Following fridays release of Vista RC1 Microsoft have announced plans to make RC1 available for broad customer and partner testing. With this milestone, Microsoft is also communicating the U.S. estimated retail pricing* for all Windows Vista editions. The announcements signal a major step for toward the final availability of Windows Vista, currently targeted for volume license customers in November 2006 and general availability in January 2007.
Microsoft will reopen the CPP, a popular pre-release testing program, to new enrollments in coming days. In total, Microsoft plans to make Windows Vista RC1 available to more than 5 million customers worldwide.
"Now that we're expanding the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program, an even broader audience will get to experience just how much Windows Vista has to offer," said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president for Windows Client Marketing at Microsoft. "The expansion of the CPP program really sends a strong message to the industry and our customers: the time to prepare for Windows Vista has arrived."
In conjunction with Release Candidate 1, Microsoft today announced U.S. estimated retail pricing for all editions of Windows Vista for both business and consumer users. Prices for the editions remain unchanged compared with the equivalent Windows(R) XP editions, with the prices of some editions constant since Windows 95.
With Windows XP, customers often had to make tradeoffs in features and functionality as the Windows XP editions were aligned with specific hardware types. With Windows Vista, customers now have the ability to make choices between editions based on the valuable features they desire, which are now available as standard features of mainstream editions. For example, 64-bit support and Tablet PC and touch technology are standard features of the Home Premium and Business editions.
Pricing information for all Windows Vista editions is available online at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx, along with additional information on the various editions of Windows Vista.
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