Consumers Won'T Pay $120 For Windows 7 Upgrade

[Peaches]

I paid $50.00 for my copy - Microsoft had an online special through a few vendors and I took advantage of it. I believe I posted here to this effect but not sure. If not ...

Consumers Won't Pay $120 for Windows 7 Upgrade

Jeff Bertolucci

I've just upgraded my main notebook computer to Windows 7. The process took four hours, and despites a few minor glitches, was pretty much painless.

So I'm using Win 7 now. It's a little faster and a little prettier than Vista. (Check out PC World's Windows 7 review for the specifics.) But as I explore Microsoft's latest operating system, I find myself wondering why Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade, the main version for consumers, costs $120.

Will home users pay that price? I'm betting they won't. True, some Microsoft diehards will line up on October 22 to grab the first copies of Win 7, but most consumers will spot the price tag and walk away.

As much as I like what Microsoft's done with Windows 7, the improvements don't warrant such a steep fee, particularly for home users upgrading from the much-maligned Vista. And XP users? Well, migrating to Win 7 is a complex chore that requires a clean install. You may have to upgrade your hardware too. Add up the cost of Windows 7, plus more RAM and maybe a new graphics card, and a new PC starts to seem a lot more affordable.

Isn't Software Free?

Consumers have grown accustomed to free apps. So many programs cost nothing these days, including Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome), security apps (, Microsoft Security Essentials), productivity suites (Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, MS Office 2010 Starter Edition), and photo editors (Google Picasa). I'm not suggesting that home users expect a free operating system too, but that $120 sounds awfully expensive in today's give-it-away software environment.

Story at PC World - http://www.pcworld.c..._7_upgrade.html

[TheTerrorist_75]

I would not have an issue paying $120 for Win7. I figure that something I can run for 10 years is worth the cost of $12 a year. I pay more than that for my anti-virus suite per computer ($13/year each for 3 PCs).