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 Microsoft.com Canada posted a Windows Vista price list, according to Neowin. (The list has now vanished, not surprisingly, from the Microsoft site.) In U.S. dollars, Vista Home Premium is listed at $270. Home Premium Upgrade (from a current version of Windows) is $180. But Vista Ultimate is where the prices get interesting. A brand-new copy of Ultimate is listed for $450, and an Ultimate Upgrade at $270. Ed Bott grabbed the full Vista price list before Microsoft pulled it. Guess Microsoft execs weren't kidding when they talked about their plans to push Premium Vista SKUs (with premium pricetags attached).
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Comments (4)
It would make sense that the Vista Ultimate upgrade pricing more or less treads water with Windows XP Pro as an upgrade during the Vista intro period, because you have to buy MORE Windows with Vista than XP to get XP-Pro equivalent functionality. Presumably this will allow Microsoft to perhaps offer a "low-cost" ($50?) copy of Ultimate to people who buy an XP Pro machine this fall, or a free copy of the Premium edition. Buyers at lower levels could get similar options, perhaps with a free XP-to-Vista copy on fall-bought PCs, with the "free" Vista effectively taking the user a notch down in features, and a fee applying to get the up-featured Vista in any one category that gives you at least all the same XP features.The foregoing makes me think the pricing is only for some introductory period, with actual retail pricing for everything up to and including Ultimate probably to be higher later on.I paid about $260 Cdn (before taxes) for the Windows XP Pro Upgrade edition in August of 2005.The comparison of the Vista Ultimate Upgrade at $299 with the XP Pro upgrade pricing at $259 is a little misleading. Until about a year ago XP Pro sold in my Canadian city for at least $299 and the price was never lower (and often higher at about $330 or so).It is only as Vista has loomed in power users' sights over the last year that the XP Pro upgrade price has slipped to around $260, to my recollection.
Posted by Keith Risler | August 28, 2006 7:54 PM
The cost/value relationship, especially in light of the limited benefit over Win XP, is just not there. Maybe if I buy a new machine that comes with it in a couple of years, then I'll give it a shot. Should be up to SP3 by then anyway.
Posted by ogmanx | August 28, 2006 10:44 PM
I'm really curious, I heard some very positive comments about transparent windows (2GB RAM machine) - quite usefull in many cases.
Posted by azaleski | August 30, 2006 5:30 AM
vista is well worth the price i have used the rc1 beta and it made a huge imporvement in performance and stability. well till i went to remove it had some big issues then but gofigure with a beta. current priceing ranges anywhere from $99.95 for vista basic upgrade to $399 for full vista ultimate $259 for the ultimate upgrade. and it is well worth the money
Posted by lonewolf | November 18, 2006 5:08 PM