Software
Apple should thank Microsoft for Windows 7 pricing
By Jim DalrympleJune 25, 2009, 1:08 pm PT
I don’t know what they were thinking, but Microsoft on Thursday announced pricing for the upcoming version of “Vista Fixed Edition,” also known as Windows 7.
It seems clear that Apple must have an insider working at Microsoft. Evidently this insider works in the pricing department, because the prices announced today only help Apple in its quest to increase market share.
First of all, you have to be a Vista users in order to upgrade to Windows 7 using the company’s special pricing options. That’s an easy way to cut down the number of people that can upgrade, nobody uses Vista. So, most people are left with the full purchase price.
Here is the upgrade and full pricing for Windows 7:
- Home Premium: $119.99 upgrade; $199.99 full version
- Professional: $199.99 upgrade; $299.99 full version
- Ultimate: $219.99 upgrade; $319.99 full version
Now, let’s look at Apple’s Snow Leopard upgrade and full prices:
Snow Leopard: $29 (Leopard); $169 (Tiger, which includes iLife and iWork)
One version of the operating system, and for most people, a $29 upgrade. Compare that to the “I’ll screw you at every turn” upgrade pricing from Microsoft. Did Microsoft fall asleep the day Apple announced this? Do they think that people don’t notice the discrepancy in pricing options?
And what choice do Windows users have now? Well, Microsoft doesn’t sell Windows XP (and why would they, by most accounts it worked) and they can’t sell Vista because everyone hates it and wishes it would die a slow death in hell.
Microsoft knows that they have most users between a rock and a hard place. That means they can set the pricing at whatever levels they want. Even if they tried to do something nice for the users, they screw them with the pricing. It must be fun being a Windows user around upgrade time.
Here’s a thought Microsoft, how about releasing a low-cost version that isn’t crippled at all. One operating system. One price. Too Easy.
So, Windows 7 it is. Ah, but there is another option out there–Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
I’ve heard people say that Snow Leopard is nothing more than a maintenance release for Leopard. That’s just a big pile of crap. Besides moving many of its apps to 64-bit–including the Finder–Snow includes a lot of new features.
How about this as an example: Exchange support out of the box. Try that one Windows users. Apple built support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal. Microsoft makes Exchange and they don’t offer support out of the box, you need to buy Outlook to get that.
If there was ever a time for Windows users to consider a Mac, it’s now.
Update: According to Ars (and John in the forums) you can upgrade from Windows XP. Good luck making sense of it.
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Apple should thank Microsoft for Windows 7 pricing
By Jim DalrympleJune 25, 2009, 1:08 pm PT
I don’t know what they were thinking, but Microsoft on Thursday announced pricing for the upcoming version of “Vista Fixed Edition,” also known as Windows 7.
It seems clear that Apple must have an insider working at Microsoft. Evidently this insider works in the pricing department, because the prices announced today only help Apple in its quest to increase market share.
First of all, you have to be a Vista users in order to upgrade to Windows 7 using the company’s special pricing options. That’s an easy way to cut down the number of people that can upgrade, nobody uses Vista. So, most people are left with the full purchase price.
Here is the upgrade and full pricing for Windows 7:
- Home Premium: $119.99 upgrade; $199.99 full version
- Professional: $199.99 upgrade; $299.99 full version
- Ultimate: $219.99 upgrade; $319.99 full version
Now, let’s look at Apple’s Snow Leopard upgrade and full prices:
Snow Leopard: $29 (Leopard); $169 (Tiger, which includes iLife and iWork)
One version of the operating system, and for most people, a $29 upgrade. Compare that to the “I’ll screw you at every turn” upgrade pricing from Microsoft. Did Microsoft fall asleep the day Apple announced this? Do they think that people don’t notice the discrepancy in pricing options?
And what choice do Windows users have now? Well, Microsoft doesn’t sell Windows XP (and why would they, by most accounts it worked) and they can’t sell Vista because everyone hates it and wishes it would die a slow death in hell.
Microsoft knows that they have most users between a rock and a hard place. That means they can set the pricing at whatever levels they want. Even if they tried to do something nice for the users, they screw them with the pricing. It must be fun being a Windows user around upgrade time.
Here’s a thought Microsoft, how about releasing a low-cost version that isn’t crippled at all. One operating system. One price. Too Easy.
So, Windows 7 it is. Ah, but there is another option out there–Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
I’ve heard people say that Snow Leopard is nothing more than a maintenance release for Leopard. That’s just a big pile of crap. Besides moving many of its apps to 64-bit–including the Finder–Snow includes a lot of new features.
How about this as an example: Exchange support out of the box. Try that one Windows users. Apple built support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal. Microsoft makes Exchange and they don’t offer support out of the box, you need to buy Outlook to get that.
If there was ever a time for Windows users to consider a Mac, it’s now.
Update: According to Ars (and John in the forums) you can upgrade from Windows XP. Good luck making sense of it.
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Great post, Jim – already shared out to my networks. Thanks for this!
Windows Vista FE.
LOL. Hope Lauren the Laptop Hunter’s didn’t spend all her extra cash already!
Is that fixed, like, “I took my dog to the vet to get fixed?”
They say Ballmer is a salesman, not an engineer. They got the second part of that right. But when I hear stuff like this, I have to wonder how he would allow such customer-unfriendly options to continue.
But when one realizes how few people actually buy retail versions of Windows, vs how many are forced to use it at work and how few upgrade except when they buy new machines, it kind of makes sense. They simply don’t care.
Jim, I’m pretty sure you have the rules wrong. Either XP or Vista users can use the upgrade pricing.
Only Vista can be upgraded in place to Win 7 (and then only the same flavor: 32-bit or 64-bit).
XP users and those switching bit size (and for most, it’s time to go to 64-bits except on memory-challenged machines) have to erase and install. But the upgrade package does that.
And people who *could* upgrade in place probably shouldn’t–while the process seems to be working quite well, one gets a better installation with a clean install.
John, it appears you are correct.
You overly mac-biased mo-fo! You probably couldn’t last a week using a PC if you actually have to do something with besides following the bouncing mac-ball.
Windows owners, regardless of OS, can’t just upgrade to any Mac OS without purchasing a new glam-book, all of which are way over-priced to comparative PC hardware. Because Apple monopolizes the hardware allowed to run the OS, you have no choice from lack of price competition. Thus, you are falling for the cheap OS bait and switch, paying it back with interest via bloated hardware and support costs. Of course Apple’s going to try and undercut the Windows OS price, because you can’t even run in on any other hardware then from their China based factories, and all Pentium to book. Where’s the AMD mac-book even? You think Apple’s looking out for you by giving you a cheep snow-Jobs upgrade, with some bells that were really just buggy features held back from the first Leopard release.
Try putting Vista SP1 up against XP SP1, and see how you crash an burn. Given the sufficient new hardware, Vista runs great. It’s the 3rd party drivers that cause the issues, because they were expedited without enough QC.
Oooh x64 in applications! Like XP x64 ed didn’t already have that years ago, and would have been great but for vendors lack of dedication to build better drivers. Do you even know what 64-bit is?
Exchange out of the box huh? What about MAPI support?
You’re fn loopy!
Wow, yrunso, there is just so much wrong with your comment, I hardly know where to start.
Let me say this. I have two PCs, an old Dell and a 3.2GHz Gateway, muti-threaded piece of shit. They’re both crap. They barely run because they are full of malware and other shit that only comes on Windows PCs.
That’s a nice bonus for Windows users: viruses.
I have Macs from 1995 that still work perfectly, so if you’d like to put your ROI to the test, try working out that cost.
I did run Vista and XP. Nice how it’s all the third-party companies fault that things don’t work. Right.
I didn’t say MAPI support, I said Exchange support. Don’t change the subject. Why do you have to spend extra to get exchange support from the company that makes it?
Most Windows Vista users and all Windows XP users will be upgrading the OS the old fashioned, time honored Windows way.
They will be buying a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed.
Some will see the light and spend their new PC money on a Mac.
I’ve been a Windows tech for over 13 years now and for the last five have exclusively used a Mac at home for my personal use (music, web development, etc…). The great thing is, all I’ve done to my Mac (1.8ghz G5) is add more memory and upgrade to a larger hard drive when needed. It just works beautifully. When I had a PC at home, I found myself reinstalling the OS at least once every 6 months just to dump all the crap that got forced onto the machine if you weren’t running firewall software that slowed the machine to a crawl. Your choice with Windows, regardless of the version is, to protect with some resource hog (Symantec, McAffee, choose your flavor) or to let in some virus/malware which will cause the same performance hit. Plus, take a look at the hardware that comes standard in the Mac. If you were to build a PC to the same standard (upgraded graphics and audio), it would probably cost about the same. If all you want to do is waste two thirds of your day on YouTube or update your Facebook status, the $300 out of the box PC is probably good enough.
How about:
Snow Leopard Family Pack – 5 machines at $10 each or $49 USD
Windows 7 – 5 machines at $300 each or $1500 USD
As someone whose family owns 5 Macs, we think $49 or $199 for the family pack is a bargain.
When are we going to see an Apple ad featuring OS prices?
Ads from Apple on price?
That would be rubbing it in.
I work at a small company of around 30 people, I am the only mac user. No matter how much I try to educate them that they shouldn’t have to re-install windows every few months (for example), demonstrate the cool things the Mac can do and inform them that there is this free OS called linux – these people do not care, it’s like trying to get them interested in what is inside their TV set. I think Apple will continue to get incremental growth in their market share, but I don’t believe there will be a big swing to the mac, people just are not very interested.
Hari, you bring up a good point and I don’t disagree. However, as Apple makes inroads into companies and people’s lives in different ways, market share will continue to grow.
I don’t think it’s going to be something that all of a sudden happens, but it will happen.
yrunso! wrote:
You probably couldn’t last a week using a PC if you actually have to do something with [it] ….
Yes – you see, that’s kind of the problem!
Great to see you back Jim! Microsoft continues to demonstrate that it just doesn’t have a clue about simplicity or marketing strategy. Of course there are so many crippled, low-cost PCs floating around that they can’t simply release a one-size-fits-all version of Windows 7 because these machines simply can’t run the full professional version of Win7. This definitely plays into Apple’s hands, showing Apple to be the simple, consumer-friendly company they’ve always been.
As for Mac adoption, I’m writing this from Canada on a trip to visit my sister, and while going through 3 airports I saw MacBook after MacBook Pro, polycarbonate and aluminum laptops galore being used by people waiting for their flights. Even 5 years ago Macs were rarely seen during my travels, but on this trip they were actually in the majority. In Dallas/Fort Worth, just in my flight section, 5 people were working on or surfing on Mac notebooks (6 including me) — as compared to 2 Windows users. Even if there were possibly more Windows users on the flight, Mac users were actually using their computers at the airport.
I have to laugh when I see prices like these. I recently purchased a couple of refurbished PCs. For $125, I can get an entire PC (OK, it’s not great, but it’s $2.5 GHz P4, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB hard disk) INCLUDING Windows XP. But to buy a separate Windows license, it’s $319.99 (you need the ultimate to have the full functionality of XP).
Why in the world would I pay more for Windows Vista FE than for two entire XP computers?
[...] released pricing yesterday for “Vista Fixed Edition,” otherwise known as Windows 7. For those of you who fainted [...]
To Hari’s point about Mac adoption …
I do tech support for some Ad agencies in Canada and have managed to keep them All Mac All the Time (4 firms each between 12 and 40 people) for over 12 years. When we get new account people who are Windows users they grumble a bit … but the absolute longest grumbler was 6 weeks, after that, no more grumbling and his next personal computer was a PowerBook G4 Titanium.
People don’t “get” the Mac experience until they use one for a week or two and then the light goes on and no one ever goes back to a PC (at least none that I have known).
So Apple will get switchers slowly but surely. As more and more people get iPhones and Touch’s the pace will increase.
The overall numbers will continue to appear low due to businesses continuing their investment in Windows (changing platforms is a very expensive thing for companies of 100 or more). But my guess is that once upper management people experience a Mac at home then Macs will begin to make steady progress in the workplace. Supporting 2 platforms in the work place is not nearly as daunting as it was even 5 years ago.
The problem is no one ever tries to save their money to buy something worthwhile, the just buy really cheap and crappy pc's to get something that does one or two things at a time and is still kinda fast. i paid $1300 for a macbook pro 13" with a 2.53 ghz. core 2 duo, 4 gb. ram, and a 250 gb. hard disk just a couple days ago, and i love it. right now, i am running 11 aps, and i've ran up to 13, 14, or 15 without it crashing or slowing down a whole bunch.
One thing to consider; that those computers over 3 years old (500 million of them) will been sold before Vista came out. Although a small percentage of them are able to run System Seven slowly, most will remain on Windows XP. Or the owners will buy new hardware.
The hardware cost for a computer comparable to a Macintosh (with the full Areo graphics experience) will cost approximately the same as an Apple. If you want to pay less and don’t mind missing Areo, then a Linux or a Google Chrome OS box will do as well. So, who needs Microsoft?
[...] Snow Leopard for $29, not the exorbitant price that Microsoft is charging; put it in and upgrade your existing operating system. As long as your computer hardware supports [...]
Apple is a hardware company that produces software to induce people to buy their hardware. Apple could probably sell Snow Leopard for $129, but what’s the fun in that? Since Snow Leopard and Vista are coming out at the same time, Apple can slash the price by $100 to put price pressure on Microsoft–bwahahaha–and it’s a good wrestling move: pin him to the mat while he’s down.
So, laptop hunter ad, who’s the best value now?
Hi, I’m Brian and I just want to upgrade my computer OS. I do a lot of really great work making movies and podcasts and such and I need to have the most current operating system I can get!
First, let’s look at the Microsoft upgrades. The cheapest upgrade is $119! Ooooh, that is kinda of, well, exPENsive. And I will need a new hard drive because I have to (gasp) format and reinstall all my stuff from XP. [insert really ugly Microsoft Mom type face about here]
OK, let’s go to the Apple store, surely that will cost even more? Wow!!! it’s only $29! I’ll take it!
hey dudes,
Apple h/w might be classy and apple OS’s could hav a loyal following. I for one has never seen a apple computer coz they come in exorbitant prices. They dont even care to open a shop in our country. Where as PCs come in all prices and one could actually get the job done. I am looking forward for Windows 7. The release candidate version even allows you to install and run it till Jun 2010 with a freely available key(not a pirated one). Now that something different.