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Windows 7 availability and launch-day pricing examined

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 October 2009, 13:19

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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Retail version

Unless you've been living under a large rock for most of 2009, it won't have escaped your attention that Microsoft is launching Windows 7 today. We've looked at deploymentuser interfacemedia interfacenetworking and securityand applications. Now we turn our attention to pricing.

Correct as of 13:20 on October 22, 2009, here's the current pricing of the three consumer editions (64-bit) - Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate - at seven UK etailers.

Full-retail edition


Windows Edition/etailer Home Premium Professional Ultimate
Scan £75.98 £170.24 £174.88
Dabs £114.98 £160.98 £169.03
Ebuyer £81.34 £148.00 £154.13
PC World £99.99 £147.99 £159.99
Amazon £114.98 £148.00 £159.99
Novatech £141.42 N/A £159.67
CCL Online £78.99 £157.45 £169.95

For users requiring a clean-install Windows 7, launch-day pricing varies considerably for the Home Premium pack. A far cry from the £45 that some, including yours truly, paid a few months ago on pre-order, there are no standout bargains right now - at least from these (r)etailers.

Scan and CCL Online's pricing is good for Home Premium, and most etailers report having plentiful stock. A few are selling a three-license Family Pack for £129.99, we note.

Professional and Ultimate editions are priced far more consistently. Stock of Professional is reasonable, but a few etailers are pointing to week-long lead times for the Ultimate edition.

Don't need the full-retail box for a clean install?