UK Customers to Get Windows 7 Half U.S. Price

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Windows 7 going on the cheap in the United Kingdom.

Those living in the UK are used to looking at the prices of goods around the rest of the world before letting out a sigh and accepting that things just cost more in Great Britain. But it seems that those very same consumers will be getting a break with Windows 7 – which at present time will be selling for nearly half of what U.S. consumers pay.

CNet spotted the online prices for Windows 7 preorders, which run £65 for the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium. Converted to US$107, which compares favourably to the US$200. In fact, the £65 is even below the U.S. cost of the upgrade, which will run for US$120. Check it out on Amazon.co.uk.

Now that there doesn't look to be a separate SKU for a browserless version of Windows 7, a product key could be a product key wherever it's activated. Could there be an opportunity for arbitrage?

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • MrBradley
    EU will still find away to fine them.
    Reply
  • Spanky Deluxe
    That new price would be ok by me if there was only one version of Windows which had all the features. Since I have a multi-cpu system however, I'd need to get Professional or Ultimate or something, which are at least £150.
    Reply
  • Gradis
    It was £50 at the start of preorder with some retailers.
    Reply
  • MS sell very very pricey in eastern europe (compared to regional buy power) and then complain about piracy.

    PS I dont understand. If you wont use for commercial purposes why ask for email ? Be a man, admit you'll use it for commercial purposes.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    spanky deluxeThat new price would be ok by me if there was only one version of Windows which had all the features. Since I have a multi-cpu system however, I'd need to get Professional or Ultimate or something, which are at least £150.Multi CPU as in 2P or Quad/i7?
    Reply
  • Major7up
    If they sold it over here (USA) half price I'd go for it. Till then I'll stick with XP.
    Reply
  • iquark
    I have a feeling the US prices will come down prior to launch. Otherwise I'm planning on getting the 187$ Vista-64 bit Ultimate at newegg with the free win 7 ultimate upgrade coupon. At least I can save 30$ over just buying Win7 ultimate.
    Reply
  • jasperjones
    Shadow703793Multi CPU as in 2P or Quad/i7?
    Well, Home Premium will obv run most multiprocessor but *single* socket x86 systems. But what about dual socket systems? I recall back in the days of XP you had to get Professional...
    Reply
  • hellwig
    If republicans are to believe, the UK system of health care is so overstressed and ineffective, these poor souls won't live long enough to see the next Windows release. Microsoft is just doing them a favor, not charging them for extra years on a license they'll never see.

    That said, the UK usually has to wait forever to get releases of U.S. software, movies, etc... Maybe Microsoft is just trying to play nice this time, and not drive more Europeans to linux.
    Reply
  • fulle
    Its simple economics. A monopoly gets to chose their own price, and they pick the price that maximizes profits the most. Someone was analyzing sales data at Microsoft, and staring at a graph decided that this was the price they need to sell at to maximize profit in EU.

    As if a business would do ANYTHING to "play nice." What are we, in kindergarten? There's no Santa either, btw.
    Reply