Windows 7 to finally offer family pack pricing?

There is mounting speculation that Microsoft plans to introduce special family pack pricing for the Home Premium version of its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system.

According to Windows 7 release candidate testers, recent builds have slipped in language specifically relating to family pack licensing. The whole clause states:

b. Family Pack. If you are a “Qualified Family Pack User,” you may install one copy of the software marked as “Family Pack” on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the “licensed computers” and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.

This language is only included in Home Premium builds.

Given that just a tiny minority of consumers purchase their own Windows licenses, the vast majority choosing to upgrade Windows only when they buy a new PC, it’s about time Microsoft took on this lost revenue generating opportunity.

The timing couldn’t be better for pricing initiatives either, given Windows 7 is probably the first Microsoft operating system that runs faster than its previous release. Consumers (specifically Windows Vista users) will have a compelling reason to buy a software upgrade that will actually help their PC run faster.

In a recent Windows Weekly podcast, Paul Thurrott said he had asked representatives at the company if they planned to offer Windows 7 with Family Pack licensing. Thurrott was told Microsoft was aware that there was some interest in such a licensing scheme, but declined to comment further. Given they told him exactly the same thing before Vista was released, he was not especially hopeful anything would happen this time around either.

Apple already offers Family Pack licensing on a range of its own products, including their operating system OS X. And it has proven popular with customers who are licensed to install the OS on as many as 5 different machines.

Microsoft could reportedly charge around $189 for a 3 user family pack license. This would be $10 cheaper than the OS X family pack, but would permit 2 fewer installs. Microsoft already permits 3 separate installs on the home version of its popular office suite.