by Andy Brudtkuhl on June 25, 2009
To put this in context – Apple is releasing their new OS Snow Leopard for $29. There are no other versions – just the OS for $29. Okay.
Now you’d think Microsoft would have learned from the marketing debacle that was Vista. Here’s the pricing info for Windows 7, announced today.
These estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:
- Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
- Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
- Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99
And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:
- Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
- Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
- Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99
Confused yet? So am I.
I have a MacBook and a PC. I’ll definitely be upgrading to Snow Leopard. But there is no way I am $220 to upgrade my Vista Ultimate machine to Windows 7 Ultimate – if that’s even the right upgrade path. But if you want to – it will be available on October 22!
Oh Microsoft haven’t you figured out that less is more? Why so many choices? At least the case is easy to open.
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by Andy Brudtkuhl on March 30, 2009
Don’t get me wrong – I love Vista. It was a huge upgrade from WinXP. Unfortunately the media has turned it into a monster – which had drastic effect on sale and helped to boost sales of OSX and Apple hardware. The problem is not the software itself – it runs great, fast, and has many killer differentiating features.
The biggest problem on the Vista marketing front was the myriad of versions that they had for sale. In an era where less is more, offering half a dozen different versions of software served only to confuse potential buyers.
Take a lesson from Apple and don’t version your product – as much. While in B-School we were pressed to learn versioning principles and the “Goldilocks” theory of pricing. In consumer software I really don’t think it works (enterprise / SMB market is a different animal). Less is more.
Here’s a tip for Microsoft – which could be huge. Offer two versions of Windows 7 – Lite and Pro. Windows Lite should be a low cost, small footprint version – for $99 – that would run on a Netbook or older hardware. Windows 7 Pro can be the full fledged version at $199.
Both are priced to sell and easily distinguishable from each other. C’mon Microsoft – learn your lesson.
by Andy Brudtkuhl on July 9, 2008
Precipitate is an application from the Google Mac team that lets you search your online documents via the popular Spotlight feature available in OSX.
From the release…
That’s where Precipitate comes in. After you install Precipitate, you can use Google Desktop or Spotlight to find files online (such as those in your Google Docs list) just as you would find files stored on your Mac. Then, you can open them in your browser with a single click. Once Precipitate is set up, it stays out of your way, regularly getting the latest contents of your documents automatically, so you’ll never need to think about it — or where you store your information — again
This version supports Google Docs and Google Bookmakrs, with more features being teased at for future releases.
