Microsoft Announced Windows 7 Pricing And Upgrade Option

Microsoft posted on its Windows Team Blog the details of Windows 7 pricing and upgrade options. Windows 7 will be launched on October 22nd. Here is the summary:

Windows 7 Language Version Availability

• On October 22nd, Windows 7 will be available in the following 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

• On October 31st, the remaining 21 languages will become available: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program

Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program starts tomorrow June 26 till Jan 31, 2010. During this period, anyone who buys a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost.

Visit this link for details.

Windows 7 Pricing Is Cheaper Than Windows Vista

• Different market will have different pricing.

• US estimated retail prices for upgrade

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
  • Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

• US estimated prices for full packaged retail product

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
  • Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

• In Europe, there will be no retail packaged for the upgrade version. Instead you get the retail packaged for the full version but pay for the upgrade price.

Windows 7 Pre-Order Offer

• Microsoft is offering Windows 7 pre-order discount of more than 50% in selected markets. Different discount for different market, for limited period while supplies last.

• US and Canada: offer starts tomorrow June 26 till July 11. For the pre-order, Windows 7 Home Premium is USD $49.99. Windows 7 Professional is USD $99.99. Order from Best Buy or Amazon or Microsoft Store.

• Japan: offer starts tomorrow June 26 till July 5.

• UK, France, Germany: offer starts July 15 till August 14.

• For details: Windows 7 Pre-order Offer

Thank you Microsoft for such an unattractive pricing. Many Vista users will feel the pain as most of them view Windows 7 as a service pack of Windows Vista.

There is yet any info about licensing for running Windows 7 in virtual machine environment. And we expect Apple to support running Windows 7 via Boot Camp after Windows 7’s release on October 22.