Friday, September 25, 2009
Amazon's crazy Windows 7 pricing
Thinking of upgrading to Windows 7? Then take a look at Amazon.de's crazy Windows 7 pricing.
The idea of upgrading from XP or the wretched Vista certainly has my stamp of approval - but if you're thinking about going to Amazon's website to choose your upgrade package, choose carefully, or you'll end up spending a lot more than necessary.
According to amazon.de this morning, they're offering all 16 of the standard packages.
First come the lowly Home Premium editions - choose from a 32/64-bit combi, a 32/64 upgrade, or individual 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Next come the more useful Pro editions - and the same choice of versions.
After that, the Ultimate editions ...
And finally, the version upgrades, from Starter to Home Premium, from HP to Pro, and from Pro to Ultimate.
Now look at Amazon.de's pricing and you'll see that they will probably have a hard time shifting those version upgrades. Who in their right mind would pay EUR167.99 to upgrade from HP to Pro when they could buy a stand-alone Pro license for EUR50 less?
The combined 32- and 64-bit versions are also much more expensive. Who the heck would lay out EUR298.95 for the Windows 7 Pro 32 and 64-bit version when they could buy individual licenses for both a 32-bit version AND a 64-bit version and still save EUR66? It just doesn't add up!
The most ludicrous deal of all has to be the upgrade paths. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to buy a new Windows 7-enabled PC or notebook that comes with the Starter edition, and wants to upgrade, is probably better off either choosing a different model in the first place, or wiping the pre-installed software and doing a clean install. Why? Because anyone who pays EUR72.99 for the Starter to HP upgrade, then lays out a further EUR167.99 for the HP to Pro uplift, just has to be cuckoo crazy.
If you do choose Amazon.de as your provider of the shiny new Windows7 software, select your version carefully.
The idea of upgrading from XP or the wretched Vista certainly has my stamp of approval - but if you're thinking about going to Amazon's website to choose your upgrade package, choose carefully, or you'll end up spending a lot more than necessary.
According to amazon.de this morning, they're offering all 16 of the standard packages.
First come the lowly Home Premium editions - choose from a 32/64-bit combi, a 32/64 upgrade, or individual 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Next come the more useful Pro editions - and the same choice of versions.
After that, the Ultimate editions ...
And finally, the version upgrades, from Starter to Home Premium, from HP to Pro, and from Pro to Ultimate.
Now look at Amazon.de's pricing and you'll see that they will probably have a hard time shifting those version upgrades. Who in their right mind would pay EUR167.99 to upgrade from HP to Pro when they could buy a stand-alone Pro license for EUR50 less?
The combined 32- and 64-bit versions are also much more expensive. Who the heck would lay out EUR298.95 for the Windows 7 Pro 32 and 64-bit version when they could buy individual licenses for both a 32-bit version AND a 64-bit version and still save EUR66? It just doesn't add up!
The most ludicrous deal of all has to be the upgrade paths. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to buy a new Windows 7-enabled PC or notebook that comes with the Starter edition, and wants to upgrade, is probably better off either choosing a different model in the first place, or wiping the pre-installed software and doing a clean install. Why? Because anyone who pays EUR72.99 for the Starter to HP upgrade, then lays out a further EUR167.99 for the HP to Pro uplift, just has to be cuckoo crazy.
If you do choose Amazon.de as your provider of the shiny new Windows7 software, select your version carefully.
Labels: amazon, rant, Windows7
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