Microsoft is gearing up to unveil the prices for Windows 7 SKUs (Stock Unit Strategy), with the public scheduled to get a taste in less than a month. Along with the specific RTM and General Availability deadlines, the actual prices that the Redmond company plans to charge for its next version of the Windows client are some of the remaining key Windows 7 details that the software giant has so far failed to make public. But the wait is almost over. Microsoft is reportedly looking to mid-June for the public announcement of Windows 7 pricing.

But, as is the company's general strategy, partners have already been offered Windows 7 pricing details, according to TechARP. Original equipment manufacturers have been briefed by the software giant as early as mid-April. And they're not the only ones. Retailers also got a heads up on the full package product pricing for Windows 7 in mid-May. Come next month, a few weeks in, Microsoft will also unveil the prices for the Windows 7 editions to consumers.

By no coincidence, in mid-May 2009, Darrel Ward, director of product management for the business client product group at Dell, noted that the ASPs (average selling prices) for Windows 7 were bigger than those of its precursors, Windows Vista and Windows XP, and warned that such a move from Microsoft could impact adoption, according to Brooke Crothers. Ward emphasized that the Windows 7 licensing tiers at retail were prices higher than those for Vista.

The Windows 7 predecessor has the following Suggested Retail Price: $199.95 for Home Basic, $259.95 for Home Premium, $299.95 for Business and $319.95 for Ultimate. One thing is clear. If Windows 7 prices are higher than Vista's, Microsoft will be left suffering.

In the context in which Windows 7 is an evolution of Windows Vista, Windows 7 prices should be an “involution” of Vista's. Microsoft has been little shy of applauding the price advantage of Windows PCs in comparison to Apple's Mac computers in the Laptop Hunters – I'm a PC video advertising campaign. It's time for the company to deliver on the “more for less” promise, even if only for public perception, and it needs to keep the figures on the Windows 7 SKUs price tags lower than those for Vista.

32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 (Release Candidate) RC Build 7100.0.090421-1700 is available for download here.