Don’t expect Microsoft to talk much about the Basic edition of Windows Vista when the operating system ships. The software maker wants you to go Premium. Microsoft is readying its marketing efforts for Vista, the successor to Windows XP slated to be broadly available in January. In its consumer campaigns, the company plans to highlight specific uses – which it calls ‘scenarios’ – of the operating system. In each case, Windows Vista Home Premium will be the product Microsoft tries to sell.
Seems kinda like a “Duh!” or even a “Thank you Captain Obvious!” article.
Perhaps just a little bit less “news” about Vista, when there is nothing new, really.
Perhaps just a little bit less “news” about Vista, when there is nothing new, really.
Why? Windows is the number one operating system, and we’re Operating System News. Hence, Windows news is important. Other than that, it’s WinHEC time.
This is non-news.
Of course Microsoft wants you to buy premium.
Same thing as my cardealer who tries to sell me extra options like airco, hifi-system etc.
This is the most obvious article ever.
I can understand that this is an Operating Systems News site, and your job is to report news on Operating Systems,
however,
Windows is not the number one operating system by a long chalk.
It might be installed on more computers than anything else, but what does that prove?
Is it the fastest OS ? No. It is not number one.
It is the most stable OS ? No. It is not number one.
Is it the most reliable OS ? No. It is not number one.
Is it the least bloated OS ? No. It is not number one.
Is it the nicest looking OS ? No. It is not number one.
Has it got more games than all other OS ? Yes, OK, I give you that one.
I don’t mean to bitch, but having an editors job on a site like this, you actually need to watch what you say. People always pick things up the wrong way.
BTW – ZX Spectrum has the best OS of all computers of all time.
That’s quite a list. But Windows _does_ top the most virus, most spyware, most adware, etc categories.
I appreciate your point and join your annoyance that Windows maintains it’s lead when there is so much better, so available.
But Thom’s point was actually well taken. Windows is the highest selling OS, regardless of whether it deserves it, so it gets a lot of news on this OS site.
That is not what he was saying. He was saying that Thom should not be so flippant with the things he says.
Boy, are you way too literal. When someone tells you, “that movie killed me” do you jump right in and say, “oh, yah? then how come you’re still alive?”
Get. Out. Of. Your. Parent’s. Basement.
Really?
“Microsoft is readying its marketing efforts for Vista, the successor to Windows XP slated to be broadly available in January.”
Shouldn’t that be “early in 2007” instead?
“Microsoft is not expected to put any marketing muscle behind Home Basic. “They are going to leave that for the US$300 PC”
So basicly that will be the choice for many system integrators. Buy a new PC, get Vista Home Basic.
No, think about it for a second.
OEM builds a PC, and puts the version that costs the less amount of cash on the PC.
Customer buys the PC, but with all the marketing we will be hit with, customer thinks he needs the premium edition.
Conclusion…
Microsoft gets to sell two copies of Vista where in reality, there should only have been one sale.
Wrong. Consumer has the option to upgrade right from Windows to the premium version and pay only the difference of cost between the two.
How is it wrong ? It is still two sales.
If OEM version costs, lets say $100 and the upgrade version costs an extra $200 total price is $300.
Now, if the original package would have cost $300, then there is no extra cash for Microsoft, but that is irrelavent, I was talking about the amount of sales generated.
In a years time, Microsoft might be able to say they have sold 50 million copies of Vista, when in fact, most of them are upgrades from the OEM version, and the actual number of sales is 7 million. Do you see now ?
Because the upgrades take into account the version you have already.
If you have Home Prem on your computer, and lets say for the sake of the argument that it costs $200, and you wanted to upgrade to Premium which we’ll say costs $300, you are only going to pay an extra $100 to get that upgrade, not the full $300.
Are you dim, or just slow ? Either way, you are special.
Read what I said in the last post. The AMOUNT is irrelavent, it is the point of it actually being an EXTRA sale that Microsoft can count up in its advertisements.
microsoft will go to its shareholders and tell them they are getting so many extra sales, when in reality they are not. The customers will have to upgrade to the version they wanted AFTER they bought the PC.
You may be right, but it is still speculation. You don’t know what they tell their shareholders or will tell them.
For all you think, they will give them the actual numbers of OEM sales of each version, retail sales of each verison, and finally upgrades of each version.
Besides, if it’s just to their shareholders, what do you care? Are you just looking for something to bitch about? Or “are you just slow”?
I actually have a few shares in Microsoft, and I would consider buying more, but I do not like pouring money into a company who would lie to me.
and yes, sometimes I am a bit slow, especially when it comes to women etc
And what exactly does this matter?
Also, I think the stockholders would at least actually take the time to figure out what they are doing here and so MS couldn’t count it up as another product sale of Windows, but rather an upgrade from Vista A to Vista B.
At least the stockholders that actually care enough to go to stockholder’s meetings.
BTW, nice job with the personal attacks, very mature
Yes, Microsoft makes the same money overall. No, it isn’t as simple as can be for the customer.
Personally, I don’t see how this is going to help their image. They’re not making things any easier for anyone. I could go in to a whole rant about all the different ways in which I think this is so, but suffice it to say that this is just the confusion we’ve all been talking about since the ~8 different versions of Vista were announced.
Not neccesarily. The upgrade stuff is right in the “Welcome Center”. They can read through what the various versions off, and if they see something they like, its a few clicks away from unlocking that version. Seems a lot simpler.
XP actually has a lot of versions. Yeah, it’s confusing, but not all of these are targetted at home users. Some are targetted at businesses.
I’m not saying it’ll lose them market share or make their customers uppity. I’m just saying it can’t help.
From a numbers purpose, I can see your point.
However, you said they are selling 2 copies, and that is not the case. All bits for Vista will come on the DVD. When you upgrade, it simply unlocks those bits.
They’ll be giving out DVD’s again? I thought that was all confined now to System Rescue disks and hidden restore partitions and tied to a specific Bios.
Good news for the Win crowd-if it’s all on one media somebody will crack it!
“The software maker wants you suckers to go Premium”
Don’t hesitate, throw your company’s ass on the railroad tracks early.
“Most organizations will feel pain and discomfort”
Quoted from:
http://business.itbusinessnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43955
I think that this is non-news but its non news for a different reason than you think.
Windows has been the everyone-knows-how-to-use-it-idiot operating system for ever now. Its like selling ford pintos not because they blow up in your face but because they go.
Microsoft is trying to change that image. They’re trying to make windows a geek operating system, granted most people who know anything about other options out there will laugh their asses off. More over if they market the “Premium vista” then people will brag about it. like a just another four door sedan with a spoiler. Some how the peice of fiber glass on the back makes it a better product.
I don’t know if you notice but there are very very few comercials about the geo metro. With its luxurious three cylinder disposable engine.
just my 2c
I had a chevy sprint.. the precursor to the geo metro. It was a freekin great car. I put over 85000 miles on it in 6 yrs, used it as a “truck” and generaly got close to 40 miles per gallon in the lil toy. I find your comparison to MS vista insulting and I Demand Satisfaction!!!(heh)
Seriously.. i dont think the analogy is that great.
I think a better one would be getting that crap stereo in a new bmw as opposed to the 35 speaker blujunk with bluetooth, greenteeth.. and all that other gobbledegook. The people who drive the metro.. that stereo wont even fit their car(sorta like the fact that vistas eyecandy wont run on the $300 machine)
That’s nothing! When I ran the upgrade advisor over at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx
It cheerfully recommended Ultimate edition for me! Where do I mail my check though?
I tried that site you mention, unfortunately, it will not let me download and run the .msi on my Suse Linux machine running Firefox.
If Microsoft wanted to get the maximum number of sales of its products, you would think that at least this one time they would use standard systems, instead of their locked down propriatary crap.
As it is, My Money stays in My Pockets, I have no need for their latest piece of insecure, unstable, bloated, worthless sack of shit…
BTW – I have been a beta tester of MS software since 1993, and have used/tested all their systems. Nothing to see in Vista, Windows users are better off with Windows 2000 or 2003
It depends on what you tick. I tried the upgrade advisor again with the defaults and I was recommended the Basic edition.
“Scenarios should increase Windows Vista PC sales and drive the desire for Windows Vista Home Premium.”
Windows Vista Home Premium? Does anyone else see the negative image or outright contradiction in that name?
This is such typical Microsoft. They always put important or desirable features (in this case, Aero Glass) in the step-up version to leave the buyer feeling like he can spend $200 for nothing or $300 for something. Look at XP home. You can’t even put passwords on shares. It’s actually a step back from Windows 98 in network security.
Is anyone fooled into thinking there are real options with Windows? I suppose if their box only came in one color, it would be harder to get away with charging what they do for it. The illusion must be just strong enough to allow them their “But wait! For only $100 more, you can have this state-of-the-art TCP/IP stack!” marketing.
This article says it all. They’re not making an operating system. They’re marketing a product for volume revenue, which is perfectly fine Capitalist behavior, but it’s interesting how they end up offering an inferior product because their busness is specialized, as opposed to Apple who makes their software good just to sweeten the deal on hardware sales.
Anyway, I can’t wait to see some of these scenarios. I’m sick of fixing family members’ PCs, so it’ll be fun just to go down the list and say “any Mac can do that” or “Linux will let you do that for free” or “I could plop BeOS on a 486, and you’d be able to run circles around that.”
Or better yet, maybe they’ll surprise me. Maybe Vista will amount to more than a new skin and a bunch pop-up dialogs and wizards harassing me about my system settings after all. But I’m not holding my breath.
Do we even know what the cost of each different edition of WinV is going to be…?
“Windows Vista Home Premium”. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Well, actually they do not get the same money. Consider this and let’s suppose 10% margin:
Scenario 1: They sell the Premium through the OEM – 300 USD, 10% margin, that’s 270 USD for MS, 30 USD OEM.
Scenario 2: 100 USD for Basic, 200 USD upgrade over the Internet. That’s 10 USD OEM and 290 USD MS.
See what I mean?
Finally, someone brought up the point that the upgrade is at a non OEM price, meaning MS get far more margin. The only overhead is the bandwidth spent! This kind of tactic should be illegal, it is a terrible abuse of consumers.
There is no bandwidth involved.
Why should this be illegal?
They’re paying less overall for Windows if they get it on a computer then upgrade.
“Windows is the number one operating system, and we’re Operating System News.”
You had me fooled.
“Hence, Windows news is important.”
Except this isnt news.
Yeah, Windows may be the #1 OS, but does anyone REALLY get excited about it? I’ve never ever been excited about a Windows release, just worried about how much performance the bloat was going to shave off of an otherwise perfectly good system. Sheesh for that matter maybe the basic version will be less bloated and better for gaming anyways…
All I’m interested in it for is gaming period. And I’ll buy the cheapest version that run their most recent DirectX release and unfortunately I’ll have to as I guarantee you that DirectX 10 won’t be running on 2000 o.w. I’d just stick to 2k.
Lessee Windows XP click of bloat, bloat, and bloat. Ah nice basic UI, removal of auto-update, etc. wow, I just shaved off significant megabyte usage, and o.w. wasted processor cycles. (Of course this applies to 2k as well, but to a significantly lesser extent as XP is basically bloat 2k. Ok Vista looks like it’ll have now semi-useful new “features” more so than XP did over 2k, but still… I’m still a major proponent of time to junk all of that old code and start a new version of windows entirely from scratch or scratch plus the NT kernel which isn’t bad.)
Or you could try ReactOS.