Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 06 July 2009 08:40
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
The current half price upgrade deal in the US runs out on July 11, but
Microsoft has promised more deals to come, while licensing terms
indicate a 3 user license “family pack” for Win 7 is coming at last –
but as always, is it enough?!
With Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade (US $49.99) still No.1 in Software at Amazon’s “
Bestsellers in Software” category, and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (US $99.99) in the No.2 spot, demand for these two Windows 7 upgrade versions, at the current half price special, is proving very popular - especially as the deal is ending soon.
The more expensive Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade edition (US $219.99), which isn’t on a “half-price” sales special, clocks in at No.15 on the list, while what looks like a full edition of Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard ($129.99 but on sale at $108.99) is listed at No.21.
Seeing as Mac OS X 10.5 has come with Macs for at least a year now, and as OS X always comes with a Mac, buyers are presumably from a base of OS X 10.4 or earlier upgraders who can’t wait for the attractively priced OS X 10.6 $29 upgrade in a few months time (or due to PowerPC architecture, can’t run it), and perhaps also some of those creating “Hackintoshes”, running OS X on non-Apple hardware, who at least want a genuine copy of the OS over a pirated one.
It will be very interesting to see what the levels of Windows 7 sales change to once the July 11 specials are over and Win 7 upgrade prices are doubled back to recommended retail pricing, but Microsoft’s sales specials will continue.
July 11’s price reversals will possibly be overshadowed by the fact Windows 7 goes RTM on July 13, but perhaps a new Microsoft sales special will quickly emerge.
Earlier last week, Microsoft
publicly stated to CNET News in Ina Fried’s article on “some Vista users say they’re getting the Ultimate shaft” that “This is the first of the offers and there will be more to come, but we can't get into specifics on any of that yet."
Vista Ultimate users were unhappy that Microsoft’s half price special upgrade pricing didn’t apply to Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade edition, leading to Ultimate users being gouged twice, on initial high pricing and far fewer “Ultimate Extras” than promised, and then no upgrade pricing despite had to go through all that Ultimate (and originally wonky Vista) nonsense to begin with.
Continued on page 2… please read on!
