Microsoft and HP both announced a joint deal today that will see the software and hardware giants collaborate on future engineering road maps to eliminate the complexities of IT management.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, HP chairman and CEO Mark Hurd, held a joint teleconference call this morning to announce the agreement. According to Ballmer the agreement, that spans both hardware, software and services, “will transform the way large enterprises deliver services to their customers, and help smaller organizations adopt IT to grow their businesses.” Microsoft and HP believe a combined effort will offer a lower total cost of ownership for business customers.
Microsoft is using the tag line “simplify technology environments for businesses of all sizes” to describe the new deal. In short it appears Microsoft and HP will share ideas and technologies based on Microsoft’s Cloud infrastructure and virtualization efforts. The deal isn’t cheap and 250 million incremental dollars will be invested into the initiative. The two companies will also partner on some support solutions and marketing campaigns. During the joint teleconference call Ballmer stated “we’re able to build on our incredible 25 year partnership of the two companies put together to drive things forward.”
The pre-ordering deal for Windows 7 has been going on for a little while now, but there was still a few whispers flying around that there would be a family pack type deal coming for the upcoming operating system. This is all but confirmed now, as Ars Technica have discovered some fine print in the latest build that reveals some details about such an offer.
In the Home Premium version of Windows 7, the Microsoft Software License Terms contain additional information about said deal, and how it would cover up to three computers in any one household. It 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/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.” This text is not found on any of the other versions, but it could potentially be added at a later date, of course, although it’s doubtful.
Obviously, there has been no pricing revealed for this at all, but ZDNet is under the impression that it will set a family back about $189. Additionally, Ars Technica mentions that as this is found in the license terms, it’s implied that it won’t just be a limited time offer; you may remember that Microsoft offered a deal like this for Windows Vista Home Premium, but it only lasted from January 30, 2007 ’til June 30, 2007. Ars also went ahead and asked Microsoft, but a spokesperson said that they had nothing to share right now, and that, “We continue to work with partners and expect other great deals in the future.”
Stay vigilant for any more information on this as it surfaces, which surely won’t be far away.
