Microsoft Announces Windows 7 Retail Prices Ahead of General Availability

Thursday, June 25th 2009

Microsoft unveiled the retail pricing structure of its upcoming Windows 7 operating system, and its three important variants: Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, elaborating on the pricing on both the upgrade and full versions. Microsoft also announced that customers buying PCs pre-installed with existing versions of Windows from select sources (retailers or OEMs), will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 at "little or no cost". The company also announced that select retailers in certain markets will be able to offer for a limited period of time, a pre-order discount scheme that can reduce the price by as much as 50 percent.

Here are the prices (in USD):

Windows 7 Home Premium - $199.99 (full version), $119.99 (upgrade)
Windows 7 Professional - $299.99 (full version), $199.99 (upgrade)
Windows 7 Ultimate - $319.99 (full version), $219.99 (upgrade)

Microsoft also detailed the global availability of the OS, and in different languages. The English version will launch on October 22. PC OEM vendors will be able to start shipping PCs pre-installed with the OS on the same day. Apart from the English version, Windows 7 in Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong), will be available on the same day. Windows 7 in Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian, will be available on October 31.
Source: The Windows Blog

posted by btarunr - 8:45 PM | Related News |

User comments

by Ketxxx (8:49 PM) - Reply

$320 for W7 Premium? :wtf: They better be joking about that.

by aCid888* (8:51 PM) - Reply

by: Ketxxx
$320 for W7 Premium? :wtf: They better be joking about that.

I read it as $320 for W7 Ultimate.

by IINexusII (8:53 PM) - Reply

$320? no thanks, ill stick with pirates

by Cold Storm (8:54 PM) - Reply

Or do a Tech-net pro subscription for $249 and have the whole Microsoft Library for a year... Even Win 7

by Salsoolo (8:57 PM) - Reply

i wonder when co's drop the $.99 price labels or $199 stuff this is 2009 ffs

by newtekie1 (9:00 PM) - Reply

So the same prices as Vista...not really a surprise...unless you were expecting it to be more expensive than Vista, in which case this would be a surprise to you... Edit: Win 7 Home Premium is actually cheaper...

by mdm-adph (9:02 PM) - Reply

Yep. I've never paid for a copy of Windows -- and now I never will. (I'll never forgive them for the death of my boy.)

by pentastar111 (9:04 PM) - Reply

320 bucks eh? :shadedshu Whatever. (sighs)

by crazy pyro (9:05 PM) - Reply

MS can bugger off, they're not getting my cash.

by Ketxxx (9:11 PM) - Reply

I wouldn't mind paying like £120 for W7 Ultimate, but $320 works out around £200, and they can kiss my arse if they expect me to pay that.

by alexp999 (9:18 PM) - Reply

by: Ketxxx
I wouldn't mind paying like £120 for W7 Ultimate, but $320 works out around £200, and they can kiss my arse if they expect me to pay that.

Just buy an OEM license, that'll be around £120 prob.

by El Fiendo (9:25 PM) - Reply

There's a pre-order thing that's going to be happening in the next few days / weeks I saw. Drops the upgrade price to $50. Only problem is I'm pretty sure its 'upgrade' with all the drawbacks of an upgrade disc. I'd rather pay for the full version. Let me see if I can find it. Edit: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=009134804

by The Witcher (9:31 PM) - Reply

This is outrageous !!! They want 320$ for an enhanced Vista O_O, they shouldn't have released Vista in the first place. So here are my three options : 1. I can buy the OEM version. 2. I can download it from some pirates-cracks website. 3. I can buy the 320$ version and feel guilty for the next 2 years just like when I bought Vista Ultimate. I guess I will go with #2

by pentastar111 (9:31 PM) - Reply

In all fairness, if the damn program does what it is supposed to do and doesn't have the bugs that Vista did upon release, in other words a "smooth" transition, then sure it will probably be worth it. IF people have to wait for a first or second service pack for it to be a smooth running OS, then no.

by crazy pyro (9:33 PM) - Reply

Bugger it, it's Vista SP2 with a different taskbar, I'm pirating this, I do after all own 2 vista licenses.

by Kitkat (9:36 PM) - Reply

i dont understand again why builders are mad??? you all dont have HPs and Compaqs lol just buy the oem for 140 or whatever for ult. Why is this always new news everytime they do it?

by El Fiendo (9:39 PM) - Reply

"Windows 7 is coming out." - 'omg its the greatest' - 'its like having sex whilst having sex' - 'i want to gouge my eyes out at how sexy it is' "Its going to cost you money." - 'Microsoft is full of crooks!' - 'How dare they do something like charge the public?' - 'Get the EU out, we needs a witch hunt for their anti-consumer practices!' What the hell did you expect? Leave Vista under the pillow and the OS fairy would make it Win7?

by PCpraiser100 (9:46 PM) - Reply

Whew! I thought Microsoft was going to screw us with another $50 increase.

by newtekie1 (9:52 PM) - Reply

by: Ketxxx
I wouldn't mind paying like £120 for W7 Ultimate, but $320 works out around £200, and they can kiss my arse if they expect me to pay that.

OEM and Upgrade versions will be a lot cheaper. Since the retail versions are the same price, I can only assume the OEM version will be also, so what does Vista Ultrimate run now?

by: PCpraiser100
Whew! I thought Microsoft was going to screw us with another $50 increase.

What $50 increase?

by: The Witcher
This is outrageous !!! They want 320$ for an enhanced Vista O_O, they shouldn't have released Vista in the first place.

This is exactly why they offer upgrade editions for significantly reduced prices, so that people that bought Vista won't have to pay full price to move to Win7.

by Sapientwolf (9:55 PM) - Reply

by: El Fiendo
There's a pre-order thing that's going to be happening in the next few days / weeks I saw. Drops the upgrade price to $50. Only problem is I'm pretty sure its 'upgrade' with all the drawbacks of an upgrade disc. I'd rather pay for the full version. Let me see if I can find it. Edit: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=009134804

Sweet, $50 preorder upgrade price. Thanks for the link, I think I'll buy my copy tomorrow. :toast:

by csendesmark (9:57 PM) - Reply

Windows Vista -> FULL FAIL Windows7 -> Price FAIL

by The Witcher (10:09 PM) - Reply

by: newtekie1
This is exactly why they offer upgrade editions for significantly reduced prices, so that people that bought Vista won't have to pay full price to move to Win7.

En light me please :P, lets say if I wanted to format my Win7 computer I will have to format it then install vista then install the upgrade edition ???

by newtekie1 (10:14 PM) - Reply

Well I'm not too sure about Win7's upgrade possibilities yet. However, I know an upgrade version will be available. With Vista, there were work arounds that didn't require you to install a previous version first, but I don't know if they have removed those loopholes from Win7. But yes, generally the legit way to do things would be to install Vista first then install the Win7 Upgrade. It is a little more time consuming, but you have to decide if that is worth the money saved(and it will probably save you $100+).

by Kitkat (10:17 PM) - Reply

something else on the sales front HALF off 2 editions http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx just buy the oem when it comes out itll be 1XX USD for ult i love how everyones memories wipe clean EVERYTIME they do this lol. JUST GET OEM. Second u can use this RC your prolly on right now till blablabla 2010 Things like Xmas sales hapen.... and launch sales too. When vista ult came out it was OEM 180. I preordered from tiger direct and got it for 139. I REALLY dont see the problem. comon sence tends to leave ppl some times. (sorry offtopic you here mj died ? wow)

by Darknova (10:24 PM) - Reply

12 Server 2008 licences....or $320 for Win7 Ultimate? Screw it, I'm getting Technet...

Post your own comment

Username:
Password:
Register Here!