In the past Apple have charged $130 dollars for a new OS. (the exception being the last one Leopard>Snow Leopard) which was a major but "under the hood" improvement.

Now they are bringing out this massive new OS "Lion". However they are only charging $30 for it.

Will Microsoft (who charge $130 to $230) for Windows try to match this? Can they afford to? Or do PC users not really do the upgrade thing anymore now that computers are so cheap?

Just wondering…

No.

If Apple made OS X easily installable on any computer, then it would be more significant, but the two markets are pretty seperate.

But bear in mind that the vast majority of Windows licenses are either Site Licenses or mass market OEM that comes with hardware (and tbh probably only accounts for a similar amount in the purchase price) it's not going to have much effect.

A lot of people I know who upgrade their PCs do the 'OEM' thing - basically you buy a mouse or something and you get an 'OEM' copy of windows 'thrown in' (of course, the windows copy is actually what you're interested in). Basically, OEM copies of windows are much, much cheaper than retail copies but retailers are supposed to only sell them with new PCs. However the terms of the agreement are you can only sell them with 'new hardware' or some such, so some resellers use that as an excuse to bundle the copy of windows with some piece of 'hardware' that is essentially cost free - like a basic mouse they get from Taiwan for £2 each or something - and just charge you the price of the OEM copy for the bundle.

It's vastly cheating the spirit of the agreement of course, but then you could equally say Microsoft is acting dishonourably by charging so much more for the retail versions of windows (like £100 more) simply because it's in a nice box rather than plastic wrapped.

I think the chances of MS adopting Apple's pricing strategy are nil. Firstly they can't even agree to have less than about 7 versions of their OS so there's no way they're going to agree on a low price for any of them and secondly I suspect Lion is partly cheap because it's being sold by entirely digital means so no manufacture costs, no deals with retailers or distributors etc... MS simply don't have the structure in place to do that.

Jon

I thought they had killed off the "qualifying hardware" shortcut to buying OEM licences prior to the release of Windows 7?

There was a bit of a to-do on the news sites about Microsoft taking a legal stance, so it had to be with the purchase of a new PC. Did that just fizzle out and come to naught?

Dunno, I haven't bought a copy of windows in ages though and thinking about it I don't remember, chatting to any of my techy friends, them saying they have either. So it may well be a trick you can't use any more.

Jon

Well before the Skype deal they had plenty of cash to do it.

As I understand it, although I've just been skim-reading the snippets announced so far, the $30 price is for users of Snow Leopard 10.6 only - an upgrade price if you like. Now, as the only vehicle for installing this upgrade is via the App Store, which is 10.6 or later anyway - it implies that for Intel Macs currently on 10.5 or even 10.4 would have to find a way to upgrade first to 10.6 (to get the App Store). So then you're into the price bracket for a full OS (i.e 10.6 upgrade, then the 10.7 upgrade).

I guess that's why they chose to move the OS upgrades onto the Mac App Store - then they can add verification into the bargain. I can see this coming into play more further down the line. So for example, when 10.8 is released, the App Store will check the Mac to see if you qualify for the upgrade price (10.7 > 10.8) or the full price (10.6 > 10.8).

The days when you bought a DVD edition and could upgrade any Mac that met the minimum requirements of that OS are probably coming to an end, unfortunately! We're not quite getting to the Microsoft stage where you have to activate the OS and it's tied to one computer, but I can see there being some kind of pricing structure that offers you either the upgrade or full edition, depending on the current OS that it verifies on the App Store.

In all of this, though, I'm curious what happens when you have a disk problem that you need to boot from another disc to run Disk Utility, which was where the physical DVD came in. Maybe 10.7's Disk Utility can now repair the active OS hard drive, I dunno? If not, then how can you boot from a different system to repair the problems with no DVD? That's the only problem I can see with the download method, but maybe Apple have already thought of this - but just haven't bothered to tell us about it yet?!! Maybe you can create an emergency USB flash drive to boot from, similar to the Macbook Air's system restore drive? I'm sure all will become clear in due course.

This should end that problem.

responding to the gnoming.. NO. They can ( There was the promo to get win 7(Home Premium) for £35 and Win 7Pro for £45). Most Home PC users only upgrade when they buy a new computer anyway.

For all the people that remember to do it. The average user wont.

From my experience at work, even if you put a big message on the screen at startup that states "Make Recovery Disks" they still won't either!

It'll be interesting to see if new Macs that come out after Lion is the default OS still ship with some form of physical media (DVD/UBS drive) from which to run the installer or the Hardware tests.
They may also bring out another 'Box Set' so you get Lion + Pages/Numbers/iLife. However, they do seem to be pushing for everything to come from the App Store so maybe not.
It'll be a bit of a pain if they do away with physical media altogether. A lot of people won't think to create a physical copy (assuming they even know how to) for recovery purposes to keep in a safe place/off-site. Maybe Apple are hoping for more traffic to the Genius Bars for people with borked machines and no way to reinstall.

I think this explains it in an easy way.


As a consumer you could only buy Home premium, Professional and Ultimate. The N versions were because of the EU and basically nobody bought it The others are for segments outside of the normal retail chain. Easy enough to understand

Likely so, since they already do this for Macbook Airs. Read only memory stick with a copy of the OS to re-install and a few disk utilities.

Jon

You have to remember that apple are a hardware company whereas Microsoft are a software company (ignore the xbox division etc).
Apple make their money on selling you an apple computer so they can offer the software free or cheap to get you to upgrade to a new box. Microsoft make their money from selling their OS, they don't make anything on the hardware (HP or acer etc would).

As apple computers are generally expensive, people tend to keep them for longer, selling a cheap OS upgrade & making revenue from the app store ensures apple still make money from it's existing customer base.
Pc's on the other hand are generally as cheap as chips so are changed more often (usually 2-3 years or less), people who buy a new PC get the latest version of windows on the machine & people who upgrade their existing machine would either factor in an upgrade license or stick with the old version of the OS.