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Best Buy memo leaks Windows 7 pricing? Upgrades might cost less than half than Vista equivalent.

June 6th, 2009 AEST by Long Zheng
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Moments ago, Engadget reported on a leaked memo from Best Buy which details the retailer’s early plans for the recently announced launch of Windows 7. Whilst their article falls into somewhat of a misled Vista-bashing rabbit hole, their readers even point out the juicer part of the scoop, the first indications of how much Windows 7 is going to cost.

Assuming the memo is legitimate and accurate, Best Buy will allow customers to preorder Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99.99 from end of June.

If these prices are recommended retail prices, and not a special Best Buy discount offer (the 16 days might suggest otherwise), then what it could mean is Microsoft will be taking quite an aggressive Windows 7 pricing strategy. The original retail price of Vista Home Premium Upgrade was $129.95 and Vista Business Upgrade (nearest equivalent of Professional) was $199.95, ~60% and 50% cheaper respectively.

Having said, even if this was a Best Buy promotional offer, I can’t imagine them bearing a loss on each sale so retail prices should still be cheaper than Vista.

If we take these comparisons between upgrade versions and impose them onto full editions, then Windows 7 Home Premium could cost ~$99.99 (Vista $269.99), and Windows 7 Professional $149 (Vista $299). If these predictions are true, then Windows 7 could be quite the offer. If not, then you know where to order from to get the best deals on 7. :)

Update: As commenter “Andre Da Costa” pointed out, a similar if not exactly the same deal was also offered for the introduction of Windows Vista which could indicate this be an time-limited offer and will not reflect the retail price of Windows 7.

17 Comments

  1. Matheus Bonela

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 3:55 am

    Whoa. I really like these prices. :D

  2. Imran Hussain

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 3:58 am

    awesome upgrade prices! hard to believe actually :D

  3. Jon

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 3:59 am

    I can see lots of people upgrading from Vista at those prices, including me.

  4. Nitz

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 4:15 am

    Awesome news. I wonder what Ultimate will go for?

  5. Andre Da Costa

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 4:55 am

    Long, this is similar to the Windows Vista Express Upgrade Program revealed in October of 2006 I believe. Here is a quote from an eWeek post about it which revealed similar pricing on upgrades:

    “But upgrades from Windows XP Home Edition to Windows Vista Home Basic, and from Windows XP Home to Windows Vista Home Premium, will be offered at a 50 percent discount, which translates into $49 and $79 respectively, before shipping and handling, which is estimated to cost about $10. ”
    http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Finally-Reveals-Plans-for-U pgrades-to-Vista/

  6. Sam

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 5:43 am

    Wow. If those are really the prices (although the 16 day thing indicates otherwise) – then that’s just jaw dropping.$50 to upgrade from Vista>7? Sold! $100 to go from XP to 7? Sold!

  7. Albert

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 6:00 am

    Whoa, just whoa. Or more like, the “WoW Starts Now” ;)

  8. Avatar X

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 9:29 am

    @Sam: no, there is no upgrade path or support that proves XP users will get that kind of pricing..this is pricing for vista users only from what it can be quickly guessed based on microsoft support and upgrade protocols.

    But it would be a incredible proposition of course..

    these upgrade prices where the prices i speculated on over six months ago. i hope i am indeed right and this is the price we are going to see:

    50, 100,150 for upgrades and 100,199 and 300 for full commercial versions.

  9. n4cer

    Jun 6th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    As Andre indicated, this type of promotional upgrade pricing has been offered before.

    Windows ME
    http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2000/jul00/promopricingpr.msp x

  10. Hold on!!

    Jun 7th, 2009 at 5:52 am

    This pricing will apply only to those that purchase a PC with pre-installed Vista/XP? from Best Buy during the transition period. This is a scam, the upgrade to Windows 7, should be free.

    Whatever you do, don’t buy a PC from Toshiba. If something should go wrong in the future, for example, your Windows 7 disk becomes corrupt, they’ll send you a recovery disk so you can reinstall the original software that was pre-installed on their computer. That’s right, unless it comes pre-installed on their computer they won’t help you out and neither will Microsoft; you are on your own. So why bother, wait until your new computer comes with Windows 7 pre-installed.

  11. james

    Jun 14th, 2009 at 12:52 am

    Wow thats twice as much as snow leopard and the snow leopard price isn’t temporary.

  12. Frank Owen

    Jun 14th, 2009 at 1:46 am

    @james, I bet if you add up the price of a Mac, and add the $29.00 to upgrade to snow leopard you will still be spending more as the majority of people who purchased a PC a year or so ago and also purchases an upgrade to Windows 7.

  13. james

    Jun 15th, 2009 at 1:48 am

    Yea but I don’t have to purchase another mac each year because of failures.

  14. Kyle

    Jun 17th, 2009 at 1:04 am

    james, then why the hell are you looking at windows stuff if you have a mac? plus, upgrading to windows 7 doesn’t mean the same as upgrading to snow leopard. At least pretty much everyone can upgrade to Windows 7, where-as the majority of Mac users have to buy a new computer to run snow leopard, plus maybe even have to upgrade what they already have. Also, you have to have Leopard to upgrade to Snow Leopard for $29, otherwise, you have to spend well over the windows pricing to upgrade, that is, if your maching can run it.

  15. _||_

    Jun 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am

    Guess y’all missed this little birdie a month ago? http://twitter.com/lituus/status/1664298840

  16. coonopsyday

    Sep 29th, 2009 at 7:28 am

    Спасибо, много полезного почерпнул.

  17. STEVE BELLMAN

    Oct 15th, 2009 at 5:00 am

    BEST BUY IS FALSE ADVERTISING THEY ARE NOT GIVING THE PEOPLE THE WINDOWS 7 LIKE THEY WERE SUPPOSE TO. THEY ARE TELLING THEM THEIR CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT GOOD AND YOU CAN’T PREORDER .WHAT THEY DO IS CHARGE YOUR CARD EVERY DAY UNTIL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY SAYS THEY CAN CHARGE IT BECAUSE IT WAS CHARGED 20 OR 30 TIMES THEN CREDITED BACK THIS IS FOR BEST BUY TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE FUNDS IN THEIR ,BUT IF YOU DO IT TO MANY TIMES CREDIT CARD COMPANYS WONT CHARGE IT TO YOUR ACCOUNT BECAUSE OF ALL THE CHARGES ,THIS IS HOW BEST BUY GETS OUT OF SELLING YOU WINDOWS 7 FOR 49.99 !!!!!!! THEY ARE NOW BEING REPORTED TOP THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

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