QOTD: Is Win7 Anytime Upgrade a Good Idea?
Upgrade yours in a box!
Today we heard confirmation from Microsoft that it will be offering Anytime Upgrades at retail for consumers looking to move from one edition of Windows 7 to the next. (See this story for more on the box art mock ups.)
Although it will give retailers yet another SKU to deal with, offering an upgrade scheme at retail could potentially be a good thing for new PC buyers.
When Windows Vista released, some users were very disappointed (to the point of taking legal action) that not all PCs were able to take advantage of all the new features of Vista, such as the Aero interface. That won’t be a problem that Windows 7 will have to deal with, at least not on the hardware side.
On the software side, there still will still undoubtedly be some confusion as to what the differences are between all the various editions of Windows 7, but at least now a consumer (especially those who prefer to buy things tangibly) who isn’t happy with the lack of Aero on their netbook can go into the store and purchase a box that will enable it for him.
So, with that in mind, we want to know what you think.
The question of the day is: Do you think Windows 7 Anytime Upgrades at retail are a good idea?
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I quite like the concept, I just hope the execution is up to scratch.
My main concern is simple though - if you buy Starter, and want to upgrade to Home Premium, will it cost more than if you had bought Home Premium first day? If they want this program to be widely used, the pricing should be equal; buy the cheapest version to see if you like it, then pay the rest of the cost when you realise that you do. Really, who wouldn't like it?
If the price is right and the process is flawless, yes.
If you don't like the upgrade can you give it back?
I agree its a good idea but as said it needs a lot of thought going into the implementation.
Again as said if you upgrade does that make the origonal code useless or could you reformat and re enter the first code if you had issues or just dont like some of the features with the upgrade. I can also see MS trying to pull something along the lines of the starter edition you bought has a Retail key but any upgrades would be OEM and as such would need re buying for a new machine or re-install.
I really like the idea but it needs to be done fairly and 100% properly.
What sort of DRM is going to run on it is another factor i would want answers to before i decide to buy it or not.
Mactronix
Still think that there should be one price and let the user decide which version to install to suit their hardware. Windows 7 - there should be only one! Available from all good retailers at £99.
@Mark UK:
Although I agree in concept, that wouldn't work in practice because it means in the eyes of some people that certain markets are paying the same price for less stuff: you can't charge Home Premium the same as Ultimate because of the difference in features.
What they should do is offer a single Windows 7 as a core system, with a certain feature set. You then purchase bolt-ons for whatever additional features you want.
I think the netbook Starter Edition is valid though.
In a word, no. I think MS should just have one version of it's OS and let us the users decide which features to install. Remember older versions of Redhat which used to ask which type of installation you wanted - desktop, workstation, development, custom, etc - why don't MS adopt something like this and just charge the one price regardless? If Apple can do it then why not MS?
I think if the price is right, the depoyment is simple and that there are real practical benefits through each upgrade then I think it is a good idea.
There should be one version of Windows and that's it, none of this Starter/home/pro/ultimate rubbish. If they just sold one version for around the £90 mark (€100) then more people would go straight out and get it. It worked brilliantly for Win 3.1, Win95, Win98 so why did they ever change it, I suspect they would have made more money if they had left it that way!