to Microsoft's FAQ. Also, you qualify for the upgrade pricing with any computer running any version of Windows XP or Windows Vista. This is true even if you are not able to perform an upgrade installation.
So what happens to pricing when the promotion ends? As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft also unveiled its price list for retail copies of Windows 7 (upgrade and full packaged product). The bottom line? A modest price cut for the most popular Windows edition, Home Premium, compared to its predecessor, and no change for Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions. (My colleague Mary Jo Foley has an analysis of the impact of the new pricing on Microsoft’s bottom line.)
Estimated retail prices for packaged retail product in the United States are as follows:
| Windows 7 Edition | Upgrade | Full license |
| Home Premium | $120 (was $130) | $200 (was $240) |
| Professional | $200 | $300 |
| Ultimate | $220 | $320 |
Mary Jo Foley: Is Windows 7 pricing too high, too low, or just right?
Microsoft’s announcement today left out several important details: There’s no hint of what price it plans to charge for its Windows Anytime Upgrade product, which allow a Windows user to move up from one edition of Windows 7 to another in a few minutes. Based on this price list, I would expect the upgrade from Home Premium to Professional edition to be $100 or so, with the upgrade to Ultimate edition adding another $20 or so.
Even more curiously, there’s no feature matrix to help you understand which features are in each edition. Microsoft has revealed some details about the differences between editions, but they’ve left it to bloggers like me to ferret out the longer, more detailed list. (See From Starter to Ultimate: What's really in each Windows 7 Edition?)
Today’s announcement also confirmed details of Microsoft's global Windows 7 Upgrade Option program, which allows PC makers and retailers to offer free upgrades to Windows 7 (fulfilled by Microsoft) for any PC purchased with a premium edition of Windows Vista. The program starts June 26 and ends January 31, 2010; PCs with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate qualify for upgrades to the equivalent Windows 7 edition.
Finally, another detail slipped into today’s announcements has a major impact on European customers planning to purchase a retail copy of Windows. I’ve got those details in a follow-up post.
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Talkback
add at least 60% if you are outside the US! (nt)
Who is the idiot.....
RE: Microsoft unveils 'screaming deals' for Windows 7
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@pico_D: It cost that much to remove the browser? :) (nt)
(Meant to be a reply to message, not user)
Your Sarcasm More True than You Realize
with all the legal battles they've been in.
Pre-emptive Price Cuts; Result of Win 7 RC BSOD Feature! ;)! ;)
They are, in no unnecessary order; M$ Mal&Spyware, Corporate Religious Doctrine (Embrace, Extend, Extinquish)and of course, where would we be w/o BSODS??? xD
But perhaps the BSODS are Microsoft's sure fire way of us being sure it's a Microsoft Product. Now that they've completely reheated (Microslaved) Win 7 RC (from Old Vista), the BSOD's have become even more frequent than any RC release to date. (search the web or attempt to install Win 7 RC for proof)... LMFAO
Now, not just Installing Windoze 7 causes BSOD's, but ""Security"" Updates cause BSOD's as well! ha ha ....as if Windows has ever been or ever will be Secure!
So fearing the worst, M$'s only alternative is Pre-Emptive PRICE CUTS! :D
Hey genius
Genius? this lad is more useless than the computer game he is playing
you my friend, have a lack of computer skills... if you knew anything about computers you would run *nix... not windows...
genius...
You are just as stupid as the person your trying to insult, and probably know even less.
genius
regular pricing similar to that of
release of the software $190 for Ultimate than for what
they have listed there with discount for retail.
$199.00 - $320.00 for bug maintenance...AGAIN?!!
I've run Windows 7 for months; it's a bug fix of Vista; that's all. Nothing more. It should be given to all Vista owners at no cost AS AN APOLOGY!, or at least offered as a maintenance upgrade for a $10.00 CD shipping fee.
What's with the "Fanboy" stuff from Ziff Davis? Are you guys journalists or cheerleaders? You better go look in the mirror and clean that stuff off of the tips of your noses, lest the obvious become even more obvious.
These "deals" scream of Microsoft's hubris and the common user's ignorance; and I include corporate IT departments who continuously pay for these "bug fixes" masquerading as "x.0" platform upgrades in that assessment of ignorance.
How much as_ can you guys kiss? I cannot believe you are jumping on this insult from Microsoft and trumpeting it as something special!
Are you men or mice?
Try to be rational; people won't listen.
Linux, especially Ubuntu 8.x and 9.x, are great, but OS X is indeed more refined, loads quicker, supports hardware Linux never will...
10.6 will be a dream, given what 10.5.x already does.
do you even know tech?
The fact that you think OS X loads quicker means you haven't been using Linux on a comparable system. Linux will run on lesser hardware, it just takes more time to boot up when doing so depending on your distro.
Some will boot in a few seconds (no more than 5), some take 30 seconds. Any that take more than that either call for modern hardware (made in the last 5 years) or were just not not programmed right and shouldn't be used.
I'm currently using Ubuntu 9.04, it boots on a 1.87 GHz Pentium IV machine with 1GB DDR RAM in 30 seconds or less. With a dual processor, it would boot in less time. With a faster Pentium IV it would still boot in less time.
You really might want to back up your statements or do some research before making comments.
Today's computer is like....
is the only one that has grasped that of all the manufacturers. A
computer is nothing more than a machine that processes data where only
the techies of this forum care about what is happening inside. That is why
there is this continual banter about hardware and software rather than
whole complete computers. Who cares what software runs inside of a
computer, what counts is that it works well, it is reliable and doesn't get
messed up by Trojans and viruses easily. Apple is still the only computer
company that makes whole complete computers and does not buy their
software from a third party.
@arminw
computer, what counts is that it works well, it is reliable and doesn't get messed up by Trojans and viruses easily. Apple is still the only computer company that makes whole complete computers and does not buy their software from a third party."
Apple has patched so many security bugs this year it's pathetic. It gets messed up as easy, if not more easy, than a windows machine. I say more easy because securit wasn't something Apple concentrated on. It wasn't a big deal up to recently. All of a sudden, iPhone is the sexy new tech to have and there's vulnerabilites popping up all over the place.
Also, they use Acrobat for pdf readers, etc. No, Apple doesn't buy their software from other companies, but they still use it. Flash, Adobe, etc. All these are well known and widely used systems that can be hacked just as easy on a Mac as on a Windows pc.
When it comes to viruses, all computers are equal. :P
Jeez
I can only imagine how hard it was to type whilst flailing your arms and stamping your feet.
Clearly, you don't buy any sort of serious software as part of your profession, (assuming of course that you are old enough to have a profession, which I doubt) if you did, you would see very little difference between what Microsoft is doing to any other major software company... especially companies like Adobe. You want to look at their annual upgrade prices and feature list, when you have to pay for them, then you can feel justified in the tantrums.
Jeez, indeed!
And, for the record...
1. Among decent people, name calling and disparaging people with whom one takes exception is considered the last refuge of the lowest of scoundrels who, when they have nothing intelligent to offer (which is almost always), must dig down (not very far) within themselves to grab for that most visceral of guttural utterances: "Ugg," or they'll lose their emotional composure in that very moment. I am sure you do not want to be seen this way so, you may want to think through your approach. You are wrong in your approach to your argument, displaying both immaturity and a lack of articulate reasoning.
2. I've been working in this industry for over 20 years (DOS 2.2 forward on the Windows side -I don't expect you'd understand other OS/NOS platform references). So, you are simply wrong in your assumption.
3. I own a small company in which I house a substantial lab with 40+ servers and I run environment simulations for companies who deploy specialized software on multiple operating systems in cross-platform production environments (UNIX, Linux, Windows, etc). I use, purchase and deploy a large catalog of software titles. So, you are wrong again.
It looks like you are simply wrong on all counts.
Now do you see how polite people converse? Not once did I resort to name-calling or rude comments. Good luck in your next debate.
Well stand by the outhouse then....
No points to counter yours? How about REALITY. I am in an office full of Vista loaded computers and they all work great, no problems or issues. You are a simpleton who just seems to think you can say any dumb thing and reality will never arrive to bit you in the butt. Well it just did. Now lets see if you are so far gone you don't even notice.
You did not even read the original post
However, since you raised the issue, I'll tell you that my Vista Ultimate box ran great (for over a year) until I turned it on one morning, ran chkdsk, went out to get a coffee, came back to find every file on my computer had its security identifiers re-written and it was no longer accessible, without a ridiculous work-around. It is the chkdsk file 9 error and it is a 10 years old, very destructive, bug. Isn't 10 years kind of a long time to be selling defective software without fixing it for your customers?
How's that for reality?
Any company who sells computer software with its own self-destructive capability "built-in," is not in serious contention for my IT dollars anymore.
You of course are welcome to do as you like over there by your outhouse.
Sorry, Win7 is not a Vista bug fix so you loose. Nuff said.