Microsoft has been offering family packs of Windows 7 to customers for a discounted price–while supplies last. It would behoove it to make the family packs a permanent offering.
CNET’s Ina Fried is reporting that the packs have nearly sold out. The packs sell for $149.99, which is a bargain considering that three stand-alone copies of 7 Home Premium list for $359.97.
There are two good reasons why Microsoft should make the family packs permanent: Its Windows licensing revenue is suffering, and Apple has long offered them for OS X. (A Snow Leopard 5-pack sells for $49.99.)
While Windows 7 has boosted Microsoft’s license revenues, netbooks have begun to chip away at the Windows cash cow. Windows 7 has proven popular with early adopters, and anything that Microsoft could do to get more customers to upgrade is a good thing.
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December 4th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Mac OS X Snow Leopard *Family Pack* retails on Apple’s website for $49.00. Not sure what the $249.00 price tag gets you… Maybe 5 separate copies of the family pack..?
December 4th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
A Snow Leopard 5 Pack is $49.00 and *not* $249 as you stated.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MAC_OS_X_SNGL?mco=MTM3NDY2ODE
Also, you mistakenly linked to a 5 pack of *Leopard (10.5)* which is no longer for sale from Apple and is being sold at a high premium for those who still want to upgrade PowerPC machines.
Windows 7 is an even worse deal than you thought at 3x the price of an OS X family pack.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Right you are, and the errors weren’t Dave’s–they were his editor’s fault. Namely me.
–Harry
December 5th, 2009 at 10:06 am
From Amazon
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User) for $42.99 AND free shipping.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:16 am
You don’t need to buy Apple’s Family Pack. Regular copy of OS X is all you need for your household.
December 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
@L1A
You are correctly technically.
But, I felt that paying $12/machine for Snow Leopard was a very good deal and spent the money on the Family Pack.
And, while I have upgraded to Fusion 3 ($32 USD), I have not upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 as $100+ is way too much money just to run IE7 and IE8 to check websites’ behaviors in MS browsers.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Microsoft kills $150 Windows 7 Family Pack deal
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141858/Microsoft_kills_150_Windows_7_Family_Pack_deal
January 12th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I was going to upgrade the 3 family PCs in the house over the Christmas holidays. Couldn’t get the family pack so didn’t do the upgrade. 3 PCs that won’t be running windows 7. OS upgrade won’t come until hardware upgrade (in about a year), and I’ll look at Mac and Chrome then.
May 16th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
@every-one-considering-new-OS
Ubuntu Lucid Linux should not be overlooked in your considerations, talk about free-loving-people!