All good things must come to an end, and that is the case for Windows 8 upgrade pricing. Since launch an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro has cost a very reasonable $40 (or $15 if you bought a new Win7 laptop recently). Starting tomorrow that price will dramatically increase to $199. That’s a whopping $160 more than what you have to pay today. If you don’t want Pro you will be able to upgrade to the regular version for $119. Also after tomorrow you will no longer be able to get Windows Media Center for free with Windows 8 Pro. Instead it will be a $9 download from the Windows Store.
It’s too bad that Microsoft won’t be keeping the pricing for Windows 8 down around the $40 mark. Obviously they realized it needed to be priced competitively at launch, but why does that have to end? People aren’t going to spend $200 on desktop software anymore. They want to buy one version, cheaply, and get updates on it like a phone. We expect adoption rate for Windows 8 to go down quickly after these steep prices kick in tomorrow.
If you have entertained the thought of upgrading to Windows 8 at all you really should download today while it’s cheap.
