Microsoft on Wednesday announced retail pricing for Windows 7 that's at or below comparable Windows Vista prices, while also offering a chance for people to preorder the software at a substantial discount.
From Friday through July 11, consumers in the U.S. will be able to buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99. That offer is good for both XP and Windows Vista PCs, regardless of whether someone has been trying out the pre-release version of the operating system. That matches the details in a memo from Best Buy that leaked earlier this month.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
The offer, however, is limited in both duration and by the number of copies Microsoft is willing to sell, although Microsoft would not specify that figure. The upgrade will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft's own store, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Costco, Staples, Wal-Mart and several other retailers.
"That truly is a price that we have never even come close to in terms of an operating system release," Corporate Vice President Brad Brooks said. "We've still got a business to run."
Of course, even at the preorder price, Microsoft still finds itself undercut by Apple, which has said it will only charge $29 for Leopard users moving to Snow Leopard (those on older versions of the Mac OS will have to buy a full-boxed copy combining Leopard and Snow Leopard).
Brooks, however, said that comparing the two upgrades is unfair.
"Even their chief software architect called (Snow Leopard) an upgrade of Leopard," Brooks said. "The way I look at it, it's a service pack and we don't charge for service packs."
Microsoft also confirmed, as expected, that a program offering Vista PC buyers a free copy of Windows 7 will kick off on Friday.
When boxed copies of Windows 7 go on sale on October 22, Microsoft plans to charge $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional and $219 for Ultimate. The Home Premium upgrade is down $40 from the product's original price, although the Vista product had already gotten a price cut along the way. The Professional and Ultimate versions are priced similar to where Microsoft was with Vista. The upgrade prices apply to those moving from a previous version of Windows to Windows 7, but only those from Windows Vista will be able to upgrade without doing a clean installation of the product.
The full versions of Windows 7--the editions for those without a copy of Windows--will be priced at $199 for Home Premium, $299 for Professional and $319 for Ultimate. The Ultimate and Professional editions are again on par with their Vista counterparts, while Home Premium is down from the $239 that Microsoft had charged with Vista. Microsoft also plans to offer the operating system in an easier-to-open box.
Things are trickier in Europe, where Microsoft has said it will only ship a special "E" version, which has the browser removed. Because of that, Microsoft is requiring all users to do a clean installation of the product. So there, Microsoft has said it will offer the full version of Windows 7 for the upgrade price.
Brooks said Microsoft made that move to avoid having to delay its launch in Europe and added that boxed copy sales make up only a fraction of its total Windows sales in Europe and throughout the world. "It does not delay the introduction of Windows 7 into the market and it gives our European customers the best possible price."
The software maker is speeding up the pace of the international launch of Windows 7 compared with past launches. Computer makers will be able to ship new PCs in all languages on launch day.
As for the retail product, Microsoft plans to have 14 languages ready by October 22: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Hong Kong Chinese.
Then, on October 31, Windows 7 will be available in the remaining 21 languages--Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.
"It truly will be a global release and make it a Windows 7 holiday for everybody this year," Brooks said. "People wanted it faster. We're giving it to them."
It's been about 18 hours since Microsoft started running its Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad and the negative comments continue to pour in.
But Microsoft's Brad Brooks looks at it this way: Even if people aren't talking kindly about the new Windows ad, at least people are talking about Windows.
"It's got a lot of people talking and that's exactly what we wanted," said Brooks, Microsoft's vice president of consumer marketing for Windows. For too long, he said, Microsoft has been silent. And as a result, the only dialogue has come from competitors, namely Apple.
Brooks acknowledges it will take more than just ads to improve Windows' image. The key, he said, are the substantive changes the company is making, such as trying to improve the experience for buying Windows PCs as well as getting machines up and running. Here, Microsoft appears to be taking a page or two from Apple's playbook.
Microsoft has set up this "retail experience center" at its Redmond HQ as a means to learn more about how people shop for Windows PCs.
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft is setting up store-within-a-store locations at major retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy, a concept that Apple employed at both Best Buy and CompUSA. Microsoft is also hiring between 100 and 200 "Windows Gurus"--Microsoft employees that will be positioned at retail stores to help customers learn more about the operating system. Like Apple's Geniuses, Windows Gurus won't be paid commissions. Instead, Brooks said, they will be compensated in large part based on customer satisfaction.
The software maker also has a new engineering team that Brooks said is working "hand in glove" with computer makers to reduce the time it takes Windows PCs to boot, wake from sleep and to initially get up and running out of the box. Systems that have gone through Microsoft's new process will start showing up this fall from all the major computer makers and get highlighted on Microsoft's Web site. Microsoft considered having some sort of logo to highlight the machines that got the extra attention, but opted against such a move, Brooks said. The company has also revamped its Windows.com site.
Microsoft's efforts come at a critical time for the software maker. It has seen its still-dominant market share slip amid strong gains by Apple. At the same time, the ever increasing power of Web applications has increased the threat from Linux-based machines, seen most poignantly with the appeal of cheap, low-end portable computers like Asus' Eee PC.
On the advertising front, Brooks said Microsoft's pitches will start to get more concrete in about a month, centering on the notion that "Windows stands for living on your own terms."
Although the ads are unlikely to mention Apple by name, they will target some of the Mac's limitations and highlight the breadth and choice that Windows allows.
"You decide what color of PC you are going to have," Brooks said. "You decide what services you are going to use. That was the vision that we had behind our entire model over two decades ago."
As for the rationale behind the teaser ad, Brooks said it would have been a mistake, after being silent for so long, for Microsoft to have just come out swinging with a bunch of shop talk.
"We don't get to come in after being silent in the marketplace for so long and just start saying, hey, here's what Windows is, and here's what it stands for, and here's the specific products we want you to try."
If you want more from CNET News' Ina Fried, check out her Twitter feed at twitter.com/inafried.
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