Microsoft's Windows 7 price gamble - and why it's flawed

netbooks and windows

we bought a netbook for our on-call staff, complete with integrated 3G dongle, made by a reputable maker also known for TVs, phones and domestic appliances sold by a Very cOmmon Fone provider.

the first thing we did was wipe windowsXP to install Ubuntu - decided to try Netbook Remix:

http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download-netbook

it was *so* easy to install, we left a chunk of disk there for XP "just in case", but UNR detected the 3G dongle set up the network, detected the wifi and it all worked *perfectly* out of the box, the upshot is that there's no need for XP at all. There's no way we'd waste any money on VistaSP3, er Windows7!

Don't forget Chrome

And before long, Chrome will be hitting the low end.

Family pack

***"the Family Pack will be priced $149.99, and it will let you install Windows 7 Home Premium on three home PCs."***

Why 3? How did they come up with the idea that a "family" would have 3 PCs?

Personally my family has 4. One each. So this isn't a lot of use to me.

But then I'm using the Ubuntu "family pack". Priced at £0.00 and can be installed on as many computers as I like.

Linux? 'fraid not

I wish it were so - I thought, when I bought my little Acer, that Linux on netbooks was going to cause some ripples - I had fond fantasies of catastrophic, panicked pricing action from Microsoft slowing, yet not stopping, the inevitable decline until XP cost four pounds fifty. Alas. Not to be.

Just google to see how difficult it is to get wi-fi, multi-monitors or sound (a microphone? no way!) working properly on netbooks with Linux. Not advanced stuff, just stuff that Paris would, and should, expect to 'just work'.

Linux on netbooks is a toy, in that it's designed for people that want to play with it. Not to compete with Microsoft for the love of a good woman.

Glad that MS takes Apple seriously

Apple may have a small market share, but it has a big impact on Microsoft. I'm a 100% Windows user so I dread to think how much more expensive and less innovative (!!) Win7 would have been without any competition. Thanks, Apple.

This is a limited time offer and will run until supplies run out.

Yep - after 100 copies it's broken & can be copied no more...

How the f@ck can "supplies" of software run out ???

For me, it's not the pricing that's the issue...

I'd pay the asking price. no, for me, it's the activation.

I keep one windows box- the others are all *nix and macs. The windows machine is at home, and used for games. Because it's nice to turn everything up to "11", the hardware gets upgraded pretty regularly.

If this means that I will have to constantly phone Microsoft up for permission to use my own computer after changing the video card, moving the OS to SSDs etc, then I going to damn well use a cracked version.

If it turns out that they have dropped that bullshit, and I can use my windows box the same way as I use my other computers, then fine, I will pony up for one of the more expensive flavours of win 7- as the beta hasn't been too bad

However, if they're set on treating users like naughty children, then I shall make sure that I behave like one, and pirate the damn thing.

The bigger story

So lowering the price of Windows 7 is somehow going to hurt Microsoft's market share? Or are you talking about Microsoft's bottom line in quarterly statements? They aren't the same thing, which you mention, but then what's the article about again?

Your final paragraph with your conclusions doesn't seem to follow from any of your pricing analysis. If anything, the article improved my opinion of Microsoft's pricing strategy, not the opposite, heck, the article almost read like a product placement ad! The only thing missing was a "[Buy Family Pack Here]" hyperlink.

And with the performance and security of Win7 looking good in the RTM reviews, even on netbooks, these pricing issues seem trivial. The bigger story, it seems, is how the whole Vista screw-up opened a door for Apple and how netbooks opened another one for Linux, but that these doors are closing with the RTM of Windows 7. You hint at some larger issues in the last sentence, but then all this doesn't have much to do with "pricing contradictions".

Netbooks with Linux proving fine.

I have two customers with Dell Mini 10v (as recommended by The Register), with Ubuntu Linux netbook remix operating system.

I get few support calls & the customer's netbook gets no viruses or slowdown over time.

Linux on netbooks is proving an ideal marriage IMO.

No need for proprietary lock-in and the associated costs.

Half the Number of the Beast in Euro!

"$299.99 for a brand-new version of Windows 7 Professional."

This translates to € 309,90 (incl. 19% VAT) for a brand-new version of Windows 7 Professional E (whatever that is) on my preferred Internet shop. This means that local retail will have a 10% markup on top of that.

Uh ... no thanks.

When Windows is available for € 30 for a full version, a reduction by an order of magnitude in price, then we will be talking. Hey, an OS is supposed to be a commodity these days, right?

Meanwhile, Windows 2K and Linux is the ticket.

Lost the plot

I've thought that Microsoft lost the plot a long time ago. This just confirms it. Do they really think that people will ditch/change operating systems just because of a price difference between them? Microsoft where never really good at innovating, and now they just seem to react to the market or flounder. They seem to be peopled by non people, mindless grinning corporate stuffed shirts, led by that cretin Balmer. I won't call him an ape or Baboon, as its insulting to them. But a buffoon, yes. Windows 7 is there to correct the mistake that is Vista. But if you are happy with XP why change?

Apples and Bananas

How can you compare the software upgrades?

If I want to upgrade the OS on my PC, can I choose between OSX and Windows 7? Nope.

If I want to upgrade the (primary) OS on my Mac, can I choose? Nope.

This article makes it sound like your average punter will be sitting down and saying "Should I upgrade to W7 or OSX". Even when purchasing new hardware, the average punter won't be thinking about which system is cheaper to upgrade the OS in a couple of years time (less for mac).

Apple's pricing changes slightly come September

as a Snow Leopard client upgrade from Leopard will be only $29 ($49 for a five-user family licence), while a full version for Tiger hold-outs will run $169 ($229 for five users), in the form of a Mac Box Set with iLife and iWork thrown in.

The most delusional aspect of Microsoft's increasingly bizarre behaviour (particularly over the last week of whack-job prognostications from Monkey Boy) is that it seems to believe it's operating in the same chunk of the market as Apple, and therefore must respond. Does MS have access to some super-secret Apple netbook prototypes that nobody else know about?

Weird analysis

Microsoft is discounting due to Apple, really? Makes no sense at all, from where I stand.

Who's ever bought Apple to save money!?

Or is the whole think based on Hackintoshers, the only people to buy OS X without having paid the substantial premium for the hardware already?

Another aside:

"instead of just browsing the web or checking email"

Will someone then point out to the suckers that they could have saved >$50 (as far as rumors go) off the laptop's price if they could have got a machine with any free OS, any of which more than good enough to "just browse the web" and "check email"? And that they will now have to spend quite some *additional* money to be able to do more (which the free OSs would have been capable of too, considering the capabilities of "netbooks")?

MS Should have hired Rooster Teeth

Microsoft should have hired Rooster Teeth to answer the I'm a Mac ads a loooong time ago:

http://roosterteeth.com/archive/episode.php?id=118

Conversion rates?

A dizzying array of prices, but how will they convert for the UK? Will MS do the same as Vista and use 1 dollar = 1 pound, because of the 'higher cost of doing business'? And carry on stuffing us all over Europe just like they and a lot of American companies always have.

Look who *chooses* Apple over Microsoft

Apple may be insignificant in absolute turnover terms, but look at the people who *choose* Apple over Microsoft: senior people and independent consultants. Look in any Airport lounge.

No mention of VMs as a source of competition for Microsoft; VMs tend to remove the need to upgrade as they're often installed as one-trick-ponies, e.g. for a specific task. Then the OS really isn't significant any longer.

But...

....I already have an OS, and it works just dandy thank you.

Bye

Either...

...it's too early on a Sunday morning or my brain isn't functioning, but I found this article practically unreadable. I understood it fine, but it felt like the whole thing had been written by smashing up some words and numbers with a rubber mallet.

Wait, what?

Well, so what if Apple's OS X Family Pack works out cheaper than Windows? It's completely irrelevant, since the ordinary punter is thoroughly dissuaded from purchasing Apple by the mind-bending price tags, and the more informed of us don't see why we should lay out major money on what is, under the pretty facade, nasty odf tat from the notorious Foxconn and similar purveyors of horrible components.

Lost money...

From my experience of consumer and business purchases of Apple equipment nearly 1/2 of the Apples computers going out the door are sold with a copy or XP/Vista and Parrallels or setup for bootcamp. The business machines go out with an even higher attach of XP than domestic. So I don't think Microsoft are that high when they talk of not loosing money to Apple.

Anyhow I look forward to OS X 10.6 and Windows 7! it should be a good year for all. Linux fanbois I forget you not - but you get your new toys so frequently wrapped and rewrapped that it gets dizzying. Yet that kid with the BSD distro will always be more geeky and faster when the benchamarks roll...

** The black white and yellow one because he wanted in on the action **

clueless

Name one person who upgraded from XP home -> Pro

No one will upgrade , what for ? , 99% of people will just stick to what they bought on the machine.

One single version would have been nice , two at a push . but who here isn't confused already by the 50 versions , did they learn nothing about vi$ta

But why????

Is it so important to keep harping on about the upgrade cost from HP7 to Ultimate7?

Why would folks do this? 99% of home users dont need Ultimate anyway. In fact if most folks that feel they need Ulitmate were honest with themselves...they dont need it either.

Please clarify...

How a consumer will steer away from OSX because 7 is 10$ cheaper. I can imaging someone deciding to upgrade XP or vista based on the price, but I don't see someone dumping a Macbook or IMac and buying a new laptop because the OS is 10$ cheaper.

Do you need it?

If what you have does the job, why spend money on the latest shiny new model?

My car is 18 years old , but it does what I want and I see no need to spend large amount of money on the latest shape of car that will do the same job.