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Windows 8 available for purchase in late-October from US$39.99

By Adam Williams
July 09, 2012
Windows 8 available for purchase in late-October from US$39.99
Windows 8 Pro will be available to consumers in late-October at an upgrade price of just $39.99
Windows 8 Pro will be available to consumers in late-October at an upgrade price of just $39.99
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Windows 8 Pro will be available to consumers in late-October at an upgrade price of just $39.99
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Windows 8 Pro will be available to consumers in late-October at an upgrade price of just $39.99

Appearing in Toronto at Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), senior Windows chief Tami Reller let slip some details regarding the availability of Windows 8: PC manufacturers are set to receive the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 8 in late-August, while consumers will be able to upgrade in late-October. The Redmond-based company also recently revealed that the cost of upgrading to Windows 8 Pro will be just US$39.99.

The RTM version of Windows follows the Release Preview and is typically made available to PC manufacturers a couple of months before the full consumer release is unleashed, in order to ensure that the latest generation of computers sold are up to spec and compatible with the new operating system (OS). Microsoft no doubt hopes that the low upgrade price of Windows 8 will help ensure speedy adoption and the move mirrors Apple's policy of offering inexpensive OS upgrades.

"We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8" wrote Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc on the official Windows Blog. "Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets. And if you want, you can add Windows Media Center for free through the 'add features' option within Windows 8 Pro after your upgrade."

Those determined to own a physical DVD can do so for $69.99 and the upgrade promotion runs until January 31st, 2013. In addition, consumers who purchase a qualifying Windows 7-equipped PC between June 2 and January 31, 2013 will be eligible for a yet further discounted download-only copy of Windows 8 Pro.

The price of the new-purchase upgrade offer varies by region and includes US$14.99, AUD$14.99 and GBP£14.99. For further information on this offer and the complete list of pricing worldwide, visit Microsoft's Windows Upgrade Offer FAQ.

Source: Windows Blog

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ComputersMicrosoftOperating systemUpgradePCWindows 8
4 comments
Adam Williams
Adam Williams
Adam scours the globe from his home in Spain in order to bring the best of innovative architecture and sustainable design to the pages of New Atlas. Most of his spare time is spent dabbling in music, tinkering with old Macintosh computers and trying to keep his even older VW bus on the road.

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4 comments
yinfu99
If thats how Windows 8 is gonna look Ill find something else...Its ugly, garish, and definitely goes back to preschool in over simplicity. Give your users a bit of credit...
Nicolas Zart
Weird look, cheap price, sometimes I think Microsoft should innovate instead of copy in their inimitable terrible other better OSs. Instead of unifying its phone Gui and Windows, it should concentrate on its xbox and unify Windows to it. Leave to Microsoft to get it backwards. And what about the secured BIOS? IS back to the early 90s all over again? Talk about increasingly irrelevant.
raskolnikov
I installed Windows 8 Release Preview on a high-end, recently built machine (last 4 months). Every day I have used it it has crashed, requiring a hard restart of the computer. Once I had to re-install the OS. I have high hopes for Windows 8 but if it crashes every day I'll be sticking to Windows 7.
Mike Myers
How insecure does a person have to be in order for them to be threatened by a new operating system, tablet or phone?
Personally, I own IOS, Android and Windows devices and I enjoy them all on there own merits. They all have their own weaknesses as well. I am glad that there is competition between the different eco-systems because this leads to much faster advancement of hardware and features than if one company ruled the market. The best thing to happen to MicroSoft customers was the increasing popularity of Apple OS and devices. MicroSoft was slow to innovate and rested on their laurels while Apple innovated and grabbed market share. A few years later and the roles have reversed. Now we see MicroSoft innovating and Apple growing stale (iPhone 5/IOS 6) The release of the iPhone5 was neither a tick or a tock and was fraught with many issues in both hardware to software.
I guarantee that Android wouldn't have made the advances it has without competing with Apple.
You should be excited with all new advances knowing that your favorite platform will also get that feature soon and try to outdo it (raising the bar yet again).