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Buy a new PC this holiday season, get a free piece of paper

While Windows Vista expected to be released to manufacturers around October 25, retail PC pre-loaded with the new operating system won’t be available until the New Year. Microsoft and its partners are doing their best to get the new operating system into consumer hands this holiday season, even if it may come in the form of a piece of paper.

Microsoft is planning an upgrade program for those who purchase new PCs this holiday season. According to Information Week, the upgrade coupons will either be free or provide discounted pricing: 

Customers who buy systems running Windows XP Home Edition can upgrade to Vista Home Basic Edition for a flat $49 fee and to the higher-end Windows Vista Home Premium Edition for a cost of $79.

The Windows Vista Technology Upgrade Program runs from Oct. 26, 2006, through March 15, 2007. Distributors are expected to have the new SKUs in house for system builders by Oct. 15. 

Microsoft has not officially announced the coupon program, but has commented that it is currently working with its partners on a plan for such an offer.

Those who wish to preview a Windows Vista might want to clear their schedules for tomorrow’s RC2 release.

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Well, it's something.
By therealnickdanger on 10/5/2006 1:46:43 PM , Rating: 3
Beats not getting a coupon at all...




RE: Well, it's something.
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 10/5/2006 1:58:01 PM , Rating: 2
Sucks that I just bought a new laptop on September 30th. Guess I'll just have to wait for the "uber" Vista deals that Best Buy, Office Depot, Circuit City, OfficeMax, etc. etc. will no doubt offer at launch.


RE: Well, it's something.
By blwest on 10/5/2006 2:06:00 PM , Rating: 5
What deals? MSRP + a stack of 10 cd-r discs?


RE: Well, it's something.
By Pirks on 10/5/06, Rating: 0
RE: Well, it's something.
By FITCamaro on 10/5/2006 3:52:06 PM , Rating: 2
What'd be really nice is if Microsoft offered a cheaper upgrade system for people not with new PCs. And I mean for the full version, not an upgrade version. Would be nice if you have a legit copy of XP or MCE and could get the full version of Vista Home Premium or Ultimate for a discount. Otherwise when you reformat you have to reinstall XP or MCE and then upgrade again to Vista.

Would also be nice if they made it to be like a lot of other software where you register it on a certain computer. If you want to upgrade your/build a new computer, you unregister it for that computer and register it for the new computer. Would still mean one computer per license but mean you don't have to buy a new copy just because you wanted to upgrade your PC. Or just make it so one license can run on more than one PC up to say a maximum of 2 or 3. It's kind of crap that if you have 2-3 PCs, you have to buy 3 copies of the OS.

Another idea for Microsoft would be to do what a lot of other companies do. Instead of charging one high fee at the beginning, spread out the cost. Charge $50 for Home Basic, $75 for Home Premium, and $100 for Ultimate. Then every year afterwards you pay a $25(Home Basic), $30(Home Premium), or $35(Ultimate) fee to keep your copy valid and able to get updates. Over the 5-6 year life of the OS (if not more) that amounts to $175-200 for Home Basic, $225-255 for Home Premium, and $275-305 for Ultimate. But since its cheaper up front and only requires a pretty minimal payment every year, more people are willing to buy it and not pirate a copy. It's a pretty well known fact that people will buy more expensive things when you spread the cost out over time. Especially in todays world of shrinking disposable income for the majority of people.


RE: Well, it's something.
By PacoTAco on 10/5/06, Rating: 0
RE: Well, it's something.
By jkresh on 10/5/2006 4:44:24 PM , Rating: 2
actually I suspect Vista's upgrade will be just like any other in that you can just stick your xp/mce... cd in the drive and it will read it and let you install the upgrade clean (that’s how xp works, and I believe even 98 could do that with a 95 disk).


RE: Well, it's something.
By vanka on 10/5/2006 6:45:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Another idea for Microsoft would be to do what a lot of other companies do. Instead of charging one high fee at the beginning, spread out the cost. Charge $50 for Home Basic, $75 for Home Premium, and $100 for Ultimate. Then every year afterwards you pay a $25(Home Basic), $30(Home Premium), or $35(Ultimate) fee to keep your copy valid and able to get updates. Over the 5-6 year life of the OS (if not more) that amounts to $175-200 for Home Basic, $225-255 for Home Premium, and $275-305 for Ultimate

Wow, you really thought that one through didn't you?

Here's the scenerio: I buy or assemble a top-of-the-line computer today and when Vista comes out I but the Home Premium version with the yearly charge option; at the end of 5 years I have paid what Microsoft wanted upfront. By this time Microsoft has released Blackcomb/Vienna and I want to get the new OS. Do you really think I'm going to install Blackcomb on a 5 year old PC? That would be like installing Vista on a 1.4GHz P4 with 256MB RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and a 16-32MB video card; if you hate yourself that much I have a gun you can borrow, the bullets are free.

When Blackcomb comes out I will buy or assemble a computer that can handle it. But what do I do with the 5 year old Vista PC? Since I hate to waste anything, I would set the computer up as an internet/homework/music workstation for the kids or guests; but wait, I still have the yearly charge to continue using Vista. Now in addition to the new charge for Blackcomb, I have to pay to continue using the old PC. Had I opted for the one-time-charge, I could have continued to use Vista until the machine fried or I kill it will a hammer in a fit of rage, after which I could transfer the license to another computer if I was so inclined.

Your scenerio assumes that I won't be using the computer for which I purchase Vista for more than 5 years, hence I won't need to keep paying for it after the 5 years are up. You seem to forget that my old computer doesn't become useless just because I get a new one; that usefullness deteriorates with each year that I have to keep paying for the OS. Also under your scenerio, the cost per year will stay fairly constant after 5 years, while under the pay-upfront scenerio the cost per year decreases dramtically. How's that for increasing disposable income?


RE: Well, it's something.
By sxr7171 on 10/6/2006 1:55:32 AM , Rating: 2
There are two ways to look at it. One is that since you decided to pay by the year, you pay more if you use it for more than 5 years, which is fair since there are finance costs to doing it that way. This will be a tacit understanding that you most likely won't need the OS or computer for more than 5 years and if you do, you pay more. Such people you might use a computer for 5+ might be inclined to take the pay-up-front option.

Secondly, they could just cut us some slack and say that if you did pay for 5 years, you now own the software and no longer need to pay.


RE: Well, it's something.
By FITCamaro on 10/6/2006 9:17:30 AM , Rating: 2
No. The yearly fee is to keep the OS valid and able to receive updates. Its like any other software thats free but you have to pay for support. The only difference being there was some upfront cost. Once the OS is no longer supported, they just simply don't charge you anymore. The OS will continue to work theres just no upgrades. Maybe they'll issue a small patch that disables the validity check every year or something but thats essentially it.

And yes, you might have to pay slightly more than if you just paid for it outright. Maybe they'll even offer both ways of paying for it. I know I'd rather do it that way than have to fork over $400 for a new OS. The other thing though is that if they make it significantly cheaper up front and keep the yearly support fee low, more people will be inclined to buy it and have a valid copy. By having more people buy it, the costs can be even lower because like anything else, the more copies, pieces, etc you sell of something, the lower the costs can be. Most of the reason people pirate Windows is because of its high upfront cost. Mostly because the majority of people don't get OEM versions which are significantly cheaper than retail. If it was $50 though, I think a lot less people would complain about it.


RE: Well, it's something.
By johnsonx on 10/5/2006 11:29:33 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Otherwise when you reformat you have to reinstall XP or MCE and then upgrade again to Vista.


You've obviously never clean-installed Windows from an Upgrade CD. I have, dozens of times. I don't recall ANY version of Windows (or most any other program for that matter) requiring you to actually have the prior version installed before upgrading. If the installer doesn't see a valid product installed on your hard drive (which it often doesn't even if it IS installed), then it just asks you to insert a CD from a previous version of Windows; it checks it and then goes on with the clean install.


RE: Well, it's something.
By sxr7171 on 10/6/2006 1:51:26 AM , Rating: 2
Well MS and the computer industry have been scratching each other's backs for a while. MS comes out with a new OS that spurs new PC sales since they come cheap a new system and the system builders push Windows on their systems. I wish they'd target the enthusiast community in a different way, but everything is targeted towards corporate sales and average joe Dell/HP consumers.


RE: Well, it's something.
By rykerabel on 10/9/2006 11:25:05 AM , Rating: 2
Quoted: Would also be nice if they made it to be like a lot of other software where you register it on a certain computer. If you want to upgrade your/build a new computer, you unregister it for that computer and register it for the new computer. Would still mean one computer per license but mean you don't have to buy a new copy just because you wanted to upgrade your PC.

You don't have to buy new windows if you upgrade your PC unless you have an OEM license of windows.

OEM Windows license is super cheap because it is licensed to that specific hardware only.

Retail Windows license is not registered to any specific hardware, you can move (not multiple install) it to any machine any time you want.


Prices should be lower
By Tedtalker1 on 10/5/2006 2:04:22 PM , Rating: 2
19.99 for basic and 39.99 for premium would be better.Best would be free for basic.Could just wait a month or so before buying a new PC and get it free anyway.This doesn't seem like much of an incentive to me.




RE: Prices should be lower
By DigitalFreak on 10/5/2006 2:33:48 PM , Rating: 2
When PCs were shipping with ME right before XP came out, you got the upgrade to XP for FREE, IIRC.


RE: Prices should be lower
By ChugokuOtaku on 10/5/2006 3:16:25 PM , Rating: 4
that's cuz Windows ME sucked ass!


By kilkennycat on 10/5/2006 2:42:07 PM , Rating: 2
... after upgrading to Vista, the XP version still retained a valid key. Serious gamers on Vista-equipped machines will need to dual boot to XP for quite a while, for legacy-game, hardware-driver and performance reasons. It would be nice if the Daily Tech staff could clarify whether or not the Vista upgrade invalidates the WinXP key.




By Burning Bridges on 10/5/2006 3:03:50 PM , Rating: 2
I was actually thinking along the same lines, because then you could use the upgrade when building a new PC and leave your older one with XP :)


By sxr7171 on 10/6/2006 1:58:23 AM , Rating: 2
Since it's an OEM install of XP I seriously doubt that it would be legal to use that OEM copy after getting the Vista upgrade unless it were on the same machine. They should allow dual boot though. It will be needed.


Vista ready...
By Jeff7181 on 10/5/2006 4:23:58 PM , Rating: 2
They should offer the coupons to anyone who has a computer that's advertised as "Vista ready." I bought my laptop this spring, and it has a Vista ready sticker on it. They got their money from me already since I got Windows XP Pro on the laptop... how's that any different than someone who buys a new PC in November that's Vista ready?