Microsoft Announces Windows 7 Pricing, Upgrade Program

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNewsSorry, readers. I have had an out-of-whack back, which has meant, not much I could do aside from lying down. Here we go, however …

Microsoft on Thursday finally dished on upgrade options for Windows 7, international availability on launch day (Oct. 22) and pricing. It’s hard to say which one is more important to me, 1) or 3), but in this economy, I’d go with 3).

So, to drag things out a bit, here’s the info on the international versions first: on October 22nd, Windows 7 will launch in the following 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

A little more than a week later, on Halloween, October 31st, the remaining 21 languages will become available: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

Actually, not bad; it used to take months for a full rollout to all languages.

In terms of Vista -> Windows upgrades, it all starts on Friday, June 26th. You can find full details here, but basically anyone who buys a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost (why Microsoft can’t get all OEMs to go with “no cost” is beyond me). The Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program will last through January 31st, 2010 and is global.

Finally, pricing. You’ll remember a leaked memo I wrote about earlier contained info about aggressive promotions for early Best Buy pre-orders? The details in that memo were not just correct; the program itself is actually more widespread than it appeared.

Select markets will have the opportunity to buy upgrades at more than 50% off. In the U.S., you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99.99. Microsoft says to come back to the promotional site here on June 26th for a full list of participating retailers, but they have already announced that Best Buy, Amazon, and the online Microsoft Store (in participating markets) will have promotional pricing.

This program begins tomorrow in the U.S., Canada and Japan. The offer ends July 11th in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5th for Japan or while supplies last. In the U.K., France and Germany, the program starts July 15th and will run until August 14th. In their blog post, Microsoft calls this a screaming deal, and it’s certainly aggressive, no doubt.

I should note that this is only for upgrade versions; I’m still unclear if you can do a clean install with an upgrade version of Windows 7, or not. Prior to Vista, you could do so simply by providing your prior license key, but Microsoft didn’t allow that in Vista. You had to use “double install workaround” to make it work, a loophole that was discovered.

All right, how about non-promotional pricing? Here you go (US):