Brits prefer Windows 7 to Harry Potter
The British Amazon site says Windows 7 has become its most pre-ordered item ever, beating out the final Harry Potter book. It comes as some British buyers report receiving the system early in an apparent attempt to beat a postal strike.
Amazon.co.uk isn’t giving out pre-order figures for the system, but says it is already ahead of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Given that, at the time, the site reported 500,000 pre-orders for the book in Britain, things are looking more than healthy for Microsoft.
It appears the U.K. sales may be particularly strong thanks to a quirk in the pricing. The nearest thing to a “standard” purchase for consumers – an XP or Vista upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium – has a permanent price around £68. While that’s only slightly cheaper than in the US (approximately $112 compared with $120), it’s very rare that a U.S. product would be cheaper in the U.K.
Indeed, the original list price in the U.K. was £150 (approximately $250). It appears the price drop is down to Microsoft believing it would have to offer a browser-less edition of Windows 7 in Europe, then honouring its original pricing after it became clear this wasn’t the case.
Meanwhile, some British buyers report having received their pre-ordered copies of Windows 7 as early as Monday. It appears some retailers, including PC World and Amazon, have been given permission to ship the system early to make sure they can meet promises that customers will have Windows 7 on launch day. At the moment, British postal workers are scheduled to take industrial action tomorrow with no deliveries made.
One store in London is even opening at midnight so that customers can get the system as soon as it is officially on sale. It’s not yet clear if this is merely a publicity stunt, or a genuine belief that people want to be on the city center streets at midnight to get their hands on an operating system.
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