OT -- Are Retail Stores Happy With Vista's Upgrade Feature?

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

Many people will purchase a new computer with Vista Home Basic or Vista Home
Premium pre-installed in the coming few years and will wish to upgrade to
Home Premium or to Ultimate. There were (my guess, not researched) a
relatively small percentage of people that upgraded from XP Home to XP Pro,
and I believe the percentage of people upgrading Vista to a more premium
version of Vista will be significantly higher.

With Microsoft basically offering a direct sale of the upgrade, they have
circumvented the entire retail world. I would assume that the number of
retail sales for Amazon, NewEgg and their on- and off-line competitors of
Vista upgrades would likely be forecasted in millions of dollars. I believe
the retail stores can not be happy with this arrangement.

So if I am correct in that there will be a much higher percentage of people
upgrading Vista to a premium version, will the retailers be upset enough to
challenge Microsoft? If so, could this be a new "anti-competitive" type of
lawsuit in the making? Perhaps not in the USA, but we are in a global
market, and I think that in the EEC this may be a very realistic
possibility.

Any thoughts?

Mark

 

[John Barnes]

Maybe Microsoft will sell the upgrade keys at the retail stores.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Mark, Microsoft is NOT selling the upgrades directly. I will post a
thumbnail sketch of Anytime Upgrade.

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

Mark, Microsoft is NOT selling the upgrades directly. I will post a
thumbnail sketch of Anytime Upgrade.

You know, there are times when a "delete this thread" would be very handy
for me.

I had read a few different places that said that Microsoft would be selling
the upgrade directly. It was after your post that I researched farther and
found Ed Bott's explanation regarding the "Anytime Upgrade" procedure, in
which Microsoft will direct the upgrader to a retail partner, and will not
be collecting the money themselves.

I still would be interested in your explanation.

Thank you again for setting me straight on this.

Mark

 

[John Barnes]

If you are using a reader, such as mail, just highlight and hit the delete
key. Then if there is a thread, it will ask if you want to delete all.
Select yes and gone.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

In OE you use Message>Delete Message from the Menu bar. It really is only
effective if you catch it right away since it is deleted from the server but
not from the users who have already downloaded it. After only a few minutes
too many people have downloaded messages from the server.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

That is, "Cancel Message", not Delete Message.

In OE you use Message>Delete Message from the Menu bar. It really is only
effective if you catch it right away since it is deleted from the server
but not from the users who have already downloaded it. After only a few
minutes too many people have downloaded messages from the server.