Why Microsoft doesn’t really care about the UK

Here’s a theory, and I’ll admit it’s a wild one, but here goes: the left hasn’t got a clue what the right’s doing at Microsoft.

Here we are, four days after Microsoft first announced that it wouldn’t be selling the Internet Explorer-less Windows 7 E editions after all, and still the UK arm of the company can’t answer the most basic questions on the topic.

What version will people who pre-ordered the E editions receive? Will we now have upgrade versions in the UK? What about the Family Pack? All of these fundamental questions remain unanswered since Friday evening. (Update at 2.20pm: Microsoft has now confirmed some of these details - click here to read our report).

Why? Because (I suspect) the first Microsoft’s UK team knew of the decision to drop E editions was when they read it on the Microsoft blog, like the rest of us. Microsoft UK may have battalions of “product managers” holed up in Reading and its flashy offices in Victoria, but the company is run out of Redmond. Always has been, always will be.

As talented and as likeable as many of Microsoft’s UK team are, they have little or no influence on the key decisions being made about Windows, Office, Bing or any of the other key products - even when those decisions relate directly to their region, as with the E editions.

How do I know Microsoft UK didn’t see the E editions announcement coming? Because at 5:15pm on Friday night - long after most tech journalists have headed down the pub - it issued a cowardly press release, informing us that we’ll be paying more than twice as much for Windows Anytime Upgrades as the US. Crucially, it also stated that we wouldn’t be getting the Family Pack ”because the Family Pack is designed as an upgrade SKU, and upgrade SKUs of Windows 7 E will not be available in the UK until at least 2010″.