4 ms·

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they re

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't have a Windows 10 Mobile Home, Windows 10 Mobile Education, and Windows 10 Mobile Pro - just plain, "Windows 10 Mobile". My suspicion is they would have managed to avoid customer confusion, and captured pretty much all the same economic value, with a simple list of: Windows 10 Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Enterprise Windows 10 Mobile Enteprise

33W 11y ago
Agreed. I would only add to it their embedded "IoT" version.
bskap 11y ago
"Pro" is for people that don't have volume licenses but want the business-specific features like domain joining. Remember, Windows 10 may be a free upgrade, but it's not free and I imagine they still make quite a bit of extra money from businesses buying Pro. "Education" looks like it's a discounted volume license available to schools. Not sure what extra features it's going to have but it's not something that anyone other than a school administrator will ever care about.
- stephengillie 11y ago
  I can't tell you how many times I've had coworkers come in with a new device they convinced management to buy them, without my approval, and they've saved a few hundred on the OS by having a Personal edition. So MS is paid twice there - once for the Personal version that came with the device, and once again for the business buying a single copy of Pro version to install over the Personal version.
- daigoba66 11y ago
  Businesses (large ones anyway) tend to buy Windows Enterprise which only available through volume licensing. Technically the free upgrade is not available for Win7 or Win8 Enterprise (fine print on this page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about). But if the organization always pays for Software Assurance, that includes upgrades for all covered licenses. In my experience I see smaller businesses just purchasing hardware with OEM licenses (usually Pro).
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Education exists because Microsoft provides cheaper licensing to schools as a marketing exercise. They also let you buy the license entitlement through volume licensing, so smart schools will buy PCs with FreeDOS or Linux and BYO Windows. This creates a problem, because the Federal government requires that it receives the lowest possible price for a particular product. So they carve out the education market as a separate SKU.
- mreiland 11y ago
  Does Windows 7 Pro upgrade to Windows 10 Pro?
sonnyz 11y ago
I agree. A simple "Windows 10" with no subtitle would really make things easier for the consumer. Appending 'Home' on what is really a feature reduced version of Windows 10 doesn't seem to be in the best interest of the customer.
- wernercd 11y ago
  Define "Feature Reduced"? Lack of Domain? HyperV? Remote Desktop options? What features are people "losing" with Home that 95% of "Home" users "need"? Sure... You and I can't live without half of those things, but home users generally won't notice - or care - if HyperV is missing. You pay more for Pro/Enterprise because it has added features that Power Users/Businesses need. Glass Half Empty/Full... Potato/Patato... Home isn't feature reduced... Pro is feature added. Enterprise is feature complete. If you want feature reduced... look into versions like Starter Edition - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-starter-what-are-the-limitations/422801d5-89de-494d-8cc1-6f4fc21c2ac0 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-w...
  - epistasis 11y ago
    Remote Desktop is almost essential for "home" users, as it allows remote guidance through the computer. >You pay more for Pro/Enterprise because it has added features that Power Users/Businesses need. Do you really? When negotiating large licenses with volume discounts, does Microsoft really end up charging more for each install than they do with the Home options? How many consumers pay for the Pro or Enterprise versions, and how much money does Microsoft actually make on that small price differential, compared to how much the market segmentation costs them in terms of consumer confusion and dismay? Clearly MS knows these answers better than I do, but I also don't really trust their marketing teams to execute that well in the consumer space. Sure, they are awesome in the business sphere, but they really suck when it comes to consumers.
    - tracker1 11y ago
      Enterprise/Education will only be available through organization based license agreements... not really for individuals. As to Home/Pro, I mostly agree... I wouldn't mind seeing a base version that's effectively Pro... considering the domain is a server license with additional CALs required anyway (SAMBA aside). That, or just sell the pro services as an upgrade package for windows, instead of a separate OS package... I know it's all in the details, just the same it can/should be more transparent.
wvenable 11y ago
The editions make sense for market segmentation. Home editions cannot join a domain so that rules them out for business and education. Then they want to price segment between schools and business which makes the distinction between Education and Enterprise. Pro is sort of the consumer version of Enterprise; it can join a domain too. I run 8.1 pro, not because of the join a domain feature, but because it can host a remote desktop session and home cannot.
- arthurfm 11y ago
  > Home editions cannot join a domain so that rules them out for business and education. The Home edition of Windows 10 sounds like it might be able to join Azure Active Directory. [1] Support for modern form factors. Azure AD Join will work on devices that don't have the traditional domain join capabilities. [1] http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2015/05/13/azure-active-directory-and-windows-10-making-the-enterprise-cloud-a-reality.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2015/05/13/azure-activ...
iamthepieman 11y ago
I run 8.1 pro on my personal PCs because I need hyper-v and remote desktop for development. I would be happy to buy a "home" edition if it came with the those features but MS captured my additional dollars for the pro edition precisely because I did need them. Most people are getting OEM editions of Windows anyways. Anyone installing an OS on bare hardware is not going to be put off by confusion between SKUs.
sp332 11y ago
It's only free as an upgrade, and even that is time-limited. New copies will still cost money.
- ikeboy 11y ago
  What seems to be new in this announcement is that if you do upgrade for free, you get that for life. Before it wasn't clear if you'd need to pay subscription fees afterwards. Plus, you can still get retail Win7 DVDs at under $100, then upgrade for free to Win10 Pro.
  - sp332 11y ago
    Right, but if you don't upgrade in the first year then you might not get it for free. I don't think anyone has said how much it will cost exactly. I haven't heard of a subscription fee either?
grandalf 11y ago
> My suspicion is they would have managed to avoid customer confusion, and captured pretty much all the same economic value, with a simple list of: You are probably right, but doing so would have cost MS a significant amount of money. This is an entrenched company trying to avoid killing so many cash cows. Likely the biggest motivation for this segmentation/pricing strategy is profit extraction from existing, business customers.

33W 11y ago

Agreed. I would only add to it their embedded "IoT" version.

bskap 11y ago

"Pro" is for people that don't have volume licenses but want the business-specific features like domain joining. Remember, Windows 10 may be a free upgrade, but it's not free and I imagine they still make quite a bit of extra money from businesses buying Pro. "Education" looks like it's a discounted volume license available to schools. Not sure what extra features it's going to have but it's not something that anyone other than a school administrator will ever care about.

stephengillie 11y ago
I can't tell you how many times I've had coworkers come in with a new device they convinced management to buy them, without my approval, and they've saved a few hundred on the OS by having a Personal edition. So MS is paid twice there - once for the Personal version that came with the device, and once again for the business buying a single copy of Pro version to install over the Personal version.
daigoba66 11y ago
Businesses (large ones anyway) tend to buy Windows Enterprise which only available through volume licensing. Technically the free upgrade is not available for Win7 or Win8 Enterprise (fine print on this page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about). But if the organization always pays for Software Assurance, that includes upgrades for all covered licenses. In my experience I see smaller businesses just purchasing hardware with OEM licenses (usually Pro).
Spooky23 11y ago
Education exists because Microsoft provides cheaper licensing to schools as a marketing exercise. They also let you buy the license entitlement through volume licensing, so smart schools will buy PCs with FreeDOS or Linux and BYO Windows. This creates a problem, because the Federal government requires that it receives the lowest possible price for a particular product. So they carve out the education market as a separate SKU.
mreiland 11y ago
Does Windows 7 Pro upgrade to Windows 10 Pro?

sonnyz 11y ago

I agree. A simple "Windows 10" with no subtitle would really make things easier for the consumer. Appending 'Home' on what is really a feature reduced version of Windows 10 doesn't seem to be in the best interest of the customer.

wernercd 11y ago
Define "Feature Reduced"? Lack of Domain? HyperV? Remote Desktop options? What features are people "losing" with Home that 95% of "Home" users "need"? Sure... You and I can't live without half of those things, but home users generally won't notice - or care - if HyperV is missing. You pay more for Pro/Enterprise because it has added features that Power Users/Businesses need. Glass Half Empty/Full... Potato/Patato... Home isn't feature reduced... Pro is feature added. Enterprise is feature complete. If you want feature reduced... look into versions like Starter Edition - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-starter-what-are-the-limitations/422801d5-89de-494d-8cc1-6f4fc21c2ac0 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-w...
- epistasis 11y ago
  Remote Desktop is almost essential for "home" users, as it allows remote guidance through the computer. >You pay more for Pro/Enterprise because it has added features that Power Users/Businesses need. Do you really? When negotiating large licenses with volume discounts, does Microsoft really end up charging more for each install than they do with the Home options? How many consumers pay for the Pro or Enterprise versions, and how much money does Microsoft actually make on that small price differential, compared to how much the market segmentation costs them in terms of consumer confusion and dismay? Clearly MS knows these answers better than I do, but I also don't really trust their marketing teams to execute that well in the consumer space. Sure, they are awesome in the business sphere, but they really suck when it comes to consumers.
  - tracker1 11y ago
    Enterprise/Education will only be available through organization based license agreements... not really for individuals. As to Home/Pro, I mostly agree... I wouldn't mind seeing a base version that's effectively Pro... considering the domain is a server license with additional CALs required anyway (SAMBA aside). That, or just sell the pro services as an upgrade package for windows, instead of a separate OS package... I know it's all in the details, just the same it can/should be more transparent.

wvenable 11y ago

The editions make sense for market segmentation. Home editions cannot join a domain so that rules them out for business and education. Then they want to price segment between schools and business which makes the distinction between Education and Enterprise. Pro is sort of the consumer version of Enterprise; it can join a domain too. I run 8.1 pro, not because of the join a domain feature, but because it can host a remote desktop session and home cannot.

arthurfm 11y ago
> Home editions cannot join a domain so that rules them out for business and education. The Home edition of Windows 10 sounds like it might be able to join Azure Active Directory. [1] Support for modern form factors. Azure AD Join will work on devices that don't have the traditional domain join capabilities. [1] http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2015/05/13/azure-active-directory-and-windows-10-making-the-enterprise-cloud-a-reality.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2015/05/13/azure-activ...

iamthepieman 11y ago

I run 8.1 pro on my personal PCs because I need hyper-v and remote desktop for development. I would be happy to buy a "home" edition if it came with the those features but MS captured my additional dollars for the pro edition precisely because I did need them. Most people are getting OEM editions of Windows anyways. Anyone installing an OS on bare hardware is not going to be put off by confusion between SKUs.

sp332 11y ago

It's only free as an upgrade, and even that is time-limited. New copies will still cost money.

ikeboy 11y ago
What seems to be new in this announcement is that if you do upgrade for free, you get that for life. Before it wasn't clear if you'd need to pay subscription fees afterwards. Plus, you can still get retail Win7 DVDs at under $100, then upgrade for free to Win10 Pro.
- sp332 11y ago
  Right, but if you don't upgrade in the first year then you might not get it for free. I don't think anyone has said how much it will cost exactly. I haven't heard of a subscription fee either?

grandalf 11y ago

> My suspicion is they would have managed to avoid customer confusion, and captured pretty much all the same economic value, with a simple list of: You are probably right, but doing so would have cost MS a significant amount of money. This is an entrenched company trying to avoid killing so many cash cows. Likely the biggest motivation for this segmentation/pricing strategy is profit extraction from existing, business customers.