Speaking to CNET News, Darrel Ward, director of product management for Dell's business client product group, expressed his opinion that Windows 7 will beat Windows Vista in all aspects, except price.
"If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP," the Dell marketing executive said.
"In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a stronger swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them. I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista," he added.
Darrel then warned that "schools and government agencies may not be able to afford (the additional cost). Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like."