Microsoft Windows 8 Pricing Options Revealed

Microsoft pricing for the Windows 8 operating system was revealed on Tuesday morning by an anonymous source at the company. Customers will to adopt Windows 8 Pro during the company’s promotion period will be allowed to purchase the product for just $70. Customers buying after January 31 will be subject to a full priced payment of $199.

Windows 8 PC buyers will also have the option to spend $70 in order to upgrade towards the Pro version of Windows 8, a price point that will jump to $100 on January 31.

For Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 users willing to buy an upgrade without a DVD included (downloadable software) the cost is just $40, although it is still unclear if Microsoft will extend that upgrade pricing past the January 31 date associated with other pricing specials.

Retail store version of Microsoft Windows 8 go on sale October 26.

The low cost pricing for upgrades could come down to the big gamble Microsoft is placing on the new product. The company did not simply choose to build a touchscreen friendly skin on top of its accepted OS but instead chose to fully rework Windows 8 for the tablet friendly market. Windows 8 early releases have so far been met with mixed reviews.

If Microsoft’s aggressive pricing strategy works it could lead to a new tablet experience in which a full OS is offered to customers in place of a dumped down mobile offering. On the other hand many older users have complained about the complexity of Windows 8 which could end up pushing users away from Microsoft’s newest gamble.