[designtofly]

Well, I think the half price sale was a very smart move on Microsoft's part. By the end of the promotion, it was sold out on Newegg.com, and it dominated the software category on Amazon. This created a lot of buzz and demand over a short period and generated a lot of positive publicity.

Microsoft's biggest mistake with Vista was not controlling the PR. This promotional campaign lets Microsoft create a big enough lead-in demand so that it will continue to build until the actual release date.

In the end, IMHO, I think that Microsoft will continue to offer these promotions for its retail customers up to and after the official launch. Hopefully they realize that, for retail buyers, Windows 7 MSRP is still too high. They need as many people as possible upgrading, but not at the expense of the corporate buyers. Therefore, I think they will continue to offer promotions for retail buyers at pretty heavy discounts.

I'll also chime in to say that I was pretty impressed when running Windows 7 RC for a few days to test it out. Coming from XP, it was very fast and intuitive interface. I ordered 2 copies of the Professional Upgrade edition during the promotional period.