A few weeks ago Apple announced that it would charge just $29 for its newest operating system, Snow Leopard, which is due in September.

Many of us were holding our breaths, hoping that Microsoft would follow suit. But they didn’t even come close. Today Microsoft announced the prices for their new operating system, Windows 7:

Windows 7 Home Premium will cost $120 for an upgrade, $200 for a full version

Windows 7 Professional will be $200 for an upgrade, $300 for a full version

Windows 7 Ultimate will be $220 for an upgrade, $320 for a full version

Reuters and others have reported that Microsoft has lowered the price of the new OS. That is true. Currently an upgrade version of Vista Home Premium costs $130. The upgrade for Windows 7 will be only $120. So they lowered the price a whopping $10.

When you look at Apple’s prices for a comparable operating system, you will also see, that, as in the past, Apple will offer a family version of Snow Leopard. This will include five licenses to use the operating system on five different computers. The cost for that will be $49. Apple also has only one version of the software that does everything. Microsoft instead has a the complex system of multiple versions that do different things. Only the Ultimate version of Windows will do it all.

So, a family who want to upgrade their five computers running the current Apple operating system to the best (and only) version of the new Snow Leopard operating system will pay $49. A family who is currently using five computers running Windows, will have to pay $1,100 to upgrade to the best version (Ultimate) of Windows 7.

Let’s face it. That makes Microsoft’s prices outrageous — 22 times Apple’s price. So, as usual, Microsoft makes a $$$ statement that will ire many. It certainly has made me mad.