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#1 2006-08-29 3:56 pm
- ConnertheCat
- 7 Months Later
- From: Penfield, NY
- Registered: 2001-07-21
- Posts: 13405
Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. will charge $239 for the version of its new Windows Vista operating system that it hopes most consumers will opt for, according to prices listed on Internet retailer Amazon.com's Web site.
Amazon.com, which has begun taking pre-orders for Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system, also reveals list prices for two other versions of Vista that are similar to what Microsoft currently charges for the two most common versions of Windows XP.
According to Amazon.com's Web site, the version of Vista geared toward work use, Windows Vista Business, will cost $299, similar to the cost of Windows XP Professional. The consumer version of the operating system, Windows Vista Home Basic, will cost $199, the same as Windows XP Home.
Windows Vista Premium, which offers entertainment capabilities such as the ability to record live television and which Microsoft is hoping most consumers will embrace, is listed at $239. The Media Center edition of Windows XP, which had similar functions, is only available pre-loaded onto a computer, so comparable individual pricing is not available.
Microsoft also is hoping to sell consumers on another version of Vista, called Ultimate, that is geared toward home users who also want to do some work from the family den. That version is listed for $399 on Amazon.com's Web site.
Microsoft Corp. declined to comment on the prices listed on Amazon.com's Web site. Kevin Kutz, a director in Microsoft's Windows client unit, said the company will officially make prices public when it releases a near-final test version, called release candidate 1, which is expected by the end of September.
Amazon.com spokesman Sean Sundwell said the Seattle-based online retailer posted the listings and began taking pre-orders two or three weeks ago, because consumers were asking for that option. He said the prices are from the latest price sheet that Microsoft provided.
"The one thing we were certain on is the price," Sundwell said.
But Sundwell said Amazon.com can't be certain when Vista will be released. The retailer lists the ship date as January 30, which Sundwell said was an estimate based on Microsoft's public assertions that it plans to release the consumer version of Windows in January.
Kutz said Microsoft is still on track to deliver the much-delayed Vista to big business clients in November, and to consumers in January. But he reiterated that the company will not hesitate to delay Vista's release if any problems crop up.
"Quality is the ultimate determinant," he said.
Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund, who was among the first to note the Amazon.com listings, said in a research note that the prices listed on the Web site, if accurate, could provide some boost to Microsoft's earnings. But he wrote that it was hard to judge exactly how Vista will impact Microsoft's earnings because details such as the exact release date aren't yet clear.
Wow, that's a lot for the ultimate version. That's more then it cost me to get every version of OS X! 
Solar Plexus!
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#2 2006-08-29 3:58 pm
- ConnertheCat
- 7 Months Later
- From: Penfield, NY
- Registered: 2001-07-21
- Posts: 13405
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Whoops, forgot to include the link - d'oh.
Article.
Fido will issue spankings later.
Solar Plexus!
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#3 2006-08-29 4:12 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
What's funny is that people will wind up unlocking Ultimate functionality with the cheaper versions, anyway.
$399 for an operating system. Man. Well, if people will pay for it.
What I'd like to know is if that $199 Vista Home is considered an upgrade price or a "I'm building a computer at home and wish to have a legit copy of Windows" license price.
Spirit was crushed; now is fading, But I want to help make things right.
Because I can see and I can feel, and you can see and you can feel
So why don't we both either stand up and fight
Or at least together we'll call it a night.
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#4 2006-08-29 4:51 pm
- mentholiptus
- part of the solution problem
- Registered: 2001-04-10
- Posts: 2620
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Phydeaux wrote:
What I'd like to know is if that $199 Vista Home is considered an upgrade price or a "I'm building a computer at home and wish to have a legit copy of Windows" license price.
All of the above.
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#5 2006-08-29 5:57 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Windows Vista Ultimate
This edition combines all the features of Home Premium and Enterprise editions, and additionally comes with podcast creation support, a game performance tweaker (WinSAT), DVD ripping capabilities, and special online services for downloadable media, as well as additional customer service options. The Ultimate edition is aimed to be the most impressive edition of Vista, aimed at high-end PC users, gamers, multimedia professionals, and PC enthusiasts.
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD-Rom $399.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Microsoft License Pack Additional License $359.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade DVD-Rom $259.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade Microsoft License Pack Additional License $233.00
Windows Vista Business
Comparable to Windows XP Professional, and aimed at the business market. Does not include the Media Center features of Home Premium, but does include the IIS web server, fax support, offline files, dual physical processor support, Remote Desktop, ad-hoc P2P collaboration capabilities, and support for 128 GB of memory. Product activation is not present in this edition.
Microsoft Windows Vista Business DVD-Rom $299.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Business Microsoft License Pack Additional License ?
Microsoft Windows Vista Business Upgrade DVD-Rom $199.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Business Upgrade Microsoft License Pack Additional License $179.00
Windows Vista Home Premium
Containing all features from Home Basic, this edition will additionally support more advanced features aimed for the home market segment, such as HDTV support and DVD authoring. Extra games, mobile and tablet computer support, file system encryption, and a photo management application are also included. This edition is comparable to Windows XP Media Center Edition and Tablet PC Edition. Home Premium will support up to 16 GB of physical memory.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium DVD-Rom $239.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Microsoft License Pack Additional License $215.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade DVD-Rom $159.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade Microsoft License Pack Additional License $143.00
Windows Vista Home Basic
Similar to Windows XP Home Edition, Home Basic is intended for budget users not requiring advanced media support for home use. The Windows Aero theme with translucent effects will not be included with this edition. Home Basic will support up to 8 GB of physical memory.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic DVD-Rom $199.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Microsoft License Pack Additional License $179.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Upgrade DVD-Rom $99.95
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Upgrade Microsoft License Pack Additional License $89.95
Prices courtesy of Amazon, Descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia
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#6 2006-08-29 6:11 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
400 dollars??? whoooo, let's see how fast Apple gets more converts . . .
.
.
.
I sure hope Apple doesn't see this as an opportunity to increase the price of MacOS X.
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#7 2006-08-29 7:02 pm
- Account axed on request
- Guest
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
The poor starving students will flock to Mac OS X like... like... ants to a cucumber sandwitch.
199$ for home.
240$ for a new vista compatible video card. (Might be more, I have not checked the prices on them yet.)
100$ for more memory to help support vista.
540$ total. Heh, screw that.
#8 2006-08-29 9:37 pm
- ctachme
- Member
- Registered: 2005-01-19
- Posts: 116
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
How about this??
From Oct 2001 to Spring 2007:
10.1 -> 10.2: $129
10.2 -> 10.3: $129
10.3 -> 10.4: $129
10.4 -> 10.5: $129
Total cost to keep Mac OS X upgraded for 5.5 years: $516
From Oct 2001 to Spring 2007:
XP Home-> Vista Home Basic: $99
- or -
XP Pro-> Vista Business: $199
Total cost to keep Windows upgraded for 5.5 years: $99 or $199
No matter how you cut it, going with Apple is a Metric ***load more expensive.
Did anyone see this article at AppleInsider? Apple sees more profit per OS user than Microsoft. You know that means that Apple users pay more than Microsoft users.
Don't get me wrong, I willingly pay Apple, because Mac OS X is better. But don't think that it's cheaper too. Because it's not.
"With the recent accomplishment of the manned lunar landing, the next frontier is manned exploration of the planets.... The 1981 manned Mars mission (1982 landing on Mars) is shown as an integral part of the total space program in the next two decades."
- Space Task Group August 4. 1969
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#9 2006-08-29 9:45 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Yeah, Windows users paid less, but got less. How many advancements have we paid for. How many advancements are Windows users still waiting for?
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#10 2006-08-29 9:45 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
ctachme wrote:
How about this??
From Oct 2001 to Spring 2007:
10.1 -> 10.2: $129
10.2 -> 10.3: $129
10.3 -> 10.4: $129
10.4 -> 10.5: $129
Total cost to keep Mac OS X upgraded for 5.5 years: $516
From Oct 2001 to Spring 2007:
XP Home-> Vista Home Basic: $99
- or -
XP Pro-> Vista Business: $199
Total cost to keep Windows upgraded for 5.5 years: $99 or $199
No matter how you cut it, going with Apple is a Metric ***load more expensive.
Did anyone see this article at AppleInsider? Apple sees more profit per OS user than Microsoft. You know that means that Apple users pay more than Microsoft users.
Don't get me wrong, I willingly pay Apple, because Mac OS X is better. But don't think that it's cheaper too. Because it's not.
That's all well and good, but I could install any of those OSs on a Revision C iMac, older than 2001, and with each upgrade the speed and usability actually increased without any substantial hardware cost. The Hardware Tax that's coming with Vista is what's ridiculous, on top of the cost for needing to run it.
Try running Vista on a PIII.
Oh, wait. You can't.
Not without ample amounts of pain.
Last edited by Phydeaux (2006-08-29 9:46 pm)
Spirit was crushed; now is fading, But I want to help make things right.
Because I can see and I can feel, and you can see and you can feel
So why don't we both either stand up and fight
Or at least together we'll call it a night.
Offline
#11 2006-08-29 10:06 pm
- ctachme
- Member
- Registered: 2005-01-19
- Posts: 116
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Phydeaux wrote:
That's all well and good, but I could install any of those OSs on a Revision C iMac, older than 2001, and with each upgrade the speed and usability actually increased without any substantial hardware cost. The Hardware Tax that's coming with Vista is what's ridiculous, on top of the cost for needing to run it.
Try running Vista on a PIII.
Oh, wait. You can't.
Not without ample amounts of pain.
The requriments for Vista:
* 800MHz processor. My 3 year old iBook is faster than that and it's a Power PC
* 512MB RAM. Nobody in their right mind would have less... even in Mac OS X!
* 32MB video card. My 3 year old iBook has one of those... and Apple's natorious for it's crappy video cards
* 20MB HD. I don't even know if they make hard drives that small anymore (you can't even get a hard-drive based iPod that small).
If Vista could run on the bottom of the line iBook 3 years ago (remember... the iBooks were the worst specced computers in all of Apple's line up) then it's not that bad. Sure, maybe you couldn't run it on a computer that's 6 years old... but so what?
"With the recent accomplishment of the manned lunar landing, the next frontier is manned exploration of the planets.... The 1981 manned Mars mission (1982 landing on Mars) is shown as an integral part of the total space program in the next two decades."
- Space Task Group August 4. 1969
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#12 2006-08-29 10:11 pm
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Not quite that simplistic Phy, Revision E iMacs, B&W PowerMac G3s, iBook Revision Bs, and Pismos were the earliest machines to officially support Tiger. I sort of suspect Leopard will mark the end of official G3 support. However this still leaves a shipload worth of improvement over what Microsoft provided in that time.
Likewise for decent performance on Windows it best to at least double what they say the minimal system is. For Mac more than double the RAM.
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#13 2006-08-30 12:40 am
- Account axed on request
- Guest
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
You can get any previous release of Mac OS X for 20$. You can get Windows98 for 50$.
This is important for a senior on a pension who wants an older computer to run a text processor to do, for example; the church newsletter, e-mail with grandkids, etc...
Old iMac: 80$ around here.
Panther: 20$.
Mac total: 100$.
Old PC: 40$ for something with a little bit more RAM.
Windows98: 50$.
Total: 90$.
Not much difference is there?
Neither is really cheaper in the end. You can come out with hundreds of formulas like:
PC = 120$ (XP) + 1000$ (Deep Hard drive recovery after a virus wastes windows and trashes disk.)
Mac = 120$ Tiger + 0$ (No software servicing.)
Or...
PC = 120$ (XP) + 500 plus dollars wasted of lost time.
Mac = 120$ Tiger + 500 plus dollars saved time. (Productivity time.)
You get *way* better software than with windows. How much is MS Visual C++ these days? 300$? 600$? (Express is free, but express is pretty weak.) Quite a bit, anyways. xCode is free with Mac OS X. xCode kicks MS Visual C++'s rear-end.
iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD versus what....? Windows Picture viewer? Windows Movie Maker? 
Haha, no contest. Apple wins in that regard.
Last edited by DudetheCreator (2006-08-30 12:45 am)
#14 2006-08-30 1:12 am
- Shadowless
- Cpl, USMC
- From: Jacksonville, NC
- Registered: 2005-10-10
- Posts: 3061
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
I like how you need the Home Premium version to support all the games. Sly tactics. That's gonna piss off a lot of families once the kids start complaining.
I love OS X and its one version (I know server exists but no home user would ever buy Server as often as an XP user would buy XP Professional).
Last edited by Shadowless (2006-08-30 1:13 am)
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#15 2006-08-30 8:47 am
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
I just can't help but think of how many upgrades MS would get if they simply went to a client/media center/server pricing model... even at $200 they'd have more upgraders than they will with this pricing and feature scheme. I think they'd actually make more money.
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#16 2006-08-30 10:32 am
- Account axed on request
- Guest
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Shadowless wrote:
I like how you need the Home Premium version to support all the games.
WTFGAMEPREMIUMNOHELP!
#17 2006-08-30 12:42 pm
- tomfoolery
- Zu-Zu-Zune!
- From: Blue Zune of Death
- Registered: 2004-10-22
- Posts: 2303
- Website
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
Yeah, like anyone actually buys Windows... 
Seriously though, people who currently have pirate copies of XP Pro are hardly gonna be enticed to go legit when it costs $399 to get the top-of-the-line version. Microsoft may as well call the price an "optional donation" and be done with it. Even I would consider piracy if the alternative was $399 for something of dubious pedigree!† 
tF
† I have no plans to upgrade to Vista.
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#18 2006-08-30 1:11 pm
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Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
tomfoolery wrote:
Yeah, like anyone actually buys Windows... http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/max … usgrin.gif
Seriously though, people who currently have pirate copies of XP Pro are hardly gonna be enticed to go legit when it costs $399 to get the top-of-the-line version. Microsoft may as well call the price an "optional donation" and be done with it. Even I would consider piracy if the alternative was $399 for something of dubious pedigree!†
http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/maxes/Shhhh.gif
tF
† I have no plans to upgrade to Vista.
Theft is bad!
...
Unless it's from microsoft. 
#19 2006-08-30 1:24 pm
- after-life
- Member
- Registered: 2003-12-25
- Posts: 2370
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
DudetheCreator wrote:
The poor starving students will flock to Mac OS X like... like... ants to a cucumber sandwitch.
199$ for home.
240$ for a new vista compatible video card. (Might be more, I have not checked the prices on them yet.)
100$ for more memory to help support vista.
540$ total. Heh, screw that.
Starving students generally don't buy shrinkwrapped copies of OSes.
Most of the time they just run whatever comes bundled with their computer, and the tech-savvy ones tend to just get pirated copies.
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#20 2006-08-30 2:49 pm
- tomfoolery
- Zu-Zu-Zune!
- From: Blue Zune of Death
- Registered: 2004-10-22
- Posts: 2303
- Website
Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
DudetheCreator wrote:
tomfoolery wrote:
Yeah, like anyone actually buys Windows... http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/max … usgrin.gif
Seriously though, people who currently have pirate copies of XP Pro are hardly gonna be enticed to go legit when it costs $399 to get the top-of-the-line version. Microsoft may as well call the price an "optional donation" and be done with it. Even I would consider piracy if the alternative was $399 for something of dubious pedigree!†
http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/maxes/Shhhh.gif
tF
† I have no plans to upgrade to Vista.Theft is bad!
...
Unless it's from microsoft.
...
And some may argue $399 on their part is theft. Daylight robbery++
tF
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#21 2006-08-30 10:45 pm
- Account axed on request
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Re: Amazon releases Windows Vista Pricing
tomfoolery wrote:
DudetheCreator wrote:
tomfoolery wrote:
Yeah, like anyone actually buys Windows... http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/max … usgrin.gif
Seriously though, people who currently have pirate copies of XP Pro are hardly gonna be enticed to go legit when it costs $399 to get the top-of-the-line version. Microsoft may as well call the price an "optional donation" and be done with it. Even I would consider piracy if the alternative was $399 for something of dubious pedigree!†
http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/maxes/Shhhh.gif
tF
† I have no plans to upgrade to Vista.Theft is bad!
...
Unless it's from microsoft....
And some may argue $399 on their part is theft. Daylight robbery++
tF
Robbery double-plus-good.
Seriously, who's going to pay 399$ for an Operating System? I mean common, I'm sure even the most maxed out PC fanboys have their worries about vista.
Today for example, I was talking with a PC gamer friend. His family has been on windows forever and aren't very tech savvy people. (How do I set up my modem? Where's my firewall?) I mentioned to him that Vista would be 200$ and we'd need new video cards to keep playing games. He said "Vista? Doesn't that one suck?". He then went on to explain that Macs were getting better these days because they could run Windows *and* Mac OS.
There is hope for the WinRats.
