Microsoft's Windows 7 pricing Too high, too low,

On June 25, Microsoft took the wraps off its Windows 7 retail pricing. Bottom line: In the event you preorder (U.S., Canada and Japan only for now), it is possible to preserve much more than 50 percent more than what comparable Vista versions price. Should you don;t, you;ll pay roughly the very same for Windows 7 when you paid for Vista at retail.(My ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott features a much more thorough take a look at the retail pricing for each and every Windows 7 version.)There;s nevertheless plenty we don;t know about Windows 7 pricing, for instance how much Microsoft is charging Computer makers per copy of Windows seven, which could have an impact on what Pc makers will charge for new Windows 7 PCs. Microsoft isn;t speaking about no matter if it'll provide a Family members Pack for Windows seven and just how much that can price. (I asked; no dice.) And, as Bott mentioned, there;s no word on what the Anytime Upgrade pricing — for users who want to jump up to a far more feature-rich Windows 7 SKU — will be.Microsoft also acknowledged on June 25 that the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program will kick off on Friday, June 26, as was expected. Participating Pc makers and retailers will be offering users who buy Vista PCs as of June 26 a coupon for a free copy of Windows seven once it's available, after October 22. The official details on how the program will work are available on Microsoft;s Upgrade Supply site.Some industry watchers had been predicting — and hoping — Microsoft would get a whole lot additional aggressive with Windows seven pricing, especially given the state of the economy. Others had been anticipating Microsoft would likely hold pricing steady, even though Windows 7 already is shaping up to be lots a lot more popular than Vista.Microsoft is offering a retail price cut of 8 percent (for the upgrade edition) to 17 % (for the full edition) for the Home Premium version of Windows 7. IDC analyst Richard Shim said that is a good start, and added he is expecting the preorders, with the 50+ percent cuts to “likely fly off the shelves.”But given the fact that Microsoft sells new versions of Windows via Computer preloads and volume-licensing deals — not within the form of retail copies — there are other more pressing pricing matters.“The far more important question is what are the cuts like to the OEMs?” Shim said. “That;s where Microsoft makes a majority of their revenue when it comes to the OS. Last time around with Vista, OEMs weren;t too pleased with the multiple versions, the delivery delays and the removal of some significant features and they grumbled about it quite a bit. This time around, Microsoft might want to try to win back some goodwill with OEMs.”Charles King Principal Analyst with Pund-IT praised the “global uniformity” of Microsoft;s Windows 7 retail pricing, and said that Microsoft already has done quite a bit to make pricing simpler and easier to understand than Vista;s. While he said he is expecting fewer users to want to downgrade to Vista or XP from Windows seven, King said he was curious how downgrades will be priced by Computer makers. Will users have to shell out additional for “downgrade rights”? No word on that yet.What;s your consider on Microsoft;s Windows seven retail pricing?
[poll ID= 34]Other Windows seven pricing questions/observations?