Microsoft Announces Windows 7 Pricing

Note: All pricing is rounded (for the sake of convenience) and in USD unless shown otherwise.

Apparently we were correct on our estimate of Windows 7′s Home Premium prices in which we used a memo that stated the pricing for Windows 7 Home Premium would ante up the cost for netbooks by $200. Microsoft has officially announced the initial pricing for Windows 7, and Home Premium will indeed be $200, or $40 less than the initial and today’s pricing of Windows Vista. Unfortunately, this is more than what some of us hoped it would be considering the state of today’s economy and Snow Leopard’s upgrade pricing of $30 and the full price of $170.

Although the initial pricing of Windows Vista and Windows 7 have some significant differences, the current pricings are almost identical. The change in cost of Home Premium is the only change in today’s pricing between Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows XP users need to understand that regardless of which edition they currently have installed, they will have to perform a clean install on the same partition when installing Windows 7, whether it be the upgrade (XP users will be able to install with just the upgrade if they so wish) or the full version. A clean install will not backup anything, although Windows Easy Transfer should make the transition easier on some users. Clean installs are also mandatory for those attempting to switch between architectures (x86 and x64).

Unfortunately for European users, as previously stated by Mike, the Windows 7 E editions will not allow an upgrade, nor will upgrade versions be sold. The reason is that upgrades have never been tested without Internet Explorer (remember that all official XP and Vista distributions contain Internet Explorer), and Microsoft did not want to have to delay the release of Windows 7 in order to ensure a successful upgrade for European users running XP or Vista. However, the full versions of Windows 7 in Europe will be available at the upgrade pricing.

Thankfully, those in certain countries will be able to save quite a bit of money by pre-ordering Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (limitation of three copies). You can pre-order Windows 7 now from selected stores on June 26th; however, remember that the offers are only until supplies last and end on July 11th. Be sure to check Windows7News’ pre-ordering section later for updates and more information.

Canadian and Japanese customers can first pre-order Windows 7 on the same date as United States users, although those countries’ offers will also end on the same time as the US (except for Japan, in which the offers will end on July 5th). The UK, France, and Germany will get the opportunity from July 15th through August 14th (while supplies last).

For prices for each country, refer to the table below:

For those who buy a PC with Windows Vista later than June 26th (the date matches with the leaked Best Buy memo), will receive the equivalent edition of Windows 7 upon release. The offer will only be available from certain retailers and OEMs, and the program will be offered until January 31, 2010, although it can be cut short by the OEMs. OEMs also have the power to charge for the upgrade and choose which computers are eligible for the upgrade (it can be safely assumed that netbooks and low-end PCs will be excluded from this offer).

Thankfully the pre-order offers are so cheap because I quickly despaired when I learned of the $200 pricing for Home Premium (which I, as a college student, could not afford on top of textbooks and classes). I assumed that I would have to use the last leaked build for a while until I could afford the full version, and just upgrade my MacBook, which I considered a real shame because I much prefer my Windows box. The competitive pricing on the pre-orders is excellent, and will enable many users to be able to afford Windows 7 who would not be able to normally, and I will definitely be marching to my local Best Buy tomorrow.

What about you?

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