Win7 Upgrade Pricing - Should Vista qualify for a discount ? | The Coffeehouse

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

I saw this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUS184649393320090512

While I think it's not likely to fly, I do think that MS needs to review the upgrade pricing structure, and consider making concession to those who committed to Vista and dealt with the issues.

Perhaps a solution is, instead of just a version upgrade price, offer a version discount to people upgrading from the version immediately prior. i.e. Upgrading from XP or earlier, you pay the full upgrade price, upgrading from Vista and you get a discounted price. This is the way many application upgrades are priced.

At the end of the day, upgrades are probably not going to be a big %age of Win7 sales for MS (I'm guessing) and so discounting Vista upgrades could buy MS a lot of PR, as well as acting as an incentive for Vista owners to upgrade to Win7.

rhm

I think the only discount that would satisfy most of the people that have suffered Vista is a free upgrade to Win 7 and I know that's not going to happen.

I paid for it when I built my current machine because it didn't seem like it was worth paying for XP when that was already 5 years old. But that is still supported, has better compatability with games and most hardware, has a shell that doesn't suck. I can think of one or two very minor positives when I compare Vista and XP (which I still have on my desktop at work), but overall, it sucked. In my case I bought Vista for a new machine, so I guess I can't complain - if I'd bought XP instead I'd have paid more or less the same and I certainly wouldn't expect a free upgrade from that. But the people that paid to upgrade existing machines - especially if they bought retail - must feel a really cheated. XP will still be supported for years to come, but Vista will be instantly forgotten, the red haired step-child of Windows versions.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

making concession to those who committed to Vista and dealt with the issues.

No, let's make hardware manufacturers offer discount coupons for Windows 7. They're responsible for the majority of Vista troubles, after all.

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

In reply to Bas

#May 12th @ 11:32 PM

This is no benefit to HW MFGs in making such offers, so they won't do it unless compelled by legal action.

Computer MFGs will be selling Win7 on new equipment anyway and recalcitrant component MFGs (like Nvidia) or peripheral MFGs (like Canon) have already burnt their customer base, so are not going to play that game.

There is some benefit to MS in offering Vista users incentive to try again with Win7, both in terms of customer PR and migrating the Vista user base to Win7. Provided the product is good, the more people you can get onto it, the more powerful the message becomes to the holdouts.

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

I think first of all giving "free upgrades" is a pipe dream and just won't happen. Keep in mind that not only would Microsoft make no money but it would literally cost them a great deal to maintain it.

They could throw Vista Ultimate users a bone with a small discount as I know a lot feel unhappy with the product, but let's be frank, the discount that Microsoft would offer would still be much less than most smart users can receive elsewhere (e.g. OEM, Student, et al).

I won't be spending $300 on Windows 7 just so I can get $10-20 off when I could buy a $150 copy and be able to resell my Vista Ultimate (or reuse it) if I wished.

rhm

In reply to ManipUni

#May 13th @ 1:01 AM

I know it won't happen, but I wouldn't be so sure it'll cost Microsoft money. They could legitimately cut off support for Vista within 12 months if they did offer free upgrades. If they don't they have to keep maintaining it for at least as long as XP (and since XP is included in Win7, that's potentially a very long time).

daSmirnov

Offer a discount? Why? What's wrong with Windows Vista. It's solid as a rock. I've just gone back to Windows Vista on one of my systems and damn, I forgot how good it is. And at least the taskbar doesn't have an ugly gray colour to it like the new RC taskbar does, esp when using labels.