Possible pricing has leaked for the Windows 7 editions, though the information doesn't quite add up as nicely as you would expect it to. Warning: this information came to me via an anonymous tip and is not from a trusted source of mine. That aside, the reason I'm putting this in the rumor box for now is that there is pricing for Windows 7 Starter, which we know will be sold worldwide, but only via OEMs. Ultimate pricing is also present, and while Microsoft says it will not be selling that edition via retail, the company did say that it will sell and give away the edition during certain promotional periods. Now, without further ado, here is the rumored pricing for Windows 7 editions (not the upgrade versions): * Windows 7 Starter: $199 * Windows 7 Home Premium: $259 * Windows 7 Professional: $299 * Windows 7 Ultimate: $319 You'll likely notice the lack of Home Basic (only for emerging markets and sold via OEM) and Enterprise (only via volume licensing). But it's worth comparing to Vista pricing. While Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter are definitely not on the same level, they have the same price, but as I already mentioned above the mention of Starter is suspicious, and I doubt OEMs will be buying Starter from Microsoft at $200 apiece. Surprisingly, Home Premium's price increased $20 while Business/Professional didn't budge. If anything, I would expect the opposite to occur given that each edition is a superset of the previous one, so Professional is actually getting more features as it no longer is missing what Home Premium includes. Finally, we have Ultimate dropping $80 which is quite believable if it is going to be sold only during promotions. What are your thoughts? source: arstechnica.com
First thoughts are, MS can charge whatever they like. In all likelihood MS will not get a penny, or cent from me whatever they price it at, will W7 be any different from XP or Vista? I'm still using XP corp and Vista Ultimate with Royalty OEM, for testing purposes of course, and expect there will be similar possibilities for W7. Those of us that build our own PCs have other options than paying MS. Is it OK to say that?
Of course, they can charge any prices to the Editions. But if these are the final prices, they are too high. After the terrible Vista the new Windows 7 will be a good upgrade of Windows XP. And nobody who is using a 'patched' version will buy one, whatever the price will be
I doubt these prices are final if even real. MS learned from their mistakes on the Vista launch, the OS price points will not be that high if they want to compete with Apple in the Retail Edition market. They also need a more attractive deal for people buying multiple licenses.