Microsoft Promo: a PC and Xbox In Every Dorm Room

theodp writes "Can Microsoft woo students into trying Windows 7 PCs? Well, starting on May 22nd, Microsoft will try to do so by giving away free Xbox 360 4GB consoles to high-school or college students who purchase new Windows 7 PCs priced at $699 and up. A Guess Who's Coming to College? teaser video for the promotion features a Halo Spartan's HS graduation ceremony."

Comments

Re:Desperation

[bleble]

Yes, because every marketing campaign is done out of "desperation".

No teen/twenties or anyone else will pick OSX instead of Windows if he/she plays games. Which is exactly the target audience with bundling PC and Xbox360.

Re:if you have a PC you don't need a console

[VortexCortex]

I guess you could sell the xbox and use the money to buy games for the PC.

My thoughts exactly... Well, except that I would sell the Xbox for for a RAM upgrade or possibly a few peripherals. Additionally I'd be formatting the drive, installing a VM, then installing Linux and re-installing Win7 (remember to make recovery disks first). IMHO, no one should run Windows outside of a VM. P.S. You can use a Hackintosh VM Image too, if you must, and dual or triple boot instead of a VM if you're brave enough to let MS Windows run directly on the metal -- Yikes!

If you're going to buy a decent laptop, might as well take some free stuff, convert it into a more kick ass computer upgrade, and install a freer OS that won't report your bit-torrent usage to the feds...

That was quick

[GrumblyStuff]

Wasn't it just a week ago when the antitrust oversight over MS ended?

Obviously a respons to the Apple promotion

[Twid]

Obviously this is a response to Apple's back-to-school promotion, which they have run for several years. Last year that program got you exactly the same amount in credit ($199) towards any iPod when you bought any Apple laptop.

One advantage of the Apple program is that you could trade up and get a higher priced iPod touch model and still get the $199 in credit. It looks like the Microsoft program only gets you the slightly gimped 4GB Xbox with no trade-up. A lot of students might be bummed when they realize they need a $100 hard drive accessory to play a lot of the games.

Not a bad deal, but I wonder how many Xboxes will be given to students who were going to buy a laptop anyway. I think the Apple motivation is obvious: to get students to switch to Apple. Not sure if the formula works the same with Microsoft.

Re:Desperation

[phantomfive]

That's what I thought too, I mean, is it really much different than the free iPods Apple was giving out with computer purchases? But then, if you look closely at the numbers, it really is different.

Apple typically has a 30% markup on their products, which means they could give away an iPod and they might still end up with a bit of profit.

Microsoft on the other hand, doesn't make the hardware, and although the profit margins are obscene on Windows, they are still only making $50-$100 for each computer sale. That's not enough to cover the hardware costs on an Xbox, so they are losing $100-$150 for each sale here. (note: all numbers are estimates).

Obviously they think it is worth it, but why? Is it because they are worried about competition from Apple? I don't know, but it seems just as likely that Ballmer is a maniacal spendthrift, who thinks any price is worth paying to crush the competition.