Re: SIX version of Vista


Patrick Nihill wrote:
In article <znu-026C98.16002605032006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, znu@xxxxxxxxxxxx
says...
In article <MPG.1e754767a8aa2f5989683@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Patrick Nihill <pa_nihill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <znu-DCBCE1.10512705032006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
znu@xxxxxxxxxxxx says...
In article <1141569129.542034.139690@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Super Spinner" <Pepe.Smythe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

Multiple price points. For example, if you're a home user but
don't want MCE functionality, you might prefer to get Home Basic
rather than Home Premium in order to save money.

There's no reason Microsoft couldn't just sell Home Premium for the
Home Basic price. This market segmentation is completely
artificial. The only party that benefits is Microsoft, though its
ability to charge more to certain customers.

Much like everyone else, really. There's also no reason Apple
couldn't sell OS X server for the same price as regular OS X, except
for the sticky issue that they would make less money. Both companies
are entitled to maximise their earnings in this way.

I think you're missing my point here. The price isn't really the major
issue. That's why Microsoft does it, of course, but from the
perspective of users the big issue is the complexity of making a choice
(most users are already baffled by this stuff), and from the
perspective of developers, the problem is more required QA testing.

No, not really. The OS itself doesn't change between these versions,
what changes is really the application bundle. I haven't seen any
information that suggests anything relevant to developers is affected by
the multiple editions of Vista.

They all ship on the same DVD anyway, and your licence determines what
is and is not enabled.


Server/workstation is a very clear distinction which doesn't raise these
issues.

Having six different versions of your desktop operating system is
nuts; it's another rather neat example of how Microsoft just
doesn't understand consumer markets.

Yes, if there's one thing Microsoft are struggling in, it's the
consumer market. <rolls eyes>

I've posted rather extensively about this before. Yes, Windows is still
the de facto standard in the consumer market, but this is largely a
historical artifact. Microsoft shows many signs of not understanding
this market, and would be unwise to take it for granted.

Of these 6 versions of Vista, only 2 are targetted at consumers -
Home Basic, and Home Premium.

And the Starter edition, on low-end systems in some markets.

I don't think anyone could possibly take Starter seriously, and it's not
something most consumers will ever be exposed to. Hopefully it will die
a quick, painless death like it deserves to.

And maybe the Ultimate edition. And you'll probably need the Business
edition if you need to connect to a domain, which is not entirely
unheard of for consumers (think college students and telecommuters).

Well, differing consumer requirements like this can be met effectively 2
ways - either ship 1 OS that includes everything for a higher price, or
1 physical OS that has different features you can licence/unlock.

Microsoft are apparently moving toward the latter. From what I've read,
Vista will have 1 physical install medium, and the licence you choose
determines which features you get. It will be possible to unlock the
features of the other editions at any stage with a simple flick of your
credit card.

This feature/incitement to spend even more money is going to be called
"Windows Anytime Upgrade". If it's convenient, and reasonably priced it
should be a worthwhile move on Microsoft's part. I expect the first of
those to be true, the second...well, you know yourself what they're
like.

I expect the prices of the "instant upgrade" options will be similar to
the prices of the upgrade versions of the OS that you can buy in a
store (e.g. today you can buy an "upgrade" version of XP Pro that
allows you to upgrade XP Home to XP Pro, for a lower price than a
"full" XP Pro package (most know this, but I'm educating the rest
because Apple doesn't offer upgrade prices for its annual incremental
OS upgrades LOL). Hopefully, the "instant upgrade" price will be less
than the price of the corresponding upgrade OS package available in
stores, since Microsoft wouldn't have to include the packaging for the
"instant" upgrades. :-)

.

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