So It Begins: The Windows 7 Pricing Debate
It’s not that I mind a good price war. Before the Centrino, Intel had them all the time –with itself. Now Microsoft is poised to release Windows 7 (on my birthday, of all dates –which means they should send me a free copy) and the company just released the prices for the various versions. And here come the pundits: “The prices are too high, the prices are too low, the prices are just right, heck, what do you think about the prices?”
Here’s the deal: Shut up already. Whatever the price is that’s what it is. If we, the consumers, think it’s okay (and Windows 7 is actually better than Vista) we’ll buy it in droves. If not, we will boldly flash Microsoft the fickle financial finger of disdain and that will be that. It’s how things worked for Vista
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: $100 is the right price point for an OS and it always has been. To be sure, there’s a lot of magic happening in the background but the purpose of an OS is, to me, to be a broker between the hardware and software we buy to run on said OS. All the extra stuff thrown in is generally window dressing that bloats the OS and the price.
Microsoft’s upgrade discount pricing from Friday ($99 for Windows 7 Professional) was a bargain even if the OS is crap. I paid $120 for DOS 6.2 back in 1995 and here’s a modern 64-bit OS that is actually LESS than DOS! That’s what I’m talking about!