Early bird catches the worm.
Microsoft yesterday opened up registration for the Windows 8 upgrade program that will allow anyone purchasing a Windows 7 machine between June 2nd, 2012 and January 31st, 2013 to upgrade to Windows 8 for just $15. For those that aren't purchasing a new computer, Microsoft last month announced that anyone running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 at launch you qualify for a $39.99 download of Windows 8 Pro. If you prefer an actual physical copy, you can pick Windows 8 Pro up in store for $69.99 during this promotion. At the time, Microsoft said this upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro both online and at retail would through January 31, 2013. So, what happens then?
According to the folks over on The Verge, the price of the retail version of Windows 8 Pro will be just under $200 once the calendars flip over to February 1. The Verge cites a source familiar with Microsoft's plans that says Windows 8 Pro will be priced at $199 after the promotional price expires on January 31. Additionally, the $69.99 upgrade option at retail stores will jump to $99.99.
In other words, you'll pay significantly more if you decide to wait until well into the new year to adopt Windows 8. Windows 8 is scheduled for release on October 26 of this year. Will you be adopting the OS while it's going cheap? Let us know in the comments below!
Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, Oh Ho Ho Ho Ho . . . $199 for Windows 8 . . .
Lol, i just laughed like Santa while reading this.
The sad thing is, i won't even bother to download it. Actually i already tried the leaked retail version and it took me an hour to scream for windows 7, even if i liked few things in windows 8 though....
hope so haha!
However, in a world where MS is more directly competing with the likes of Apple who has $40 OS upgrades, and Android is free (If you have a supported device, and If your manufacturer decides to support it properly, and If you wireless carrier isnt a prick), I would think that lowering the overall price would be a much better idea. I would think $50 for home OEM and then $75 for pro OEM (double the price for a retail copy) would be much more appropriate in today's world (and then stiff us on xBox live memberships, skydrive memberships, office360 memberships, and all the other monthly subscriptions that MS is making their bread and butter on now).
Good luck with that.... I run Ubuntu, MacOS, and Windows because I need to be able to support all of these platforms... You just switching to Linux is just the same knee jerk reaction Balwin had when before Obama was elected... wasn't he suppose to leave the country... yeah.. like I said, good luck...