Microsoft is expected to cough up Windows 7 price details next month.

According to Windows tipster website TechArp.com, which has been bang on the money in the past with shipping dates for Microsoft products, Redmond will announce prices for its upcoming operating system in mid-June.

Just last week a Dell product director told CNET that Windows 7 “licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista”.

Earlier this week, Microsoft’s head of technology for partners James Akrigg told The Register at Channel Expo that the company appreciated the “sensitivity within the OEM market” around pricing for the OS, but he declined to comment on Dell’s remarks.

It's understood that computer manufacturers were told the Windows 7 pricing structure last month.

"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," Dell’s Darrel Ward told CNET.

Indeed, Microsoft will need to tread very carefully with its Windows 7 pricing in these recession-hit times. After all, if it takes the wrong step, the firm may struggle to encourage take-up of its new operating system, especially as it continues to try and shake off the Vista effect. ®

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