A leaked memo from Best Buy has revealed some details about Microsoft’s aggressive pricing strategies for Windows 7. ($50 upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium? Yeah, that’s aggressive. I have more details over at ZDNet: Will the Windows 7 price be right?)
That fits nicely with another piece of evidence: Microsoft has turned on the lights at its new Windows 7 online store, but hasn’t yet unlocked the door.
Following a link and excellent write-up by the ever-vigilant Long Zheng, I visited the Microsoft Store a few minutes ago and ran across this page:
[Update: Emil Protalinski points out that he flagged this page at Ars Technica several weeks ago. Indeed he did.]
The front-page copy hasn’t changed since it went live, as far as I can tell. No prices, no feature tables to differentiate the different versions, nothing more than this “Coming soon” teaser.
The selling copy underneath is well written but not detailed and certainly no different from the messaging Microsoft has been using lately.
If the leaked Best Buy memo is legit and accurate, it suggests that Microsoft will have to unveil its price list and detailed information about each edition before then.
In the past, Microsoft has charged full list price for direct sales to customers, with only a few exceptions. For the most part, anyone with even rudimentary search skills can find a better price from a reseller than they’ll get at the Microsoft Store. In its current incarnation, for example, customers shopping for Windows Vista get a big Add To Cart button to buy directly from Microsoft. The list of retail partners is in a tiny link at the bottom of the page.
I wonder when they’ll start taking preorders from the Microsoft Store?
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 