Australians locked out of Vista discounts

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Dan Warne23 January 2007, 1:25 AM

There will be no Vista family discount, no Vista downloads and no Vista Anytime Upgrade for Australians, Microsoft has confirmed. The official reason they're not available in Australia? Because they're not available in Australia. Oh,that'swhy...

 

Microsoft Australia has confirmed that Australians will not be allowed to download Vista through the Windows Marketplace, take advantage of the "Anytime Upgrade", or buy with family discount.

A spokesperson said the family pack discount, which allowed purchasers of Vista Ultimate to buy two additional licences to Vista Home Premium for only $US49 each, was not available in Australia because "as many Australian software promotions only run in Australia - this is one that only runs in the US."

In relation to the Anytime Upgrade scheme, where a user of Home Basic, for example, could pay a one-off fee to transform their Vista installation into Home Premium on the spot, the spokesperson said, "Microsoft Australia is currently evaluating the suitability of deploying Microsoft Windows Anytime Upgrade in Australia, but we have no announcements to make at this stage."

And what about the ability to get instant gratification by downloading the Vista DVD?

"Windows Marketplace exists in various geographies around the world," the spokesperson said. "Those geographies that already have Windows Marketplace will have the download ability. Australia has not had Windows Marketplace to date and as a geography without Windows Marketplace it would be hard to offer a download via Windows Marketplace."

Microsoft Australia would not give any reason why the family pack discount, Anytime Upgrade or Vista downloads were blocked to Australians.

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Anonymous:

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

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Bryan:

Honestly, American's shit you at times don't they, and it would seem American companies moreseo. That is totally pathetic that these features are not being offered to Australians, and indeed others around the world suffering a similar denial of service. It is annoying that the family pack isn't being offered either, why is it that only USA and Canada should be offered this?????

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Vasilis:

Hello i am very piss off with microsoft because we miss out on windows anytime upgrade offer which i wanted to use but bill gates made all australian's very piss off.I hope you are reading this bill gates because you are a big asshole and i will never buy any off your OS systems ever again and also to put a note on that Also Windows Vista OS boxes here in australia are all rip off's specially your Windows Vista Ultimate Edition $751AU what do you think we are Bill Gates made out of money here in austrlia bill gates. Next time thing before you release prices here in australia and offer's as well in future.

Thankyou i hope this will help you think again about your services.

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julzzw:

Why is it that there all these companies make excuses like "Australia does not have this, therefore we can't do that". Doesn't Australia have the population to make starting a service like this in Australia feasible? I mean, it took long enough for the iTunes store to come here, and it will be a while for things like the Apple iPhone and the Microsoft Zune to come as well.

Really, with George Bush and John Howard being good friends, doesn't this make Australia close enough to America?


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Discosis:

MS is holding out for Telstra to offer it a cut of the revenue they'll bring in from the GBs of data of Vista downloads. :)

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T:

Microsoft is as far from it's customers is as the Earth is from the Sun, they don't have any semblance of consistency, the dollar rules, that I can understand, but the animal is like a huge public service beauracracy, faceless and full of contempt, does as it pleases when it pleases.

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Aubrey:

Of course, this is all down to Ashton Mills. If he would just shut up about what a piece of rubbish this Vista really is, our geography would get more favourable treatment from Microsoft. As a second class and bolshi geography, we deserve all we get. So get with the program, Ashton. Just write a few nice articles about Vista and maybe the nice people at Redmond will send you a laptop. Your editor is clearly not mentoring you properly.

And stop comparing Vista to Linux! Vista is NOT meant to be a replacement for Linux. Its an entirely different market. Vista is for people who want their computing experience crippled and controlled by a US company and who don't mind paying through the nose for it (and upgrading their hardware to get the full experience that only shiny icons and pseudo transparency can provide).

Aubrey
Recovering Windows-aholic (six months since my last boot and feeling better about it every day)

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Michael Casha:

Honestly speaking vista is great :) It's prices however aren't.

Why does it seem that Microsoft can give free copies to America... cheaper copies to America.... family discounts to America.... the list is endless.

Microsoft wonder why piracy is such a big thing.. but if the product was say, $50 I would certainly purchase it. There is no way I'm paying $700 for an OS.

Sorry Microsoft but I won't be a customer of yours any time soon.

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Matthew:

"as many Australian software promotions only run in Australia - this is one that only runs in the US."

Can ANYONE tell me about ANY of the software promotions offered by Microsoft Australia that are even HALF as decent as those offered in the USA? Oh wait, we can upgrade to Vista after purchasing a retail XP for only $29! Thank you Microsoft Australia, i feel all warm and fuzzy now...

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Terry Tremethick:

The new MD for MS Aus needs to take a long hard look at how supportive we have been towards them. She needs to make it happen for us.

We have raided shonky pirate places for years and supported anti piracy, now MS needs to give back to the OZ public!!!!

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Toosmoky:

Well, that seals it. I might have looked at Vista if I'd been able to buy and download online and buy copies for my other two PCs at a reasonable price.

That's bad enough but full HD-DVD playback only being available in 64-bit Vista is the final nail in the coffin. Why should I believe that 64-bit Vista is a viable proposition when 64-bit XP drivers are damn near non-existent? Lexmark and Epson can't even be bothered making 64-bit XP drivers for my printers.

My PCs run just fine on linux and as much as I like PC games, I'll be buying a PS3 and running linux on it too.

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