Microsoft marketing hoped to create a buying panic for Windows 7 by selling a limited number of pre-release boxes at half-price. I monitored the sales rate on futureshop.ca and found instead that customers created a long tail.
FutureShop's Windows 7 Web page initially failed to display on the morning of June 26. Once it did, I refreshed the page every so often to record the "Quantity Remaining" of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade. (When I checked the site at 9:50am, it was working, finally.)
Initially, the site sold 95 boxes an hour.
By noon (Pacific time; 3pm Eastern), the sales rate plateaued at 65 boxes/hr, a rate that continued throughout the afternoon and into supper time.
Early the next morning, a Saturday, the rate slowed to 41 boxes/hr, with 448 remaining, and then to 30 boxes/hr throughout the morning.
By lunchtime, however, artificial scarcity reversed itself: FutureShop.ca's Quantity Remaining jumped to 1,990.
Pricing Screwups
When I initially tried purchasing the upgrade yesterday, FutureShop.ca listed the regular price of $130. So I bought it from BestBuy.ca.
Today, the same is happening at BestBuy.ca: the promo page continues to show $65, but upon checkout, the "WorstBuy" price jumps to $130.
LondonDrugs.ca is little better, its Web page contradicting itself. The "Online Only!" offer is not available for online sale:
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