Could Windows 10 be free?

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bekdik

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Microsoft will have no choice but to give consumers free Windows upgrades once it launches Windows 10 and kicks off its fast-fast-fast tempo, an analyst asserted.

"If Microsoft wants consumers to update and keep up to date, it really means that Microsoft is going to have to give those consumers those updates for free. There's really no other way to do it," said Michael Silver of Gartner at the research firm's annual technology conference.
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Maybe it would be a brilliant move were Microsoft to offer Windows 10 for free as an upgrade for all Windows XP and later registered users. While obviously being pocket book friendly to Windows users, if coupled with end of life for all preceding versions, it would pretty much force the user base on to the same version, which could only cut Microsoft's support and development costs.
 
It is a nice idea, but their App Store is nowhere near profitable enough yet.
 
Yes, I believe it will be, at least to people who signed up for the beta release
 
bekdik said:
Or maybe those are the reasons why it should be
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Not many companies will willingly give up that income stream. I can't see how Microsoft can make that up elsewhere yet.
 
Surely most of Microsoft's Windows sales are via OEM bundles, not retail?
 
It should be.

Microsoft simply does not know what to do with the bloody metro apps.

Had a play with the Tech Preview, it's very unstable and really not any better than Windows 8.1 . Meh.
 
Even Volume License sales to new companies or customers are dropping because more people want to standardise on Windows 7 and then leave it be until it becomes the next XP. A friend of mine who worked in VL sales predicted this a long time back.

I believe that they can make it free with certain conditions and just like they're doing Windows 8.1 with Bing on certain cheap devices, so they'll do it for Win10 as well. I think they finally have the right frame of mind for what they want to do, but whether they'll be as successful with the write-once; run-anywhere idea (which I believe no-one has successfully done) is another thing entirely.

I think it'll be a free upgrade for Windows 8 and 8.1 users and they may even announce that way ahead of the launch to boost sales of the old OS and see more peope migrate away from Vista and XP in the short term. The more they speak about DX12 the more my interest is also piqued - some of it sounds a lot like Apple's Metal.

Its going to be a very interesting year ahead.
 
I hope it's free, because I'm not upgrading from 8.1 if it isn't. Windows 10 offers nothing that can't be had right now with high quality third party software.
 
kingrob said:
It should be.

Microsoft simply does not know what to do with the bloody metro apps.

Had a play with the Tech Preview, it's very unstable and really not any better than Windows 8.1 . Meh.
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How on earth is the tech preview unstable? It's actually brilliant for a tech preview.
 
kingrob said:
It should be.

Microsoft simply does not know what to do with the bloody metro apps.

Had a play with the Tech Preview, it's very unstable and really not any better than Windows 8.1 . Meh.
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Your observation of instability seems to be at odds with every comment I have read, including my own experience.

Please can you expand on your comment?
 
shogun said:
How on earth is the tech preview unstable? It's actually brilliant for a tech preview.
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'Cos it's just Win 8.1 with a start menu, multi-desktops and drop shadows around windows at the moment. More goodies in the pipeline? Let's hope so.
 
Grouter said:
'Cos it's just Win 8.1 with a start menu, multi-desktops and drop shadows around windows at the moment. More goodies in the pipeline? Let's hope so.
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Absolutely... it does much the same. I too am awaiting a deep dive into the architecture to see what else changes. That wasn't my point though. It's very stable from my experience, so I'm keen to know what is unstable about it. From my observation and that of others around me the comment about its instability is utter rubbish. Especially when you take into account that it is a tech preview and not a final release.
 
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