Microsoft to sell Windows 7 Family Pack?
Microsoft has been accused of overcharging its loyal customers for years now, with Vista being the ultimate kick in the teeth. The pricing of Windows 7 has gone some way to helping address this issue but a Family Pack would have an even bigger effect. So it’s rather fortunate that it seems Microsoft is indeed planning a Windows 7 Family Pack.
Since 2002, Apple has offered a Family Pack of its Mac OS X operating system. This allows the OS to be legitimately installed on up to five computers in the same household for a much cheaper price than it would cost to buy five separate copies of Mac OS X. Microsoft dabbled with a reduced price of Vista Home Premium for Vista Ultimate users but abandoned the deal within months.
Windows 7 is only just over three months away from on-the-shelf release to consumers, with the RTM version supposedly confirmed for release on July 13. And according to a nice piece of investigative journalism (aka reading the licensing agreement for a leaked build of Windows 7 Home Premium) Kristan Kenney discovered a possible Family Pack plan for this particular version of the new operating system.
One of the clauses in Installation and Use Rights states:
Family Pack. If you are a “Qualified Family Pack User”, you may install one copy of the software marked as “Family Pack” on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the “licensed computers” and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.
The clause does not appear in other versions of Windows 7, which would add weight to its legitimacy as a Family Pack would unlikely be offered for business users. However, there’s still a question mark over whether the Family Pack is set to be offered at launch because Microsoft is refusing to confirm its plans. It told CNET:
We will continue to work with our partners and expect to have other great offers in the future as we lead up to and beyond general availability. We have nothing to announce at this time.
It does at least confirm Microsoft has thought about offering a Windows 7 Family Pack, and its inclusion in a build released so close to the final release date suggests it will be included. The only thing left to consider is the price – with Ed Bott suggesting a price point of $189 would be reasonable, and a PR victory being $10 cheaper than Apple’s Mac OS X Family Pack.
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July 5th, 2009
I’ll believe it when I see it.
July 5th, 2009
Me too. But I have always believed that ALL software should be able to installed on all household FAMILY computers.
July 5th, 2009
It would be nice if MS offered a home bundle of 1 copy WHS, 1 or 2 top of line OS, and unlimited basic OS (keyed to that WHS).
July 6th, 2009
Personally, rather than a 3 license pack, I’d rather have the option of buying a single license – retail, upgrade, OEM, whatever – through legit means (including as the supplied OS on a new PC purchase) and then adding on additional home users for about $20-40 each ($20 for Home Basic, $30 for Home Premium, $40 for Ultimate). Limit it to 5 or 10 licenses.
To tie in with DavidB’s post, 10 licenses would be great as that matches the number of clients WHS supports.
My household has XP, Vista Basic, and multiple Vista Ultimate PCs as well as WHS. I would love to standardize on a single client OS – Windows 7 – and likely would if I could do so for a reasonable price. Multiple $50-200 upgrades that leave me to tracking which license goes with which machine are not a way to encourage me to buy. Microsoft, simplify my life if you want to earn my business.
July 6th, 2009
You keep missing that when you buy a Mac you give Apple the profit on the entire package. OS and the hardware.
Apple has done a good job with the commercials convincing people that somehow Microsoft is building computers. Not so. It’s like taking a vehicle in to trade it on a new one. They can quote you any number they want as to the cost of the new vehicle and the price on trade, it really makes little difference since they get whatever the total revenue is.
Microsoft isn’t in that situation. They get no hardware profit, it’s a stand alone item. Those double digit margins people pay on the initial package is a lot more like my vehicle example.
Microsoft gives OEM pricing with the understanding the vendor will support the OS. OSX, even when you buy upgrades, is only supported by Apple going on Apple hardware.
You might like to install it on all your computers, or simplify your life but they aren’t responsible for your hardware support unless you have paid full retail for all the Windows OSes you have installed. OEM and retail pricing across all kinds of hardware and software has different support levels because the cost difference in support responsibility.
The logic in comparing Apple to Microsoft in this case is pretty skewed as the basis is really pretty different. Paying a premium for the same specs and a smaller choice of models in a closed system gives a lot of opportunity to mess with a perception of value. See all the bragging about resale value after lending Apple the money you overpaid interest free for years. A kick in the teeth depends on the mouth, apparently.
The family pack could probably only be done as an OEM deal with Dell or HP or other Vendor retaining support responsibility to keep it close.