More Insider Sign Out. Sign In Register. Sign Out Sign In Register. Latest Insider. Check out the latest Insider stories here. More from the IDG Network. In short, these preorders will allow those in the UK, Germany, and France to purchase full versions of Home Premium or Professional, except without IE8, for a very low price. Waiting to buy a PC until Windows 7 is released can be frustrating especially given the upcoming back-to-school season , so Microsoft is making an upgrade offer similar to what it did for consumers buying XP but who wanted to secure a copy Vista: buy a Windows Vista PC as of June 26 and receive the equivalent edition of Windows 7 when it comes out.
If the June 26 date sounds familiar, that's because it was rumored earlier this month via a leaked Best Buy memo contra the rumor pointing to July 1 being the date. Microsoft will be offering the program globally until January 31, but OEMs can cut it off early if they choose to. For example, if you purchase a computer with Windows Vista Home Premium on it, once it is available, you will get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to upgrade to.
Further details will be available soon at windows. Ybarra told Ars that Microsoft would not charge consumers for Windows 7 if they purchased a Vista PC between tomorrow and the day of general availability. He did admit, however, that OEMs can choose the price of the upgrade, possibly charging for shipping and handling fees. Furthermore, it will be up to OEMs to decide which computers the upgrade offer will be available on, so it's unlikely that low-end computers like netbooks or PCs on sale will have this offer.
Microsoft is promising that all major OEMs will have PCs with Windows 7 shipping in all language versions beginning on the day of general availability, October 22, However, the same cannot be said for the Windows 7 retail versions. This wait of just over one week is a big improvement over Windows Vista's launch: the wait between the initial launch in the US and all the languages becoming available was about three months.
This theme of "better than Vista" that we're seeing with Windows 7 is apparent in today's announcement as well: the release has better pricing and will be more rapidly broadly available. However, whether "better than Vista" will be good enough for consumers to switch away from their current operating system is up to the market to decide. That said, we're optimistic, as Microsoft is quite obviously listening intently this time around. A few readers have asked in the comments and via e-mail about retail pricing in other countries.
While we begged for pricing in every country, a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars that only pricing for the EU and the UK were available:. Some analysts are scratching their head over Redmond's latest decision. In what may be an unprecedented decision, Microsoft said Thursday that it plans to lower the retail prices for several flavors of Windows Vista.
For those in the U. Other developed markets will also see price cuts, while in emerging markets, Microsoft is eliminating the distinction between full and upgrade versions of Home Basic and Home Premium as it attempts to convince more users there to use genuine software.
Yes, and it's about time. View results. Microsoft finalized Windows Vista in late , but held back its retail launch of the product until January It has sold more than million copies, largely on the back of a strong overall PC market, but retail sales have significantly trailed those of XP in its early days and Vista has received a number of critical reviews.
In an interview, newly minted Windows consumer marketing vice president Brad Brooks said that Microsoft had been testing lower prices over the past few months and was surprised to find that the amount of revenue lost was more than made up for by an increase in the number of PC buyers willing to shell out for an upgrade.
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