It seems that Windows users can't get enough of an upgrade that is not yet available. We reported last week that several online retailers were seeing a huge demand for the $49 Windows 7 upgrade package, placing pre-orders months before the OS launch to take advantage of the significantly lowered price tag. Unsurprisingly, as the July 11 deadline for the offer nears, sales have remained strong.
Amazon, for instance, lists Windows 7 as their top seller in software, with different versions of the OS taking up the number one and number two slots in software sales. A $49 price tag compared to typical upgrade prices at easily twice that is much easier to swallow, particularly for people who paid for a copy of Vista in the past two years. The news must also be encouraging to Microsoft, who has been stuck with two large pools of both Vista and XP users. They had one group sour over perceived deficits in Vista and the other unwilling to upgrade, both of which put pressure on them.
Regardless of what you may have to say about Vista, most beta-testers have agreed that Windows 7 has a lot going for it. Hopefully the positive pre-release reviews hold true after launch in September of this year.