This is excellent. You mean you actually have to pay extra if, say, you are a home user and want cryptography or VPN? And SECURE START-UP still isn't a standard feature in Windows? That's been on the Mac (via Open Firmware) for YEARS (though I can't speak to its current status on the Intel Macs that use EFI. I think you can still set a start-up password, though. I think Ted Landau was able to do that ).
Who does this multiplicity of versions help? Microsoft's corporate sales team. It doesn't meet the needs of the home user or the business user.
Well, I guess it helps them to avoid shipping you a complete product without paying for each little piece. Another case of profits over User experience. They feel they have a captive market, and until people figure out Windows is the tech equivalent of the horse-and-buggy, they do.
"Who does this multiplicity of versions help? Microsoft's corporate sales team."
Well...close.
Remember that Microsoft distributes Windows three ways: OEMs, Retail, and Direct.
The biggest way Microsoft distributes Windows is via OEMs. When you buy your Dell, your Gateway, your HP, or your Lenovo PC, it comes with Microsoft Windows. These are the people who want lots of different versions.
They want Windows Starter--at, say, $50 per copy--for the $300 machines. They want Vista Home Basic--at, say, $100 per copy--for their $700 machines. They want Vista Home Premium--at, say, $150 per copy--for their $1200 machines. Etcetera etcetera.
One of the problems OEMs have had at the low-end is that the price of Windows doesn't budge. Companies like Dell can switch, negotiate, beg, and threaten their PC component distributors to get the lowest price possible. But Microsoft doesn't budge. They can't get Windows from anywhere else, so they have to pay whatever price Microsoft tells them to pay--and pass that on to the customer. OEMs would love a "cheap" Windows that they can put on their PCs to get the price down even lower. Remember, at $200 per PC, you gotta do volume. Those customers who are willing to pay a bit more will get better and better versions of Windows. OEMs can also "upsell" better versions of Windows. Remember that $200 PC isn't designed to actually be usable--it's designed to get you to walk in the door (virtually, telephonically, or physically) where talented salesmen will try to talk you into spending even more money.
My guess is that Starter and Home Basic will only be sold via OEMs.
Microsoft will sell Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate via retail and OEMs. So you'll be able to go into a CompUSA and buy Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate--Good, Better, and Best. They might offer less discounts to OEMs on those three.
Enterprise will be sold directly to corporations, along with service contracts and such.
Let's not be silly here. I don't like Windows, it sucks, but in MS's defense, they are obviously not going to be selling the European-market versions in the US or vice-versa. They also won't likely be selling Vista Enterprise over at Best Buy, just like you don't find Server 2003 Data Center or whatever it's called there now.
Right now there is XP Home, XP Media Center, XP Pro, Server 2003, the crappy 3rd world crippled version and etc. and this hasn't really caused much trouble for consumers. They really only deal with Home, Pro, Media Center.
Thanks for all the comments. I think they are really interesting.
Regarding the European and non-European versions: we probably won't see the European version, but they are required by law to offer at least the one without WMPlayer in Europe, and MS insists on offering the full version too. So Europe will see all 8 versions.
Yes, channels will help reduce the number of choices a bit, but I guarantee Dell will offer business and ultimate versions for homes PCs. And all those business-only features will still be in the help files confusing everyone.
The issue here is that Microsoft thinks choice is good. It is to a very limited extent, but only if it doesn't confuse the buyer. This explosion of Vista versions is going to needlessly confuse consumers, all because Microsoft wants a bunch of incremental revenue. And in the end, it will hurt their business, because too many choices will needlessly delay purchases.
Again, thanks for great thoughts everyone.
I suspect the choices will thin out eventually once Microsoft figures out what is selling and what isn't. From what I'm researched, it's Microsoft's customers who have asked for these different version. Microsoft is simply listening to their customers which is fundamentally a good thing and not something that they used to do.
Also, these versions of Windows also help Microsoft and its partners reach new target markets previously held by Linux-based systems. For instance, a person who sees a $200 Linux computer and a comparable $250 Windows Vista Starter computer probably won't mind spending the extra $50 for something that they "know" already.
For the most part, most consumers will never see all of these choices at one time. I even expect that most OEMs will only offer a limited number of choices in their product lines which make the most sense and allows them to have the great license purchasing power.
Commenting by HaloScan
