PC World Gives £100 Laptop Trade-In With Windows 7

DSGi’s PC World shop on Tottenham Court Road will be selling Windows 7 from midnight tonight, with the incentive of a £100 laptop trade-in to encourage users to buy a new laptop at the same time.

The deal, announced at an embargoed briefing in London, was also published on DSGi’s site. DSGi is offering users up to £100 if they bring an old laptop to the shop, although the actual figure will depend on the quality and viability of the laptop.

Laptops will have to be capable of being switched on, although they don’t necessarily have to be fully operational said Jeremy Fennell, Category Director for PC World. They’ll also be graded for physical quality to create a second-hand value, of up to £100.

“The laptops will be reconditioned and passed to the second-hand market, or else recycled,” said Fennell. All recycling will be done in this country, he told eWEEK Europe, avoiding the lethal trade in PC waste sent to the third world, which is currently the target of a giveronment campaign, and has been exposed by agencies such as Computer Aid

The deal is not a short-term one, but could continue indefinitely, said Fennell, if demand is sufficient.

Although 60 percent of today’s systems should ruin Windows 7, many users are expected to upgrade their hardware to get the full benefit of the new features of Windows 7. It is also could be rather hard to upgrade from older systems, as there is no direct upgrade option from XP, an issue flagged up in reviews of Windows 7.

Microsoft spokespeople explained that XP machines will generally be too old to get the full benefit of the new system and support for an upgrade would be impossible across the board.