I just ordered a new Powerbook - finally, my current machine is nearly 5 years old! - and I'm trying to figure out what the upgrade path to Tiger will be like. In past years, it's been a non-issue, as I was a student developer, but as a Working Person(tm) now, I can't get those deals any more. Can anyone provide any historical/rumorological insights on what the odds are that people buying new Macs now will get free/cheap upgrades? I assume it will be time based, something like 4 months back from whenever it gets released?
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OS upgrade program policy?
- Thread starter jg3
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If past releases are any indication, you'll have to pay full retail price. I know it sucks, but oh well.
This may seem a stupid question, but what is the retail price (in UK pounds), and would Tiger bought in the US work on an iBook bought in the UK?
vtprinz said:
So by "announced", you mean "released"? Tiger's obviously been "announced", although not given a ship date. I did some rooting around on the web, and found (and then remembered) that there was a deal of some sort for moving from 10.0 to 10.1, but I guess they stopped doing that, or at least being so generous about it, in more recent history?
jg3 said:
I think he means when the actual release date is announced. In the past, Apple has announced the release date about a month or so in advance. At the same time, they've said that any new Mac purchasers from that point on will be able to upgrade for a nominal materials fee (usually about $20). However, I would caution anyone to make sure they've actually said this about Tiger before assuming you'll get a cheap upgrade. You never know - they could announce the release date but say no cheap upgrades. Unlikely, but possible!
I believe with 10.1 you could get it for the nominal fee. Two reasons: one, 10.0 was still pretty slow and kind of like a beta. And two, it helped encourage more early adopters of OS X (OS 9 and below still had a huge majority of the Mac market share). I wouldn't count on anything like that ever again.
bankshot said:
10.1 was available for free as an update to 10.0 at a retail store, or 20 bucks to cover shipping and handling if you ordered it from apple. This was an upgrade disk only though. If you didn't have 10.0 installed, you had to buy 10.1 as a full install. Every other major update has cost full price.
10.1 was offered for "free" for 10.0 buyers because 10.0 was so bad that 10.1 was more or less functional fix to it.
paying the full price for every .1 upgrade, like between 10.1 to 10.2, 10.2 to 10.3, is more of the "norm."
you get the $20 offer for an upgrade if the new OS is announced to ship with new machines - which hasn't happened yet with tiger - and your newly purchased machine since that day doesn't come with the latest OS because of lag in installing/packing the newest OS with it.
if you buy a machine now, you are entitled to iLife 05 upgrade if it doesn't come with it, but not tiger.
paying the full price for every .1 upgrade, like between 10.1 to 10.2, 10.2 to 10.3, is more of the "norm."
you get the $20 offer for an upgrade if the new OS is announced to ship with new machines - which hasn't happened yet with tiger - and your newly purchased machine since that day doesn't come with the latest OS because of lag in installing/packing the newest OS with it.
if you buy a machine now, you are entitled to iLife 05 upgrade if it doesn't come with it, but not tiger.
when i got my pb, i think i ordered it about a week after panther was announced (the shipping date). they said you could get the upto date discs for about £10 if you had ordered it since that date, but i just put in my date of order on hte form and they sent me it for the same £10 so i'm not compalining!
don't worry about it. you'll have to pay full price but this is not microsoft. tiger isn't going to cost $300 for a full install or $200 for an upgrade version like windows xp.
it'll likely come in only one version and cost $129, just like past releases.
apple has never made a new OS announcement and said "if you bought your mac within the last x months before the release, you can get the upgrade for free." it's always been a now or nothing deal. they'll usually make an official announcement of a new OS version to be officially released and shipped in a week or something. and anyone who buys a mac after that official announcement of the new OS version gets an upgrade for a nominal fee or for free. just like ilife up to date. as there hasn't been any official announcement of tiger yet, you won't be getting a free upgrade.
it'll likely come in only one version and cost $129, just like past releases.
apple has never made a new OS announcement and said "if you bought your mac within the last x months before the release, you can get the upgrade for free." it's always been a now or nothing deal. they'll usually make an official announcement of a new OS version to be officially released and shipped in a week or something. and anyone who buys a mac after that official announcement of the new OS version gets an upgrade for a nominal fee or for free. just like ilife up to date. as there hasn't been any official announcement of tiger yet, you won't be getting a free upgrade.
Cool, thanks everybody. Too bad it's not looking like I'll get Tiger on the cheap, but you're right, it's only $129 or so, and I don't mind supporting Apple.
Something I've been wondering; if I were to buy a Powerbook today, the DVD included would have OS 10.3.7 & iLife '05 on the disc.
If I were to buy Tiger when it comes out and go for a clean install; how would I get iLife back on it? Would I have to purchase iLife '05 anyway, or would there be some way of installing it after the Tiger installation is finished?
If I were to buy Tiger when it comes out and go for a clean install; how would I get iLife back on it? Would I have to purchase iLife '05 anyway, or would there be some way of installing it after the Tiger installation is finished?
andrewfee said:
whatever the disk iLife '05 comes on, you'll be able to install it separately.
same thing happens with OS 9 (classic) license. my PB came with Jaguar + classic. my panther doesn't come with classic, since the license fee for panther doesn't include it. i am supposed to install panther, then install classic from the license i have in the jaguar disc. (i didn't bother because i don't use classic app, but you see my point?)
basically, just because it doesn't come in separate discs doesn't mean you can't do indep. installations. (though i'm not sure if the Macs these days have one disc for both panther and iLife '05, or will ship with separate iLife '05 discs...)