Microsoft Plans Vista Upgrade Coupon For Holiday PC Buying Season

[Darth Sushi]

By Paula Rooney & Edward F. Moltzen

The coupons are designed to help push PC sales, and will provide XP system buyers with either a free or discounted upgrade to Vista, once it ships next year.

Microsoft later this month plans to roll out an Express Upgrade program that gives buyers of Windows XP-based PCs a coupon for a free or discounted upgrade to Windows Vista through March 15.

As part of the deal, designed to drive PC sales though the holiday season, Microsoft will include coupons in each Windows XP SKU that will entitle users to a free or discounted Vista upgrade when the next-generation operating system ships in the first quarter of 2007, industry sources said.

For instance, customers who buy PCs equipped with Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Pro Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP Pro x64 Edition are entitled to a free upgrade to Vista, sources said. Customers will be responsible for fulfillment costs.

Not all of the coupons will be for free upgrades. Customers who buy systems running Windows XP Home Edition can upgrade to Vista Home Basic Edition for a flat $49 fee and to the higher-end Windows Vista Home Premium Edition for a cost of $79.

The Windows Vista Technology Upgrade Program runs from Oct. 26, 2006, through March 15, 2007. Distributors are expected to have the new SKUs in house for system builders by Oct. 15. News of the planned coupon and promotion emerged in June.

System builders must meet certain requirement to sell the new SKUs of Windows XP. The Technology Upgrade Program, for example, states that only systems running Windows XP that meet Windows Vista requirements will be eligible for the Express Upgrade, sources said.

Each of the new SKUs will ship with an amended system builder license that requires PC makers to ship the coupons only with complying systems. System builders also must agree to support the systems after the user upgrades to Vista.

Microsoft would neither confirm nor deny that a coupon program is in the offing. "We are talking with all of our partners about plans for an offer. But those discussions are ongoing, and we have nothing more to share at this time," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Industry observers praised the plan for the coupon and predicted that it won't be as rough of a holiday selling season as system builders expected when Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would delay the shipment of Vista until January 2007. Microsoft originally had said Vista would be generally available by the end of 2006 and in time for the holiday PC buying season.

"Now I can sell Windows XP Pro with a coupon that will give the customer an upgrade to Vista," said one source in the channel who declined to be named.

Executives from several tier-one manufacturers, including Dell, have said they expect Microsoft to launch promotions in the fourth quarter, ahead of the official Vista launch next year, to keep the market buying systems until the OS ships. "They don't want us to miss the holiday buying season," said David Chang, president of Agama Systems, a Houston-based system builder. "I think this is [targeted at] end users and small-business accounts. The big company, the government and the schools will continue using what they are using until Vista comes out.

"The Fortune 1000, top corporate and medium-sized business -- many of them are not going to just switch everything to Vista until it proves they can work with the interface," Chang added.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/windo...leID=193104532

[Movie--Junky]

thats kinda cool.i think..lol
im thinking about getting vista but hopefully it doesnt dig to far into my pocket.
vista does look pretty sick but still better be cheap..
thats wat i got to say

[famous45]

I'm sticking with xp for now.

[Yoga]

YAY, I'm getting Vista for free!

[batesd]

Uhm......... Thats great for people buying Dells and Gateways... as always they get a free copy of Windoze with thier computers.

But what about the rest of us who BUY windows at prices that are almost half the cost of some of the latest cheap dells?

($139 for windows XP-Pro versus $300 for a whole dell. WITH Windoze included!!)

Some of these machines are so cheap now, I have even considered buying them just to get another copy of Windoze, then tearing the machine apart for spare parts, For other (better) machines that I build myself.

Do WE get this break too, or are we screwed as usual and then ripe to fall into the arms of the first crackers/hackers/Pirates to break this thing?

[Virtualbody1234]

Some of these machines are so cheap now, I have even considered buying them just to get another copy of Windoze, then tearing the machine apart for spare parts, For other (better) machines that I build myself.

Yeah but that license is for that specific prebuilt computer (not transferable).

[batesd]

Some of these machines are so cheap now, I have even considered buying them just to get another copy of Windoze, then tearing the machine apart for spare parts, For other (better) machines that I build myself.

Yeah but that license is for that specific prebuilt computer (not transferable).

Uh Huh.........

Seriously, I understand what you are saying, but considering the economics of it all, and the options available, thats not my biggest worry.

This is what I mean by throwing potential customers straight into the arms of Pirates/Hackers instead.

[Virtualbody1234]

What I meant was...

Why buy a PC just to get a Windows license for transfer when that's clearly not legal.

If your going to do something illegal then just use a pirated one.

[batesd]

What I meant was...

Why buy a PC just to get a Windows license for transfer when that's clearly not legal.

If your going to do something illegal then just use a pirated one.

I guess I was just not being clear enough, sorry.

My point was that by charging the systems makers practically nothing while ripping the stuffings out of the home hobbyist, it creates an environment where the home hobbyist has only nasty choices: Pay through the nose for something that the next guy is getting practically for free.... or cheat.

If the systems manufacturers where paying a roughly equivelant price for windows as me, (or I was paying a roughly equivalent price as them) there would not be this resentment, and the temptation to steal/pirate amongst people who would MUCH prefer to be legit would not be so strong.

Microsoft practically CREATES an underground pirate market by doing it this way. I know all about the pirating is evil stuff...... I actually agree: But given the facts on the ground, people are going to be people, and as usual, the big corporations behave as if they do not understand human beings at all.

They have just upped the incentive to pirate vista amongst those who prefer not to buy pre-built boxes. I would MUCH prefer to buy Vista legit: But if the Del guy down the street gets it with his machine for Nada, and three of my friends have it for free from online, How do I not feel like a sucker for splashing out all that money essentially just for laughs?

Will I do it just to feel virtious? I would like to think so, but...........

Uhmmmmm...........

[Busyman™]

To be clear, the incentive for getting pirated software is a reduced price or free. Period.

Operating systems are used for years yet games are paid for (like HL2) without a second thought.

It's about what one takes for granted.

One takes what they easily can take without little or consequence. That's why filesharing is so popular.