Microsoft is expected to announce their upgrade promotion for users to purchase a Windows 7 PC after early June and move up to Windows 8 when it is released. Unlike past promotions, such as Office 2010 and Windows 7, it is expected that you will have the option to be bumped to the Pro level SKU — but not for free. While this does not rule out the potential for a free upgrade to Windows 8 Home, Mary-Jo Foley of CNET seems to have not heard that from her sources.
People constantly mock computers for having a very quick apparent turnaround time.
There tends to be a desire in consumers to put off purchasing new equipment. Users know that patience will very often yield more for the same cost. Software is no different which is why Microsoft and others offer initiatives to allow users to upgrade to impending releases with the purchase of the current version.
But wait, if you order now — you can order later!
On or around June 2nd, Microsoft is expected to unveil their upgrade program for users who will purchase a Windows 7 machine. According to Mary-Jo Foley of CNET and her sources, this time you will be able to upgrade your Windows 7 machine to Windows 8 Pro. This upgrade will not be free but is expected to be under a hundred dollars according to leaked promotional content. Targeting June is designed to prevent sales of Windows 7 PCs dropping off for back to school.
The upgrade to Windows 8 Pro makes sense as it allows the addition of Windows Media Center and other features that were available in the lower end versions of Windows 7. I think you could imagine what a user would feel like if they updated their operating system and lost features that they could not even add back in to their “upgraded” version.
Of course the better option would likely have been to rethink removing features if they feel as though vanilla Windows 8 is not an apples-to-apples comparison to Windows 7 Home Premium.
That’s cute. They think we
That’s cute. They think we want to upgrade to Windows 8.
I think a lot of people will
I think a lot of people will be oblivious to all of this.
Many of those in the know may claim that they don’t want Windows 8 and that might be true, however, most people like options so I wouldn’t be surprised if many people at least wanted the Windows 8 upgrade disc. Even if they just shelve the upgrade disc. Once Windows 8 starts shipping on new PC hardware I further suspect that the buyers wishing to downgrade to Windows 7 would still want the option to upgrade (back) to Windows 8. Even if they never exercise these options people still tend to like to have options,….
Having said all that, I don’t think most people are going to be too keen on paying for an upgrade that they feel they should already be entitled to even if this is a first of sorts. This option only serves to illustrate the disparity between the Windows 7 versions and the Windows 8 versions.
$14.99 isnt bad IMO. I’m
$14.99 isnt bad IMO. I’m still planning on getting that Technet subscription though,….
who would want to upgrade
who would want to upgrade there Windows 8. It’s useless unless the PC has a touch screen.