The average selling price for Windows 7 when it launches is expected to be more than both Windows XP and Windows Vista when they were launched. In the current recession many of us are having to justify purchases that in the past we would have just made automatically, and are probably questioning whether upgrading to Windows 7 at such a high cost will be a good idea.
Now as someone who finds it very hard to say no to the latest product and services, I know that even if I say ‘no, it’s too expensive’ I’ll probably somehow just happen to be walking by a computer store on launch day, that I will somehow end up walking inside and buying a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate with the credit card I just happen to have on me! This is what happened the other day when I tried to downgrade my 20Mb broadband to save money, but when the sales agent mentioned the new 50Mb service I couldn’t stop myself upgrading instead.
Personally, I think that Windows 7 is a great product and this view has been strengthened over the last couple of weeks where I’ve been happily using the Windows 7 Release Candidate build everyday on my main PCs, and not just on my test rig. It’s made me appreciate the true value of some of Windows 7’s features in everyday use, and I will definitely be buying a copy of Windows 7 on launch day.
However, it’s hard to convey these improvements to a Windows Vista or XP user, without them using a Windows 7 machine for a few days and I think overcoming the view from many consumers that their current OS is good enough is going to be Microsoft’s biggest problem at launch. This is the problem that the PC market is facing where customers are not replacing their machines on the same set cycles like they used to, and where the market is only being sustained by the growth in netbook and 2nd and 3rd PC sales.
Microsoft are also not ‘cool’ like Apple so customer’s aren’t going to be queuing overnight before launch day to buy Windows 7 just so that they can show it off to their friends and tell stories about how long they queued for. Selling Windows 7 at such a high ticket price is going to require Microsoft, retailers and manufacturers to all work in tandem. Planning for this is already well underway, with the majority of the sales material already produced and signed off by Microsoft. I was given a small peak under NDA at Microsoft’s offices last month, and from what I saw the Windows 7 marketing offensive is going to be an impressive one and vary hard to ignore, when it starts in a few months time.
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