The Ultimate Question Answered
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On Sunday, I observed that Windows Vista Ultimate isn't much available on new PCs. There may be good reasons. say Joe Wilcox
Not much has changed today, the first day people can actually buy Vista Ultimate preloaded on new PCs. By and large, major manufacturers and retailers are sticking to Windows Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium. Now why is that?
I asked that question to analysts and Microsoft executives yesterday during Microsoft's Vista partner launch, and I got some surprising answers.
Cost weighed in as a major consideration, along with driver compatibility and potential customers (Microsoft expects bigger initial retail box sales of Ultimate than PC preloads). All three factors are legitimate reasons, and all three are likely right. Together they raise questions about whether Microsoft's version strategy simply doesn't make sense.
Weighing in Costs.
Ultimate's ultimate pricing--$399 for full-version retail and $259 for an upgrade--is an obvious purchase barrier. Microsoft doesn't release OEM pricing, but Dell, Gateway and HP add-on pricing--$170, $160 and $120, respectively--gives some perspective. The add-on pricing is on top of what the customer already pays for Windows Vista Home Premium.
"Seventy-five to 80 percent of consumers want to pay less than one-thousand bucks for their next PC," said Simon Yates, a Forrester research director.
What Role Enthusiasts?
"We think there will be high demand [for Ultimate] among enthusiasts," said Brad Goldberg, general manager fo Microsoft's Windows Client Product Management Group. Goldberg predicted that, at least in the initial sales period, the mix of Vista box versions sold at retail would skew toward Ultimate.
"The majority of users will get [Vista on] new PCs," Goldberg explained. "The enthusiasts are going to be most likely to buy [retail] upgrades."
Missing Drivers
Gartner's less-than-1-percent prediction could easily include enthusiasts eventually purchasing Ultimate preloaded on a new PC. Problem: Almost no major manufacturers sell high-end systems with Ultimate. For example, Dell offers Windows XP Media Center Edition on its loaded XPS PCs, which range from about $2,000 in $5,500. Gamers and other enthusiasts are likely candidates for ultimate Ultimate PCs, if available.
"Don't much base it on what you see this month," Kleynhans said. "This is a shake-out month. In a month from now," manufacturers and retailers will "start bringing out higher-end SKUs."
Too Many Versions?
The ultimate question may be Microsoft's approach to Windows versions. Are there too many?
During yesterday's Vista partner launch event, a reporter asked the panel about the number of versions. Dell CEO Kevin Rollins succinctly summed up the common sentiment shared by the group: "Three versions is appropriate."
Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, also described three versions as "appropriate." The versions line up with how the industry segments its products, he explained.
What Impact?
Ultimately, any versioning problem really comes down to basic networking features, like the capability to connect to a network domain, that aren't part of Windows Basic or Premium, Kay said. Consumers or small businesses--even some enterprises--will have to pay extra for all features.
By contrast, Apple offers one desktop version of Mac OS X at a single price for individual copies. If I were Apple, I'd beat the hell out of Ultimate positioning and pricing in the "Get a Mac" ads: You can pay $129 and get it all from Mac OS X or pay $399 for Windows Ultimate.
My question to readers: Would you buy Ultimate? If you would like to be quoted, please link to your Web site in any comment, or send comments to the Microsoft Watch Tips Mail Box, with your name, occuption and location. Please, everyone, identify if you are an enthusiast or casual user. source:
microsoft-watch.com
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Comments(10)
right on target, too many versions and extremely high prices are going to make xp look like it wasn't even
pirated next to vista. i figure microsoft must have thought by raising prices, paying customers could cover
the losses due to piracy, unfortunately your paying customers are dwindling. also the tco for corporations on
vista is nightmarish in proportion. i feel the future will show that microsoft loses more money on vista then
any previous windows version.
how can they fix this???
1. lower prices $100-$200 across
the board with ultmate peaking at $249, business and premium at $149 and basic at less than $100.
2. give
vista basic licenses free for newly purchased pc's with xp installed. make people want to go to vista instead
of chasing off potential new users with all these difficulties which makes users want to keep xp for as long
as possible, which is not what microsoft wants.
3. remove and abandon genuine check, activations and all
other checkpoints from all windows builds including xp, 2003 and vista, as we can see here on keznews, most
newbies can crack vista with any of the 3+ methods being currently used easily.
in a nutshell,
microsoft needs to make users want to upgrade to vista, not run from it clinging to xp for dear life, am i
right???
i forgot to say mac and linux are waiting in the wings looking for microsoft to screw themselves, looks like
they're batting a thousand!!!
the the mac osx on i386 run windows programs, if not it's not worth a 129 cause linux is free.
i agree whole-heartedly with what cat states,microsoft is chasing potentionally new and also advid users of
windows away with it's protectionist security checks and obviously way to steep pricing.i have vista on a
seperate hd that is the ultimate rtm,i don't use all it's power features,but my kids come here and use and
show me all the things it can do,(i'm getting old)damn !!..anyway the pricing is a big negative for me to buy
ultimate for the kids to game on,and all this ,i want to make sure you're running a legitamate versions of my
software is just getting to protectionist for me.and i'm pretty sure these os's report home to ms on a
regular basis as with the inception of xp did,maybe we should be a protectionist and just not upgrade..that's
my thought !!!
it's a bad bargain, the new features are not worth this much!!! i have found most regular users gravitating
towards premium as it's $100+ cheaper, has media center, aero, the features most want and besides, most
don't care about bitlocker, backup tools, etc, things that everyday users dont use or need in the ultimate
package.
i suggest most users should choose home premium while the i.t. set should look out for
vista business or enterprise for the tools. what i actually suggest most users to take advantage of the vista
release by upgrading to xp pro soon as there will be a price drop while retail stores make room for vista
stock. watch online shops selling xp licenses for around $50 in 3-9 months. this is also time for businesses
to get out of windows 2000 and go to xp as well. i want regular users to understand that most of vista's new
features can be duplicated on xp with any variety of available apps to do that task.
also, let's
not forget those of us who have a tight budget and were lookng to get a low-end pc, understand most oem's are
already sending out their budget pc's packaged with vista basic. i personally have a problem with basic
because it's pure class discrimination if you think about it.
users who get stuck with basic are
going to feel like their using xp home with stardock windowblinds. they get none of the nicer features of
vista, like the stepchild. microsoft really makes the basic license holder feel left out of the buzz totally
like they don't even matter. then microsoft sells it as an olive branch to the low-budgeted underpriveledged
users like they feel sorry you don't have ultimate so they'll let you look in the window while the party
goes on inside with basic.
in my world..........
i would discontinue basic and send vista
basic users a free update bumping them up to home premium free, i feel they should have two versions instead
of five. why the five licenses?, simple, it's a tactic used to create confusion having users pay for features
they wont use or don't need. my pricepoint would be ultimate(replacing xp pro) for $150 and home
premium(replacing xp home) for $100 and upgrades for $100/pro and $50/home respectively. if microsoft hit my
pricepoint, i guarantee they would cut their piracy problem in half, get back the paying customers respect,
and finally give linux and mac a real run for their money instead of coasting on your market share.
what? i don't know, just tried the new open suse 10.2 live dvd.
now that's wow! found a had
drivers for all my strange stuff even a creative audigy 2ex now who would have one of them eh!?
needless to say the big machine's going back to suse oh oh oh what a gal!
oh and it's how much
you say?
nada
vista ultimate kicks big bouncy ass!! damn best os i have ever tried.
people that say it is crap, either have crap pc's that can't run it right or they are just too plane
stupid.
in my opinion vista are the windows xp i would want but in any case there are not the vista that microsoft
promised.
drivers are big problem. i had that problem with my win xp 64bit also. i believe i can not
upgrade any of my old pcs.neither new pcs have for every part inside drivers or bad written drivers even beta
drivers. that means conficts errors.the case is even worse with 64 bit drivers.
i strongly beleive that
now we must buy pcs after live demostration. does it work? any conflicts? fix them first then i buy.
))))))))))))) it is crazyness microsoft is taking us back to stone age
when i first learned of the vast range of versions and ridiculous price range, the first thing i set out on
doing was pirating myself a copy.
i imagine that this is the same view many other enthusiasts had
when they heard the news. microsoft was basically begging us to pirate vista with those high prices and one
"ultimate" version that just screams "hack me! i'm full of extras that don't come with any other version!
and i'm too high priced to actually pay for! hack me!"
fortunately a friend of mine had an rtm
6.0.6000 copy from november and let me burn a copy. along side with a very neat 3 way vista crack 2.2,
everything has worked out just great :d
however when they do bring the price range down to a more
respectable level ($100-200), i'll be sure to purchase a 'genuine' copy.
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You're right!!!!
By The CAT on 31.01.2007 - 22:01