For those of you waiting for the release of Windows 7, we have come a step closer with the announcement of the pricing. The news is good though, and not what we are expecting, there have been price drops since Vista.
Before I waffle any further, the pricing is as follows:
Windows 7 Home Premium $199.99
Windows 7 Professional $299.99
Windows 7 Ultimate $319.99
You may have noted that I have not converted the pricing in to pounds, simply doing that is not the Microsoft way. No, no, no. The usual way is to simply covert the price, dollar to pound. Well that may be an exaggeration, but when Vista was released, our cousins across the pond got a better deal, but if you believe in miracles.
Windows 7 Home Premium £121.86
Windows 7 Professional £182.79
Windows 7 Ultimate £194.97
Of course, the good folk who read this tech blog would never stoop to buying the premium products, and will always opt for the OEM version instead. This of course will be cheaper still.
Upgrade pricing, if that’s your bag, is as follows.
Windows 7 Home Premium $119.99
Windows 7 Professional $199.99
Windows 7 Ultimate $219.99
This is cheaper if you can believe it, than the release prices of the Vista versions. This runs contrary to this news story that suggested that pricing might be a barrier to uptake of Microsofts latest OS. I still think it is, but only less so.
Speculation suggests that Microsoft has dropped the price of the OS due to the current economic climate, but perhaps the OEMs have been doing a bit of pleading, Good job too, as it could be another faux pas for the Redmond software machine.
To really get us buying into the whole Windows 7 hype, and to boost Mirosofts numbers, they are offering a discount on pre-orders of the upgrade version. They can then say people have been pre-ordering in their droves. However, in the UK, because they have to offer a version without IE, and they have not tested an upgrade without IE, they will offer the full version instead! Could mean we get a nice cheap version for a change, although it may well still not be as cheap as it is over in the States. Gits.