Apple Offering $30 Discounts on Leopard and 500 GB Time Capsule to MobileMe Members

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/07/apple-offering-30-discounts-on-leopard-and-500-gb-time-capsule-to-mobileme-members/)

Apple is currently offering (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/mobileme_members) $30 discounts on Mac OS X Leopard and the 500 GB Time Capsule to current MobileMe members using a promo code sent to their MobileMe e-mail accounts. The offer is valid through June 1, 2009.


http://images.macrumors.com/article/2009/04/07/132552-mobileme_promo.jpg

Apple has been making substantial efforts to upgrade as many users as possible to Leopard, also launching a discounted Mac Box Set (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB997Z/A) consisting of Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09 earlier this year.

Apple updated (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/03/airport-extreme-and-time-capsule-update-details-dual-band-guest-networks-remote-file-access/) its Time Capsule offerings early last month, adding dual-band networking, guest wireless networks, and remote file access to the router/hard drive combination unit. Currently available in 500 GB and 1 TB models, an image depicting a 2 TB Time Capsule retail box was recently spotted (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/06/image-of-2-tb-time-capsule-box/) on a third-party retailer's site, although it is unclear if or when larger capacity models will be released.

Article Link: Apple Offering $30 Discounts on Leopard and 500 GB Time Capsule to MobileMe Members (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/07/apple-offering-30-discounts-on-leopard-and-500-gb-time-capsule-to-mobileme-members/)

[Michael73]

Clearing inventory ;)

[H$R]

Clearing inventory ;)
just thought the same

[tosui]

Agreed.

Hopefullly this means the 1Tb will be $300 - that was waay too much for a measly 500Gb these days, even with an Airport built in. Geez Apple, haven't you seen the Microsoft ads??? :D

[longwood]

Possible to get $30 off the Bundle Package as well?

[Le Big Mac]

Clearing inventory ;)

Yeah, really. Buying leopard now with snow leopard coming (soon?) seems perverse. On the other hand, with the discount maybe it's not so crazy.

I assume the TC discount gives some credence to the 2TB model "pictured" yesterday.

[Amdahl]

just thought the same

Nope, and that's a particularly stupid thought to have for a product that is only slightly more expensive to manufacture than the free AOL CDs that were mailed out for years, to complete strangers.

They have noticed a big fragmentation in the user base. Despite the big surge 10.5 had the first week, a lot of 10.4 users aren't upgrading. Apple is beginning to have an actual user base(as opposed to a fan base), and that means they can't sell as many newer products if the software companies are busy targeting the older products.

This is all about keeping products going obsolete as fast as possible, and not letting the customers slow them down.

I still hope they will begin a policy of producing security updates for five years after a product is discontinued, but perhaps these discounts are their attempt to avoid doing that.

[11800506]

I still hope they will begin a policy of producing security updates for five years after a product is discontinued, but perhaps these discounts are their attempt to avoid doing that.

Apple will never do that as they are very quick to drop legacy support. With the release of Snow Leopard, Tiger will likely soon be dropped from support, as it seems Apple, like Microsoft, only supports the last 2 OS releases.

[dantherevelator]

This sort of thing would be a great occasional benefit of MobileMe membership, have they ever done discounts for MobileMe/.Mac members before?

[rdowns]

Yes, I got an email for this.




Save $30 on Mac OS X Leopard.
If you haven't upgraded to Leopard yet, do it today to get the most out of MobileMe. You can sync contacts and calendars faster than ever, and connect to your home Mac from anywhere in the world using Back to My Mac.
Use this Promo Code at checkout: XXXXXXXXX

Save $30 on a 500GB Time Capsule.
Time Capsule works with Time Machine in Leopard to back up your Mac computers wirelessly and automatically. And as a MobileMe member, you can access files on your Time Capsule drive over the Internet, wherever you go.
Use this Promo Code at checkout:XXXXXXXXX

[Amdahl]

Apple will never do that as they are very quick to drop legacy support. With the release of Snow Leopard, Tiger will likely soon be dropped from support, as it seems Apple, like Microsoft, only supports the last 2 OS releases.

Tiger is legacy? Where do you people come from?

Microsoft is supporting Windows 2000 until July 2010. XP will be supported until 2014. Microsoft does NOT have a policy of only supporting two OSes. They give every OS a lengthy, defined support lifecycle.

[nick9191]

Apple will never do that as they are very quick to drop legacy support. With the release of Snow Leopard, Tiger will likely soon be dropped from support, as it seems Apple, like Microsoft, only supports the last 2 OS releases.
Microsoft only stopped supporting Windows 3.11 for embedded devices as of November 2008.

And XP will be supported until 2014, by which the successor to the successor of Windows 7 will probably be out.

[Eric S.]

I still hope they will begin a policy of producing security updates for five years after a product is discontinued, but perhaps these discounts are their attempt to avoid doing that.

I think their policy has always been to release security updates for one release back from the current OS version, and no updates at all beyond that. The last build of Panther, 10.3.9, was in mid-April 2005 and there have been no updates for it after Leopard came out 2.5 years later. I expect we won't see any more updates for Tiger once Snow Leopard is released, probably less than 2 years after Tiger's last build.

[talkingfuture]

Looks like the Time Capsule 2TB rumour might be true if they are clearing stock then.

[yoyomaster]

I don't know about you all, but $30 off would not persuade me to purchase either of these two items.

[SiuPak]

I still haven't got this email, yet.

[twoodcc]

yep, i got this email today. $30 is a good discount on leopard, but it would take a little more for me to consider a time capsule

[impaler]

Got the e-mail...very MEH...I've had Leopard for a long time, and $269 for 500GB is outrageous. I'm holding out for 2TB.

[laughingperson5]

looks like they can start rolling out snow leopard in june?

[aprilfools]

Amazon is selling the Mac Box set for 139.99 which has 10.5, iWork and iLife '09 bundled together.

that is 30.00 off of that package as well and is a better deal

I love April. Aprilfools

[Eric S.]

looks like they can start rolling out snow leopard in june?

September is a better bet.

[Aqueus]

gotta make paying for their poor service worth something aye

[jasonv1]

Actually Microsoft guarantees 10 years of support for business/developer products (for OS's this means the pro/enterprise/business versions); that policy has been in place for 5 years: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/gp/lifepolicy

Would dropping support for 10.4 obsolete any hardware? (Yes I know hardware always works but some companies/regulations/etc don't allow companies to keep around production platforms that cannot be patched).

Jason

Apple will never do that as they are very quick to drop legacy support. With the release of Snow Leopard, Tiger will likely soon be dropped from support, as it seems Apple, like Microsoft, only supports the last 2 OS releases.

[Nuc]

I received it as well... Won't help me out since I already have both...

Nuc

[csmitty]

I've got both as well so not really worth it, other than maybe getting the dual band support. But if the new iphone has draft n, then no real need as all my devices will be n compatible. Plus I'll need some more storage, but nothing a call to newegg wouldn't take care of. If the 2TB is true its gonna atleast 499 if not 599. There a very few 2TB drives.

I assume the TC are 3.5" drives. I cant remember at the moment.

But every so often this would be nice for MM subscribers.

[paulmoscow]

Hmm... What to do if I haven't received the email?

[KindredMAC]

Just to let all of you NAPP members know.... The MobileMe discount does indeed also work if you are using your NAPP discount too.

[mcnallym]

Wonder if they are going to offer any discount to mobileme users outside us.

I have my mobile me account sat checking in the UK and no sign of an email from Apple with a discount code.:(

[iPhoneNYC]

Since it's clear that it's clearing inventory,I expected bigger discount. Especially if one buys the TC I think you'll be kicking yourself when the bigger drives come out - it can sync up to five computers so 2TBs is more what one would want.

[Eric S.]

I haven't received the email, but I don't care. I have never seen the utility of these integrated components. For a portable device you want everything integrated but it seems to me that for a home system it's better to have as many separate, individually upgradeable, components as possible.

[snowleopard48]

Fancy apple giving discounts to only mobileme members? :eek: Why? :confused:

I thought apple were just discounting to clear up stock.... :rolleyes:
But then if it's just for mobileme members it could just as well be as for apple to say "thank you for becoming a mobileme member" :confused:

[michael.lauden]

ooo 30$ off an overpriced hard drive/AEBS!

[randythot]

Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I believe this is more about Platform Management, than Inventory Management, as the latter is a smaller portion of the former, and I trust Apple is acting coherently.

I agree with Amdahl's observation about the user base.

==========
From Amdahl:
They have noticed a big fragmentation in the user base. Despite the big surge 10.5 had the first week, a lot of 10.4 users aren't upgrading. Apple is beginning to have an actual user base(as opposed to a fan base), and that means they can't sell as many newer products if the software companies are busy targeting the older products.

This is all about keeping products going obsolete as fast as possible, and not letting the customers slow them down.

I still hope they will begin a policy of producing security updates for five years after a product is discontinued, but perhaps these discounts are their attempt to avoid doing that.
========

Regarding obsolescence, it is most necessary because it will keep their user base, the Mac OS X platform from fragmenting. However, it is not just, "ALL about keeping it going obsolete as fast as possible." Innovation is one of the greatest strengths of Apple in competing with Microsoft, but Apple is also competing with themselves, in order to encourage us to buy the latest and greatest.

Although at a more micro level, this seems like a shaft to the users, Apple knows that users will not make such high level decisions for the best of the platform and it's future. Meanwhile, yes, they do also want to make a profit. However, their job is to create a compelling enough reason for us users to continue buying. I don't mind this. If Apple puts out crappy updates and upgrades, I can speak with my dollars. The trick is, keeping those updates and upgrades compelling enough, even in a down economy. If they do this well, they keep their user base unified.

Unified user base will have many positive benefits, perhaps the only drawback is greater susceptibility to malware. Interestingly, M$ has a huge problem with unified and fragmented user base, and malware due to their size.

So in the end, it is only secondarily about inventory management. I'm not sure if Apple uses a push or pull model for inventory, but as they keep a pretty timely supply chain, that becomes moot. It seems this move is either a small inventory management tactic, or perhaps even a strategic one, coupling keeping the MobileMe base current while also encouraging early adopters, without a huge commitment from Apple. Finally, it may be a small attempt to unify the base shortly before Snow Leopard is released. Of course, all these reasons may not be mutually exclusive.

[dvdhsu]

I don't know about you all, but $30 off would not persuade me to purchase either of these two items.
Yeah. Same here. The Time Capsule is just too expensive.
And with Snow Leopard coming out in less than a year, there isn't really a point.
Fancy apple giving discounts to only mobileme members? :eek: Why? :confused:

I thought apple were just discounting to clear up stock.... :rolleyes:
But then if it's just for mobileme members it could just as well be as for apple to say "thank you for becoming a mobileme member" :confused:
Yeah.
Perhaps that just have a little stock to clear out, so they decided to do this.

[Bye Bye Baby]

US only. That's a bummer.

[MacManiac76]

Still never received this email...not that I would purchase either...already have Leopard.