App Store Delivery Lets Apple Slash Lion Pricing

[skier777]

Nice, 30 bucks is cheap.
Apple is finally taking some tips from microsoft.

They make the product cheap or free or easy to steal so that it proliferates the market, people learn how to use it and then continue to adopt it. Office Ultimate 2007 was *given* away in a sense when MS decided that you didn't have to have a key to install it but it sure as hell got the .docx format out there and forced businesses and schools to buy office.

I think apple has another motive here, to get people into the app store. Lion will be the first ever major computer operating system that you cannot buy with cash...

 

[knownikko]

I also want to know how people are going to install Lion who still have Tiger on there computers and can’t access the App Store.

Pretty sure no computer that shipped with Tiger can be upgraded to Lion anyway, so the point is moot. Lion requires a 64 bit processor (Core 2 Duo or later).

 

[MacVault]

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I never do an 'upgrade' with major version. Am I really out of luck? And yea, what about those on slow connections? Or say I buy a used Mac on craigslist and it has no OS installed.. How do I install the Lion? Buy the snow leopard first on disk and then upgrade? Sounds absurd! I don't mind download distribution, but let my download the full installer to burn to DVD.

 

[Yvan256]

//Shrug. I pay slightly less than $60 for this and I don't think it's that bad. Would rather be in Japan but oh well

[url=http://www.speedtest.net/result/1333164598.png]Image[/URL]

It's not that bad. I pay 25.00$CAD/month for cable internet at 2 Mbps download/512 kbps upload with a 35 GB upload+download monthly cap. No other choice of ISP either... They do offer 5, 8, 12 and 20 Mbps but the price more than double to get the 5 Mbps, so imagine the cost for the other speeds...

 

[PraisiX-windows]

Snow Leopard didn't cost $29 did it? That was only the upgrade that cost that, right? - Where as if you wanted to buy it from scratch it was $129 or something, I don't get the "99 cents more for Lion than SL" in, (was it canada?) then, because I assume the $29 for Lion is going to be for the full package.

Edit: Also, the article says that the price didn't change much in the US/Canada, it only rose by 3%, and at the same time that the main reason for the change is pricing is cost savings, how on earth does that make sense, it's more expensive, which must be due to VERY effective cost savings? - OP, you lost me there.. - Albeit my IQ can be counted on 2 hands.

 

[frankk]

Snow Leopard didn't cost $29 did it? That was only the upgrade that cost that, right? - Where as if you wanted to buy it from scratch it was $129 or something, I don't get the "99 cents more for Lion than SL" in, (was it canada?) then, because I assume the $29 for Lion is going to be for the full package.

Edit: Also, the article says that the price didn't change much in the US/Canada, it only rose by 3%, and at the same time that the main reason for the change is pricing is cost savings, how on earth does that make sense, it's more expensive, which must be due to VERY effective cost savings? - OP, you lost me there.. - Albeit my IQ can be counted on 2 hands.

SL was sold as an upgrade, but worked as an install. At least for me.

 

[frankk]

Pretty sure no computer that shipped with Tiger can be upgraded to Lion anyway, so the point is moot. Lion requires a 64 bit processor (Core 2 Duo or later).

That true is it? Pity.

 

[Ibjr]

Hopefully we can look back on this in a year or two and declare it a win against piracy. Software like Adobe Creative Suite is so expensive because so many people take it for free. Eliminating (or close to it, I'm guessing someone will try to figure some way around it) piracy is a bonus for everyone except the pirates.

Why would Adobe raise prices to recoup money lost to piracy when they have infinite copies of their good? Quit applying economics that only make sense when there is a finite supply of a good. The invisible hand doesn't set prices -- they're set by MBAs looking at spreadsheets. Even if piracy could be totally eradicated, Adobe wouldn't drop their prices as long as professionals were willing to pay an arm and a leg for the product.

Because of what I do for a living i hope we can eliminate piracy but i don't delude myself into thinking it'll encourage price drops.

 

[416049]

Pretty sure no computer that shipped with Tiger can be upgraded to Lion anyway, so the point is moot. Lion requires a 64 bit processor (Core 2 Duo or later).

Actually your wrong for example the iMac 7.1 shipped with tiger and has an intel core 2 duo also the Mac Mini 2.1 and the Macbook in 2007 shipped with Tiger but you can still upgrade them to Lion

 

[procksa49er1120]

Lion on 5 Macs

If I my father and brother (living in same household) each have a Lion compatible Mac, but our Macs use different iTunes logins will we have to purchase 3 copies of Lion? or just one at $29.99

 

[FalconDelta]

I don't think the data here is robust enough to conclude that downward pressure on OS pricing is primarily the result of digital delivery. Such an idea is interesting and worthy of further examination, but this report does not seem to pass academic muster. Data set considered is too limited and as others have mentioned does not seem to account for currency fluctuations, etc.

Perhaps the only thing we can safely conclude is that Lion is the "greenest" distribution yet. Digital distribution = smaller carbon footprint.

 

[SandynJosh]

the single user pack can still be installed on 5 computers.

From what I gathered from the keynote presentation the new number is 10 Macs for Lion and 10 iDevices for iOS5.

 

[tatonka]

Pretty sure no computer that shipped with Tiger can be upgraded to Lion anyway, so the point is moot. Lion requires a 64 bit processor (Core 2 Duo or later).

That true is it? Pity.

No it is not .. my 2007 MBP for all we know will run Lion just fine and did ship with Tiger installed (although I later got Leopard as a free upgrade with the up to date program).

T.

 

[SandynJosh]

If I my father and brother (living in same household) each have a Lion compatible Mac, but our Macs use different iTunes logins will we have to purchase 3 copies of Lion? or just one at $29.99

Due to the keynote presentation it does seem as some things are tied to the iTunes ID and some to the Apple ID. However it does seem as though all three computers will need the $29.99 OS upgrade.

Apple will be keeping track as to what software you have bought from the Mac Store, so effectively you can go back for additional free downloads if your OS or other apps become corrupted...so they are effectively serving as an off-site backup for you in this respect.

There are many unanswered questions yet, but I'm sure all will become clear by the time Lion roars.

 

[SandynJosh]

Pretty sure no computer that shipped with Tiger can be upgraded to Lion anyway, so the point is moot. Lion requires a 64 bit processor (Core 2 Duo or later).

Don't spread disinformation when you really don't know what you're talking about. Apple has been shipping Core 2 Duo CPUs since 2006 when Tiger, 10.4, was the current OS.

 

[res1233]

Except for those of us who have a Mac Pro and don't want to haul it around. Plus if the hard drive dies that partition isn't going to do you much good.

Solution? Boot partition on the Time Machine disk, with support for network booting from disk images. Sounds like it would solve the issue for the majority of us. That has to be one of my best ideas ever! ©Me 2011

The next step would be to just make the Time Machine partition bootable itself, thereby making a very automated restore possible.

In fact, this would allow Apple to easily issue updates to the data contained on the boot partition or time machine partition, which it couldn't do for a physical disk. To be honest, this sounds downright ideal.

 

[bananas]

I'd like to know what's Apple's answer to the enterprise and educational IT departments..

When you have hundreds or thousands of Macs it doesn't make sense to download the OS each time from the internet. Also when you need to reinstall a Mac, you don't want to install Snow Leopard first and then upgrade. And NO, restore partition is not a suitable solution for enterprise and edu.

 

[gnasher729]

Despite the fact that I don't understand your last sentence at all, I agree -- the cheaper updates means more people will upgrade which puts more Macs at the same level. Adoption of new APIs and core services will go faster as a result.

As a developer, it was hard to say to a potential customer "well you have to pay $129 for Leopard first if you want to use my software because it won't run on Tiger" because it means losing sales. Now with the Mac App Store, you could require the customer to have 10.6.6 at least because otherwise they couldn't buy your software anyway. And sales doubled. Now with 10.7, it is much easier to say "well you have to pay $29 for Lion if you want to use my software".

1) I suspect Apple has built in the potential price of software piracy into their titles. Any intermediate-level user can BitTorrent a .dmg and download a piece of Apple software that doesn't require registration. I would have no idea how to distribute something downloaded off the App Store. Does anyone here? (DISCLAIMER: I'm just asking a theoretical, academic question!)

Apple's OS comes with a huge hardware dongle that is called a "Macintosh". Apple gets their money from you buying a Mac; anything they get from you for OS software is just nice to have, but not essential. It is _good_ for Apple if everyone upgrades to the latest OS. So they set the price to get a combination of two effects: As many 10.7 users as possible, and getting some cash for the OS doesn't hurt, but isn't essential.

also want to know how people are going to install Lion who still have Tiger on there computers and can’t access the App Store.

The same as they installed Leopard and Snow Leopard: They didn't buy it, and they didn't install it. They can do the same with Lion.

 

[res1233]

I'd like to know what's Apple's answer to the enterprise and educational IT departments..

When you have hundreds or thousands of Macs it doesn't make sense to download the OS each time from the internet. Also when you need to reinstall a Mac, you don't want to install Snow Leopard first and then upgrade. And NO, restore partition is not a suitable solution for enterprise and edu.

My solution solves the restore problem, assuming they use Time Machine. Distribution is the real problem. Unless... Macs could be made aware of other macs on the network with Lion, much like how Dropbox is aware of other macs running dropbox, and copy the installer over the network for running locally? I think I'm on to something! I really think Apple could have done this as the tech has already been proven, as I said, with dropbox... It's a shame really.

 

[hppy29]

Unless they said this in a different spot of the Keynote, you're remembering this wrongly. Go 36 minutes into the Keynote to where Phil Schiller is explaining how to buy Lion. He specifically says "since it follows Mac App Store rules", you can "use it on all of you authorized personal Macs, so you don't have to buy multiple copies". Mac App Store rules is that you can authorize all of your Macs, no limits.

Mac App Store rules are not the same as iTunes authorization rules. There are no computer limits on the Mac App Store.

Check out the attached pic from Apple's website. Explicitly says that apps purchased from the MAS can be installed on every Mac you own.

Incidentally, I just signed out of my Mac App Store and purchased apps worked fine.

To back this up, all anyone had to do was read the Mac APP store terms and conditions at the bottom of the page, it says you can download it as many times as you like for personal use...

 

[rikscha]

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Eurozone is not represented by a French flag. That's pure laziness or ignorance.

 

[bananas]

If I my father and brother (living in same household) each have a Lion compatible Mac, but our Macs use different iTunes logins will we have to purchase 3 copies of Lion? or just one at $29.99

You should be fine with one copy. You can login to App store with one iTunes login on all of the computers in your home.

 

[037291]

Even Cheaper

If i consider the price of itunes vouchers when they are on special i could get Lion for about 25 Bucks ( Note these sales are on nearly every month and are often 20% off)

 

[OllyW]

If i consider the price of itunes vouchers when they are on special i could get Lion for about 25 Bucks ( Note these sales are on nearly every month and are often 20% off)

It's only going to cost me £14 after I took advantage of a deal offering two £15 vouchers for £20 the other day.

 

[WickedStealthy]

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Eurozone is not represented by a French flag. That's pure laziness or ignorance.

Indeed that was really the first picture which hurt my eyes. The last thing I want to be associated with is France Their prime companies rule our market as real monopolists ... with consent of the EU and our own government