I’m wondering when Microsoft will release Windows 10 pricing and upgrade pricing information. There’s no official word on that. But perhaps a few IT consultants might have a sense of how Redmond does things.
December 2014? April 2015? September 2015?
While I wait for informed speculation, here are a few links:
Oct 14: The future of windows depends upon it being free. The author means free upgrades for consumers: you will still have to pay for the OS when you buy your new computer. I say chatter is cheap.
Oct 20:[INDENT] There are still no details on pricing, with Microsoft set to release information closer to launch. But with the launch date pencilled in for Summer 2015, Redmond has plenty of time of mull what is likely to be another crucial decision.
I own an IT consulting firm and we are a top tier Microsoft partner. I’m actually a P-Seller, which is an individual from a Microsoft Partner who can assist their internal sales teams on deals. I have a Microsoft badge, Microsoft email, and access to their internal network. Last week I spent the day at the Microsoft Canada head office at a sales workshop with their internal employees. In simpler terms, I am deeply embedded.
During a break, I was browsing the news and saw the press release for the Microsoft Band, the new fitness/communication device. One of the Microsoft guys said “Hey, that looks really cool! Does it say how much it is?”
So even Microsoft employees had no idea about the new device, when it was being released, and how much they were charging.
Because some of them have been in the business for over a decade and may have a sense of how Microsoft runs their business. To be clear, I’m not asking how much Win10 is going to cost. I’m asking when (roughly) they will release this information, along with details on the upgrade path. Such intuition can be gleaned after you read the computer press for years and follow the twist and turns of MS closely.
We know for example that an explicit announcement that Windows 7 would be free to Vista buyers did not really mean “Free”. We also know that Microsoft has a habit of postponing release dates. But experienced readers of the metaphorical tea leaves may have a more sophisticated take.
Also, I meant “Computer industry folk”. IT consultant is a little narrow.
Bump during the workweek.
I suppose no answer is an answer. Win 10 is suppose to be out in late 2015 according to one report and Microsoft has been known to push release dates forwards. In the best of circumstances a six month lead time for announcing upgrade pricing would be optimistic. And MS is pondering its business model: there is chatter about shifting to a subscription framework. Sort of like anti-virals I suppose.
Still, postponed purchasing isn’t good for anyone.
Considering two things: a) the Vista experience, and b) the urgency to get anything out there that doesn’t have the fatal digit “8” in it, I’m inclined to be pretty leery about an early Ten.
I am an IT consultant with several associations with Microsoft. I have no inside information whatsoever what the costs will be but I do have some good guesses based on past behavior.
No, it will not be free - unlike Apple who makes money from bundled hardware and software, Microsoft is primarily an OS and enterprise level software developer/vendor. They can’t give away their product to promote other aspects of their business because that is their main business.
The cost will probably be almost exactly in line with their current licensing structure. That includes everyone from the single home user to massive enterprise licenses. It won’t cost much if anything more but it won’t cost less either. Their real money-making base is business licenses rather than casual consumers so there is no need to alter that model. Large corporations are locked into their software already and can’t just switch over to something else on a whim.
It isn’t going to be all subscription. Maybe that option will be available to those that want it but it won’t be required or universal. That is one of those trends that has some niche appeal but not a large-scale one especially for their bread butter business - large business licenses. Remember that Microsoft really needs to be a very conservative company especially with Windows 10. That got overly aggressive with redesigning Windows 8 with too many trendy features that most people did not want. They can’t risk that failure again so they have to stick with the classic model. The mega-corp that I consult for is so regulated and conservative that we are only deploring Windows 7 to replace XP now at the end of the deadline. It isn’t just a simple matter of building a new PC and putting it out on the floor. No, you have to spread countless hours regression testing literally hundreds of millions of dollars+ to regression test every little thing and the compatibility with existing software plus provide documentation for that very strict process. There are lots of industries like that from banking to the medical field. Microsoft cannot get too innovative or it will cause its most valuable customers to reject their new product. That happened with Windows 8 which never saw much large-scale business adoption so they have to go back to the conservative model.
I think Microsoft could give it away as a free upgrade to existing 7/8 users if they wanted to. Computers are so inexpensive nowadays that hardly anyone bothers buying retail OS upgrades - they just buy a new computer. The vast majority of OS license sales is to OEMs.
It’s also not that fundamentally different from a major service pack for a released OS (always free) or the free 8->8.1 upgrade.
Thank you for the comments.
Windows Vista was a clunker. Windows 8 is a clunker. What was the upgrade path from Vista to 7 like?
Win7 was released on October 22, 2009 (earlier for OEMs). Those purchasing a Vista PC from June 26, 2009 to Jan 31, 2010 could get a “free” upgrade to Win7. The upgrade path was for comparable sorts of Vista. Vista Basic (for netbooks) had no upgrade offer, nor did Win XP buyers get a special deal. Deadline on 2/28/2010! And “Free” meant something like $20, IIRC.
So the offer applied to PCs purchased up to about 4 months before the official release date. At the moment Win7 sells for $100-$130. Support for Win7 ends Jan 14, 2020.
A lot of people do not understand the difference between a user interface and an Operating System (then again, Microsoft has a really hard time with the concept of user interfaces and seems to only be able to do it through trial and error). Vista and Windows 7 are essentially the same operating system. Vista is listed internally as Windows 6.0 and Windows 7 is 6.1. An operating system controls everything about the computer down to the lowest level. The user interface is the superficial paint job that end users interact with in the end and it is the easiest part to modify or even replace entirely without affecting the rest of the OS. MS is fairly good about about making a robust and stable operating system these days but they are still really bad about making desirable user interfaces on their own. For that, they depend on negative feedback from their failures. It doesn’t mean that the structure of the building is bad, it just means that they have really crappy interior decorators.
That said, they still charged most users to upgrade from Windows 6.0 (Vista) to Windows 7 (Windows 6.1). IIRC, that was a $100+ download for that major service pack and it will likely be something similar for the vast majority of end users the next time around.
People have been saying that Microsoft will have to give Windows away to survive for many years. Neal Stephenson said it in In the Beginning… Was the Command Line, published in 1999. His argument was that Linux was free and better than Windows so Microsoft wouldn’t be able to continue to charge money for an OS that was worse than Linux. He was wrong.
Windows 10 will not be free. There will not be free upgrades from Windows 8. There will certainly not be free upgrades from Windows 7. The only free upgrades may be for people who buy a PC in the last few months before Windows 10 is released.
To go to a model where Microsoft gives free upgrades they would have to charge PC makers more for the copies of Windows they install on new PCs. This would drive up the cost of new PCs. Microsoft has to get paid for Windows somehow. Until they figure out a new way to make money from Windows, charging for upgrades won’t go away.
For one year after the release of Windows 10, most Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 consumers will receive a free upgrade. After that… well that hasn’t been decided.
Gobbledygook: [INDENT]“Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we’ll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime of the device,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Operating Systems Group. “With Windows 10, we think of Windows as a service… The question ‘what version are you running’ will cease to make sense.”[/INDENT] I know what “Lifetime of the device” means. I don’t know what “Supported lifetime of the device” is.
Fine print: [INDENT]“It is our intent that most of these devices will qualify, but some hardware/software requirements apply and feature availability may vary by device. Devices must be connected to the internet and have Windows Update enabled. ISP fees may apply. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update required. Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise outside of this offer. We will be sharing more information and additional offer terms in coming months.”[/INDENT]
October thread: So, waddya think of Windows 10?
With how poorly Microsoft updates have been going, I’m very hesitant to take even a free upgrade. An update last month hosed my computer, and I just yesterday got it fixed by a repair install. And even that wasn’t enough–whatever they broke persisted past a repair install. I had to go find an uninstaller for the broken update. (I couldn’t run the uninstaller before because my computer kept locking up.)
Microsoft used to never put out updates that caused problems. I never thought I’d become the type of guy who shuts off automatic updates altogether. Instead, I only install updates that are a month old or older, from a website that keeps track of which ones are good. That’s insane.
Even if “supported lifetime of the device” is literal, meaning as long as the device can run the current version of Windows, I’d be unsure if Microsoft’s updates will hose the device. Being able to stay behind on updates is crucial when so many updates (a bunch in August, October, and December) can cause such catastrophic problems.
I wondered about this also, but from reading about the policy I think they are talking mostly about phones and tablets, which may be supported by their manufacturers a lot less long than PCs. I’ve never heard supported lifetime of a device refer to a PC before, and Microsoft has cut off support for plenty of OS versions still running on machines.
The article in the Register this morning suggests that this policy is to try to ensure that Win 10 does not bomb as badly as Win 8, since two bombs in a row would be seriously bad for them. It appears that machines that can run Win 7 or Win 8 will be able to run Win 10. And that they are willing to throw hardware makers to the wolves to ensure that companies move to Win 10.
But if, as they indicate, Windows 10 is supposed to be the last version of Windows ever, just receiving perpetual updates, then dropping support for an entire version is impossible. It’s going to have to be on a device level.
And that’s why Windows 10 has to succeed. Because their fundamental model is changing. They’ve been talking about this for a long while, and I’m just glad it’s not a paid subscription service as I had assumed it would be.
My main problem is that I don’t think Microsoft is ready, if updates can hose computers. Forever, the tech wisdom with Windows was to do a reinstall, not an in place upgrade. But Windows 10 will always be an in place upgrade. Everything relies on updates not failing, yet they’ve been failing more often lately.
Where did you hear that Windows 10 is the last version ever?
I doubt many people will upgrade, but I bet some companies do. They’re safer since they usually have more controlled configurations than you find out in the field. One of the big problems with Win 8 is that companies are avoiding it in droves. My company which is a huge software company is on Win 7 still.
