Microsoft offers massive student discounts on Windows 7

 

Student edition to be priced in Australia at around $30.

Microsoft has announced that it will be offering a discounted version of its Windows 7 operating system for students.

In the US, eligible students are being offered the Student Edition for US$30 - which is a similar price to what Apple Mac users are paying to upgrade to the new Snow Leopard operating system.

To qualify for the discount, students must be attending a registered and approved college or university, have a valid student email address at the educational institution and have a PC that will run Windows 7.

The exact pricing for the Australian region will not be made available until October 22.

But if US and UK pricing is any guide, it should not differ too wildly from the thirty dollar mark.

Like Apple, Microsoft is charging UK buyers a higher price when adjusted for exchange rates. In the US, Microsoft is charging US$30 (AU$34.70) for the student version of Windows 7. In the UK, eligible students will pay 30 pounds (AU$56.20).

A Microsoft spokesperson said that there were several causes for the price discrepancy.

"Windows 7 Student Offer pricing varies by region and is dependent on a variety of specific factors including, but not limited to exchange rate, local taxes, duties, local market conditions and retailer pricing decisions," said the spokesperson.


The company plans to release Windows 7 worldwide on 22 October. The release will be the first major Windows overhaul since the 2007 release of Windows Vista.

Copyright ©v3.co.uk


Microsoft offers massive student discounts on Windows 7
"Interesting thing i find is in the wording of it all, things like 'several causes for the price discrepancy...' and then includes 'retailer pricing decisions'. That alone is total crap, yes ..."
By ray73864
 
 
 
Comments: 3
MungBurger
Sep 22, 2009 8:45 AM
I use RC1 of Windows 7 on my netbook and love it. I use Vista on other pc's am very disappointed with it. Win 7 should be a free/ minimal upgrade for Vista users aka Win 7 beta testers. Looking at the price of Win 7 and Mac OS and i'm finding it impossible to justify a purchase of win 7. I think i'll move to a linux distro for my netbook when the RC expires. Apples pricing policy for their OS is excellent, can't say the same for their hardware. Now if I could legally run OSx on my netbook / desktops, I'd be buying a 5 licence pack in a heart beat.
Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu)
Sep 22, 2009 4:39 PM
I just love the 'code speak' for pricing to undermine competition. In the article was: 'A Microsoft spokesperson said that there were several causes for the price discrepancy... exchange rate, local taxes, duties, local market conditions and retailer pricing decisions," said the spokesperson.'
In Australia the major grocery chains say their pricing varies according to how far each store is from a major distribution centre, etc. However, an independent survey then found that Coles and Woolies local store pricing was almost entirely dependent on whether there was an Aldi store nearby!
The disparity is AFTER the exchange rate has been taken into account. I bet the M$ pricing will be more competitive in markets where M$ perceives there to be a higher likely shift to open source, such as Ubuntu over the coming years. It is likely that Win7 will be cheapest in markets where the government has standardised on such Linux offerings for the schools' PC roll-outs (Brazil etc). I'll bet that the Australian pricing will be higher as a direct result of NSW DET going with M$ rather than Linux.
ray73864
Sep 23, 2009 7:56 AM
Interesting thing i find is in the wording of it all, things like 'several causes for the price discrepancy...' and then includes 'retailer pricing decisions'.

That alone is total crap, yes retailers can choose prices, Microsoft is only allowed to set an RRP (recommended retail price) on their products, after that is up to the retailers to decide, and as i have found, only a retailer such as 'Target' ever chooses to sell for more than RRP.

Kmart and BigW along with a load of computer stores usually charge for several orders of magnitude less than RRP.
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