Microsoft Starts to Lower Price of Vista

But will it matter?

from JoeUser Forums

I read this PressPass article this morning from Microsoft.  Apparently Microsoft plans to reduce the prices on several versions of retail editions of Vista with the launch of SP1.

"Since its release, Windows Vista  has seen solid sales through the first year of availability, primarily through the sale of new PCs. Stand-alone retail sales, while not representing a large percentage of the business, represents an area of opportunity for additional growth the company sees based on the new editions introduced in 2007. To help reach that goal, Microsoft today announced price reductions on several consumer stand-alone editions."

However, as Mary Jo Foley put it, "don't get too excited about those Vista price cuts".

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes posted some information he has about the actual price cuts.

  • The price of the upgrade version of Windows Vista Ultimate will drop from $259 to $219.
  • The upgrade of Vista Home Premium will drop from $159 from $129.

There doesn't appear (at this time) any information about the full retail version of Home Premium, which seems to be the choice of many consumers.  When I buy a Windows operating system, I want the full version not an upgrade, but that is just my personal choice.  Vista's price point is one of the biggest faults of Vista, and we can only hope Microsoft has learned their lesson with this.

Microsoft needs to take all this into consideration when the next version of Windows is ready.  Forget all the different SKU's that most people have no clue about the differences of.  Make one version, price it reasonably, and get it out there.  Also, give consumers a family pack of 3 or so licenses for a discounted price.  There is no value for me to upgrade all the PC's in my house to Vista.

It will be interesting to see how this develops.

vista price microsoft windows
3,859 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Had come across this earlier :

"“We anticipate these changed will provide greater opportunities … to sell more stand-alone copies of Windows,” said Brad Brooks, a Microsoft corporate vice president. In the United States, Microsoft will reduce prices for Windows Vista Ultimate, the company’s top-end operating system, to $319 from $399 for the full version and cut the price for an “upgrade” version to $219 from $259 for consumers who already run Windows XP or another edition of Vista. It also cut prices for upgrade versions of Vista Home Premium, its mainstream product, to $129 from $159. The price cuts vary by country."

Still doesnt show the full retail version of Home Premium though.



(I'll stick with XP  ;) )
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Lowering the price really doesn't change the software.  Yes I know, what about SP1. One could make the point that in SP1 are just the things that should have been in the orignial release. :SURPRISED: 

The key for me here is they just want to sell more copies of Vista, why not. Isn't that what a business should want to do, sell more of it's front line product. 

The big question is will the people who have not upgraded to Vista yet, see this move as a value incentive or not.  :NOTSURE: 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Still doesnt show the full retail version of Home Premium though.
End of quote

I doubt there will be.

 

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kind of old news here, I bought Ultimate when it was $400 at the end of Feb. last year, its now down to $320? It's to be expected. I don't think the majority of people who use Vista bought the OS, it more than likely came with the computer or laptop they have.
The big question is will the people who have not upgraded to Vista yet, see this move as a value incentive or not.
End of quote

Sooner or later, XP is going to get the axe eventually and its only a matter of time.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sooner or later, XP is going to get the axe eventually and its only a matter of time.
End of quote



I'm not too sure it will be anytime soon as I have found quit a few companies out there still on windows 95 ;) 
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not too sure it will be anytime soon as I have found quit a few companies out there still on windows 95
End of quote


But wasn't support for that dropped? It'll happen to XP also...not for awhile but it will happen. Hopefully not before they have Vista all ironed out.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sooner or later, XP is going to get the axe eventually and its only a matter of time.
End of quote


Have to agree with you there Astyanax0, but people do tend to be very stubborn.

I'm not sure about noriam statement about Windows 95, but point is people are still using older versions of Windows OS other than XP. :SURPRISED: 

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not too sure it will be anytime soon as I have found quit a few companies out there still on windows 95
End of quote


Mostly very small businesses why very little in funds for IT.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The big question is will the people who have not upgraded to Vista yet, see this move as a value incentive or not.
End of quote


Not here for me. I still have too much software that won't run on Vista which I require to perform my job. Plus it's still waaaaayy too expensive for an Operating System. MS should learn their lesson and cut out all of the bloat in Vista that most users either ignore or disable anyway.

I'm not too sure it will be anytime soon as I have found quit a few companies out there still on windows 95
End of quote

The company I work for (a Fortune 100 organization) only recently (within the past year) migrated from Win95 and NT 4; and still has a handful of machines running those OS's and also DOS! People don't realize that businesses NEED their installed software to keep running - especially in the process control world - and the companies who wrote the software either take a while to release a new version which will work on a newer OS, or sometimes have even gone out of business and therefore there will NEVER be a newer version of the software!