Windows 7 prices are too high

High cost might discourage take-up of new Microsoft OS. UPDATE: No local upgrade discounts in Oz. Yet...

A retail analyst with NPD Group, Stephen Baker, has said that Microsoft's pricing for Windows 7 is "way too much for the software."

Microsoft's least expensive Windows 7 upgrade will be for the Home Premium version and will cost $199 in Australia; $119.99 in the US. "That $US120 is a pretty big nut," said Baker, "especially when you can buy a new PC for around $US300."

In a post to the company blog, Baker said that Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrade prices, along with the pain of having to perform an incremental software upgrade, could deter punters from moving off Vista, with all of its problems, in order to "erase all vestiges of Vista from consumers' homes" and "move to a far superior platform with a better user experience."

Baker also criticised Microsoft for not offering a multi-licence family upgrade package for Windows 7, saying "In a world, at least in the US, where most homes are moving into a multiple PC environment, it would enhance the consumer home experience if they could upgrade all their home PCs at a single low price with a single boxed purchase."

He noted that Apple will be offering its Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard release for just $US29 for a single-licence upgrade and only $US49 for a five-licence family upgrade bundle. "This is a direction I would have much preferred to see Microsoft head," he said.

To that we would add that Microsoft's relatively high prices for its Windows 7 full system installation packages will discourage users from upgrading their older PCs that are still running Windows XP. The least expensive full package of Windows 7, the Home Premium version, will be priced at $299 in Australia and $199.99 in the US.

Sure, additional memory is relatively inexpensive now, but many people will likely hesitate to pay a hundred-fifty to two hundred more US clams on top of that just to acquire the company's latest OS.

If users with older PCs can't afford to shell out the better part of a grand to buy a new PC and monitor, they'll likely consider installing some user friendly flavour of Linux for free instead of ponying up the substantial wad of dosh needed to get Windows ME II SP7.

UPDATE: We've also learnt that while Microsoft is offering a 50 per cent discount for those pre-ordering their upgrade to users in other countries, that offer is not yet on the table here. We contacted MS, and were told "Microsoft is reviewing pre-order options for Australia, but have nothing to announce at present."

Way to be informative, guys.