Microsoft today announced release details and pricing for the upcoming Windows 7 after unveiling the packaging for the software yesterday. In the video above, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Consumer Marketing, Brad Brooks talks about Windows upgrade options, international availability, pricing and the special offer.

Microsoft has set October 22nd as the General Availability (GA) date for Windows 7. The company will ship Windows 7 in the following 14 languages on October 22nd: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

On October 31st, Microsoft will ship Windows 7 in 21 more languages: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian. This means that Windows 7 will be available globally before the holiday season begins in November.

Windows 7’s pricing will differ depending on various regions; however, Microsoft promises that pricing will be lower than Vista by at least 10 percent around the world. The Windows 7 upgrade package pricing in US will be $119.99 for Home Premium, $199.99 for Professional and $219.99 for ultimate version. The full version of Windows 7 will be priced $199.99 for Home Premium, $299.99 for Professional and $319.99 for Ultimate. The price of Windows 7 Home Premium full retail is $40.00 less that Windows Vista Home Premium available today.

European customers will not have a separate upgrade SKU option. But Microsoft will ship the full version for upgrade pricing in Europe, giving European customers who want to upgrade the pricing option available to the rest of the world. Microsoft says that it is doing this to comply with European competition regulations.

Microsoft also announced a special offer for loyal Windows Customers, the company will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at more than 50 percent discount. In US you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. The special offer will be available via online retail partners like Best Buy, Amazon and Microsoft Store. The offer will be available in US, Canada, Japan, UK, France and Germany. In US and Canada the offer will start tomorrow and end on July 11th. In Japan the offer will start tomorrow and end on July 5th. In UK, France and Germany offer will start on July 15th and run until August 14th. 

We believe that Microsoft’s special offer for Windows 7 is in direct response to the positive press received by Apple for announcing $29 price for upcoming Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. This price war is definitely good for customers.
[Via Windows Blog]