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Pricing: Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

Pricing: Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

By: Peter Chubb | August 10, 2009 | 4 Comments

Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are exchanging punches even before the two operating systems are released. The new Apple Mac OS currently occupy two of the three top spots in Amazon’s software top seller list; this was recently occupied by Microsoft’s upcoming OS.

There is a huge difference in the pricing of these operating systems; Snow Leopard is on offer for $29 for a single computer and $49 for a 5-user family pack. Compare this to the Windows 7 Home Premium edition upgrade for $50 and Professional edition for $100. Apple’s $29 to Microsoft’s $50 is a huge difference.

There is also something else we need to consider here, Apple’s $29 price tag will not expire, unlike Microsoft’s. The full price for Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade now costs $120. PC World has been explaining that in the past consumers have been happy to pay these kinds of prices of a new OS, but their expectation has now changed.

Look at it like this, if you have just recently purchased a netbook for $300, you would not want to spend a further $120 on a new OS for that device. It seems that many consumers would much rather take that extra money and put it towards a purchase of a new netbook or notebook.

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  • B.D. Rand

    Apple one-ups Microsoft…..Again. A pattern seems to be emerging !

  • http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/ Mark Wilson

    Fair enough, both OSes represent a step forward in performance and reliability, rather than a major OS upgrade, and Apple is charging a lot less than Microsoft, but when I bought my Mac it cost a lot more than an equivalently specced PC from a major OEM (and it’s had to go in for multiple repairs – two as a result of the keyboard cover cracking issue on White MacBooks – so it’s not as if the build quality is fantastic either).

    The point you miss is that Apple is primarily a hardware (and media) company whereas Microsoft is a software platform company. Both are out to get our cash, they just get it from us different ways.

    As for your closing comments, if I had recently purchased a new PC then I would be getting a free upgrade to Windows Vista. If I bought one a few months earlier then, presumably, I knew the risk of not waiting for Windows 7 and factored that into my purchasing decision. And if I’d bought a Mac instead, then I’d have spent a lot more money on the hardware as Apple is not interested in playing in the netbook market, preferring to offer a “premium” product (I only hope the current MacBooks are better than my experience with the previous model).

  • KKellam

    That comment, makes the most sense ever, alot of people dont realise that. They just think mac is cool and microsoft is old fahioned and expensive.

  • Laz

    Also, don’t forget that if you had OEN Vista on your machine, you can claim a free upgrade to Windows 7.