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Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

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Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#151

Post by greedo »

gouranga wrote: post #105
greedo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If #1 is true in terms of past behavior, then expecting this price point to change that is doubtful. In my experience, the reason no on upgrades is because they then inherit all the cruft from their old install. I'm not sure that upgrading will ever be popular with the Windows crows. #2 is also doubtful for the same reason. If users are faced with 900 versions of Windows to choose from while upgrading, they'll choose…

Correlation does not imply causality. The burden of proof is on the inclusive case. Windows upgrades allow fresh installs so that's rubbish.

So if a user is going to do a fresh install, they need to back up their existing data, perform a fresh install, restore their data, find all the old install disks from their existing software, install those. Look for the license keys for this software, fail since they bought the software ages ago, or pirated it from a buddy. Then throw their hands up in the air and get mad at MS.

It's a fact of Windows in the consumer market that upgrades just don't happen. Consumers almost always run their computers into the ground, then get the latest version of Windows when they purchase a new PC. This is something you stated in your post, yet you seem to think that MS will magically change this behaviour with this price point. I see no evidence to support that.

Additionally, the MS Store is almost a direct response to Apple's App Store on OSX.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#152

Post by greedo »

bishnu wrote: post #26
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #16

This is all about the app store. Remember Microsoft can make a good chunk of profit from each app purchase and nobody will be developing let alone buying apps if Microsoft cannot get eyes on it.

Citation needed? Apple's app store isn't a huge revenue source by any means [1], let alone profit. I've seen no evidence that App Stores can be any kind of profit center. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-apple-revenu...

Sure, Apple doesn't generate a lot of earnings or revenue directly from each of their app stores, but the indirect revenue is what matters. Apple is a hardware company first, a software company second. App store purchases reinforce user stickiness as well as improving the overall purchasing experience. The bottom line is what matters, not the line item profitability.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#153

Post by anthonyb »

lifeguard wrote: post #104
joeybaker wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, it's another IE version, but an auto-updating, mostly-standards compliant version. IE 10 brings IE into the "modern browser" realm.

It doesn't matter how wonderful IE 10 is until over 70% of IE users are upgraded to it. For a period of a few years there will be a flood of IE 10 users because this is what their computer came with. There will still be too many other IE users for commercial websites to ignore. So there will have to be a lot of web code bloat and complexity to accommodate them. I was a professional web developer before IE 1.0 and am…

Web development is somewhat different these days. OldIE support is being gradually dropped, primarily due to schedule and/or financial pressure or just web developers being more transparent about costs (eg. "IE6-7 support and testing will be an extra $X, and take an additional two-three weeks")

Most IE6 users that I've spoken to are accustomed to sites looking bad anyway, since most places do only cursory testing on old browsers.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#154

Post by rbanffy »

rlu wrote: post #130
malkia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This time around though 7 is unbeatable. It just works. Okay it does (and never was) working as I wanted to be - much like linux, osx, etc. but aside from mine developer's perspective it just works for the rest of the stuff. 7 in terms of stability perception is like XP - I still have XP on my Mac Book dual-camped partition. And we had real problems with Vista - rendering, certain apps not working, slowness overall.

IIRC there's some genuine awesome improvements for Win8. For example, file copying from a share/network is immensely better. I do this at work all the time.

> file copying from a share/network is immensely better

How can something like that have room for improvement? Copying a file from one place to another is and has been a solved problem for decades now.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#155

Post by Tloewald »

brudgers wrote: post #110
tzs wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can't use Chevy parts in my Honda, but if Chevy started charging 1/10th of what Honda is charging for similar parts, Honda would need to lower prices if they wanted me to stick with them for my next car, or to use genuine Honda parts instead of third pa…

If you've ever owned a Mercedes, Volvo, or Porsche,* I don't think that you would find the logic underpinning the auto parts analogy particularly plausible. *912, 914, 924, and first generation 944 parts sourced from VW excepted.

If Porsche were charging less for parts than Chevy...?

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#156

Post by [deleted] »

rbanffy wrote: post #154
rlu wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC there's some genuine awesome improvements for Win8. For example, file copying from a share/network is immensely better. I do this at work all the time.

> file copying from a share/network is immensely better How can something like that have room for improvement? Copying a file from one place to another is and has been a solved problem for decades now.

[deleted]

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#158

Post by maegget »

tzs wrote: post #57
polshaw wrote: post #23

Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can only assume they think this way is how they will get most money from selling to end users, and I wouldn't be surprised at that being the case. No doubt they make most of window's licence money from OEMs.

> Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can't use Chevy parts in my Honda, but if Chevy started charging 1/10th of what Honda is charging for similar parts, Honda would need to lower prices if they wanted me to stick with them for my next car, or to use genuine Honda parts instead of third pa…

Changing from an automatic car to a manual may save some money when you buy your next car - if you want to learn manual.

For many people, changing OS is probably similar to learning manual when they're happy driving automatic.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#159

Post by Mythbusters »

greedo wrote: post #149
jmj4 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is eyeing consumers with this announcement, and once consumers switch, they will adapt to the new interface. Once consumers adapt to the new interface, the overhead that you are talking about decreases, and companies can roll out Windows 8 without totally killing productivity. MS is betting the house on Windows 8, but they know there will be growing pains. This $40 upgrade strategy is one way to mitigate th…

And what's to say that consumers will switch? It's not like the PC market is experiencing any growth. Sure consumers who feel they have to own a Windows PC will upgrade when they're existing hardware dies, but I'm skeptical that users will be queuing up to by a Windows 8 PC on launch day. And home users just don't upgrade existing hardware in any meaningful quantity.

PC market as viewed separate from tablet market is not experience much growth but when combined, they are growing. Don't forget that Microsoft is targeting the tablet market with this release as well.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#160

Post by Mythbusters »

lucisferre wrote: post #139
greenyoda wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that it will take a long, long time for enterprises to move to Windows 8, with most sticking with Windows 7 for as long as Microsoft continues to provide security patches for it. If you're an enterprise with 10000 or 50000 non-technical users running Windows 7, the cost of moving to Windows 8 will be primarily IT staff hours, including all the support questions from users puzzled by the new user interface…

Windows 7? Most of them haven't even left XP behind.

Wrong. Just in time: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1045_3-57464649/windows-7-on-major...
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