Does Apple retroactively offer OS upgrades for recent purchases?

[cmccarten]

Topic says it all: if, say, I bought a mac a month (or a week or a day) before Leopard came out, does Apple offer a free retroactive upgrade? (and I know that you can return it to the store w/in 10 days...but that's useless for me!)

That is the one sort of sketchy thing about buying Apple products. MS offered the arrival date for Vista months in advance, and made it clear that any computer bought within that time frame would receive a free upgrade. I think that business tactic makes buyers (ie, me!) feel a lot more comfortable about dropping the cash now vs. waiting.

 

[WildCowboy]

When Apple announces the release date of Leopard they will almost definitely announce a timeframe in which users will be eligible for the Leopard upgrade. It almost certainly will not include users who purchased their computers prior to Apple's announcement of the release date. It's the users who purchase a machine after the announcement but before the release that have the possibility of receiving the upgrade.

 

[killmoms]

You only receive a free upgrade if you buy a Mac between the time the release date is officially announced and the arrival of the OS. This has been the way it has worked pretty consistently now for several years. Hope that helps.

EDIT: Beaten to the punch by WildCowboy, who has the FASTEST FINGERS IN THE WEST! ...Draw!

 

[steve_hill4]

Certainly, that's how it's operated in the past. The questions is, does anybody think Apple will operate any differently now or in the future?

If Leopard got announced tomorrow say, (oh, and that's a Tuesday), and was shipping in two weeks time, would they ever consider a month or two backdated as a gesture of good will to those who couldn't wait any longer? I can't see it myself, as most who know about these things know it will be announced and released in Spring, so hold on another month or two if possible. The only ones affected would be those who don't follow rumour sites like this and they would feel cheated.

Many arguments for and against this switch in position, but it would be great PR for them if they did so.

 

[eluk]

Highly unlikely. There is a cut off point with all things and so there are always punters feeling hard done by.

 

[Lancetx]

I'm sure Apple will do the same thing they did when they released Jaguar, Panther and Tiger. You have to wait for the formal announcement if you want to be eligible for special upgrade pricing. Last time it was $9.95 or so if I remember correctly. Microsoft did the exact same thing as well with Vista late last year, but theirs varied in cost depending on the particular PC vendor in question.

 

[pubb]

I tend to be much more concerned about hardware refreshes than OS releases. I'm waiting for the iMac refresh to purchase my new desktop. If it comes with Leopard, great. If not, so much the better. I can always upgrade the OS later. I'll be pretty well stuck with the hardware for the next couple of years.

In some ways, I would rather have a new iMac running Tiger than Leopard. I would probably wait until 10.5.2 or whatever comes out before I upgrade. Let the fanbois be Apple's guinea pigs.

Pubb

 

[dmw007]

Certainly, that's how it's operated in the past. The questions is, does anybody think Apple will operate any differently now or in the future?

I would assume that Apple would treat Leopard the same as it did Tiger and Panther.

 

[iW00t]

The only ones affected would be those who don't follow rumour sites like this and they would feel cheated.

Like Apple cares about people feeling cheated, same deal with the MBPs with "brighter" and yet "brighter" screens but how they conveniently neglect that it has the screen texture of Asia's staple food.

Try bringing it up to them, and get stone walled with "it is within specs".

Same deal with Leopard, "you agreed to buy it with Tiger".

Apple retroactively doing something that costs them money when they legally don't have to? Ha! That's a new one.

Many arguments for and against this switch in position, but it would be great PR for them if they did so.

PR for Apple involves renting out a conference hall and have a monkey who is already on retainer skit and dance on stage for the journalists. In short it is cheap.

 

[steve_hill4]

That's my thinking too, although I'm happy with the screen on my MBP, I guess that's one of the best things about the Rev. A models, seemed to avoid the screen issues from what I've seen.

I seem to recall Tiger costing about £11.99 here and also still having stock with Panther on it after the date whereas you could upgrade for that price. That caused one or two arguments because all the stock with Panther and Tiger came in under the same stock numbers for us, (I recall most models started to ship with Tiger before they upgraded the specs). There was no way of telling whether a customer would arrive at our collection point to pick up a Tiger or Panther Mac.

That's really why I'm hoping they do a decent update to all Macs at the same time as Leopard. 1GB in all MacBooks, iMacs and Minis as standard for example. I'd still like the 24" iMac with Santa Rosa and Core 2 Quad though, so i'll hold on for a bit longer and just update my MBP to Leopard.

 

[Sun Baked]

I'd almost expect them to go back to the $19.95 price this round, after the $9.95 dip, since the cost of shipping has gone up so much since the last round.

 

[cowman007]

Just out of curiosity does anybody know if Apple supply's the upgrade disc to you or do they simply perform the upgrade themselves. I much prefer it if Apple gave me the disc (for backup reasons) and also I myself wouldn;t want to be one of the first people to install Leopard as it will mostly likely ship with tones of bugs

 

[WildCowboy]

Just out of curiosity does anybody know if Apple supply's the upgrade disc to you or do they simply perform the upgrade themselves. I much prefer it if Apple gave me the disc (for backup reasons) and also I myself wouldn;t want to be one of the first people to install Leopard as it will mostly likely ship with tones of bugs

You will always get a disc. Systems will ship with Leopard pre-installed as soon as possible after it's released. Back stock systems with Tiger installed sold after Leopard is released should either receive a free Leopard disc if purchased from Apple or an easy path to obtain one from Apple if purchased elsewhere. The "Up-to-Date" upgrade program for people buying Macs between the announcement date and the release date will allow you to order Leopard discs from Apple for the nominal fee. They will not install it for you.