Windows 7 just $30 for students
American students can legally buy Windows 7 for just $30 under a new Microsoft deal. Their British counterparts can get a discount plus a valuable lesson on how international firms price for different markets.
The deal, which is detailed at the promotional Web site win741.com, allows students to buy one upgrade edition of the system for $30 through a Microsoft online store. Students can pre-order now and will be able to download the system upon its Oct. 22 release.
In the United Kingdom, the same deal is on offer from Sept. 30. However, instead of paying the equivalent of $30 (£18.54), the price is 60 percent more expensive at £30. (A word of advice to firms such as Microsoft: if you are going to jack up prices across the Atlantic, you could at least have the imagination to avoid the cliché of literally replacing the dollar sign with a pound sign.) Similar offers are expected to be available in half a dozen other countries later on.
In both the U.S. and U.K. deals, students can choose between Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional editions for the same price. The system is only available as an upgrade to a legal copy of XP or Vista. To qualify for the deal, the student must register from a recognized educational e-mail address such as .edu or .ac.uk.
In a similar discount deal for Office, Microsoft noted that it retained the right to contact people taking up the offer and confirm that they are genuinely a qualifying students (presumably as opposed to someone who simply borrowed a relevant e-mail account). However, we’ve not heard of any cases of people being caught out in this way.
Students thinking of taking up the deal should first check that their course is not covered by the MSDN Academic Alliance scheme. This allows establishments running accredited courses in subjects such as computer science and engineering to give free copies of Windows to students.
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September 22nd, 2009
Well yeah sure technically we pay 60% more, but you know as wel hand over £30 we don’t feel like we are, you know to us we’re still paying £30.
September 24th, 2009
“However, instead of paying the equivalent of $30 (£18.54), the price [...]”
The above snippet indicates that “the price” is not paying the equivalent of $30.
“[...] the price is 60 percent more expensive [...]”
Wrong. The *software* is 60 percent more expensive; the price is 60 percent *higher*.