POLL - Price for Lion - WORKING!

[HONDAxACURA]

Doesn't seem too big of a difference from SL. The more fancy interface. Don't get me wrong, I think the new interface is great. Until Apple shows us more features, I'm going to say $29 for now. $39 at most.

Definitely might be over the air install. Apple is going green.

 

[WeegieMac]

Snow Leopard has set a dangerous precedent, because now ungrateful people expect Lion to come in at the same price.

Reality check people, Snow Leopard was nothing more than a performance tweak to Leopard, not an entirely new OS/update.

Lion will, in all likelihood, cost the usual $129/£89.

If it's anything lower, I'll be very surprised.

 

[CarsonGallo]

Free!!!

Hallo Apple said that there gonna be taking the best of iOS and bringing it to th Mac. And what did they just start doing with iOS 4. Free Updates! Mac OS Lion will be FREE! I mean it makes total sense. Obviously if there is a disk version THAT won't be free. But to entice people to use the digital way, they'll make the diskless version free. I mean, the only reason he new iLife cost money to rebuy was because there wasn't a previous digital version to update from. But I guess that still doesn't explain why FaceTime is being sold for a buck then I guess. All well maybe Apple will just sell it for a buck then maybe if not free.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

I imagine it will be $129, the usual Mac OS X save for 10.1 and 10.6.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Hallo Apple said that there gonna be taking the best of iOS and bringing it to th Mac. And what did they just start doing with iOS 4. Free Updates! Mac OS Lion will be FREE! I mean it makes total sense. Obviously if there is a disk version THAT won't be free. But to entice people to use the digital way, they'll make the diskless version free. I mean, the only reason he new iLife cost money to rebuy was because there wasn't a previous digital version to update from. But I guess that still doesn't explain why FaceTime is being sold for a buck then I guess. All well maybe Apple will just sell it for a buck then maybe if not free.

No.

 

[osx11]

More and more people are using Mac OS, so Apple will reduce the price over time.

I suspect standard price of $49.99, with the App Store charging $39.99.

I don't think Apple needs to charge as much as it did for Leopard because there are more users now and I think it's not going to be that much of a redesign.

 

[3282868]

$69 EDU pricing, $129 Regular.

Don't see any reason why Apple would deviate from previous iterations and offerings (note: 10.6 was really what 10.5 should have been at release, hence the much lower price point).

This. $129 has been the usual pricing for a 10.X OS (Snow Leopard was $29 as it was a "Leopard" rendition with "under the hood" changes, making it appeal more to consumers who lack the knowledge of "under the hood" rewrites and look mainly for "features" which Leopard had).

Personally, I keep all my software on another drive, I have not purchased a DVD package in over four years. I have 109 applications, OS's including Windows Vista and 7 Ultimate/Home/x86/x64, etc. and it takes up 186.67 GB's, and it's also backed up via "Time Machine". This is well over the average consumer (I have a lot of "hackint0sh" software and many other programs the general consumer wouldn't need). Apple has been pushing for physical-free/wireless media for a while, and now they are pushing it for applications. This is the first time a beta was released through an app store. From what I gather, it will be offered at a discounted price via the app store and the standard $129 for the DVD. Most if not all companies email purchase receipts for software bought online, allowing you to re-download it if you must.

Truthfully, aside from your main HDD, "Time Machine" HDD and external drive with your applications crashing at once (and don't try the house fire excuse, your physical data would be DOD as well), there's little reason for physical media. The large Lion beta took less than 10 minutes for me to download on a standard Time Warner ISP connection. Times are changing.

 

[baryon]

I think £27 was okay for Snow Leopard. Apple's reason for that price wasn't that "it's almost like Leopard and there aren't many changed in it", it was "we want everyone to upgrade to Snow Leopard". Following that logic, wouldn't they want everyone to upgrade to Lion? They never said price reflected the amount of new stuff in the OS, they said it reflects how badly they need people to adopt it (for developers to transition to new APIs and stuff like that).

 

[wnorris]

Similar pricing to SL

Doesn't seem too big of a difference from SL. The more fancy interface. Don't get me wrong, I think the new interface is great. Until Apple shows us more features, I'm going to say $29 for now. $39 at most.

Agreed. If they had not offered the App Store early they could have asked for more. Having used Lion for a few weeks I do not see any killer feature over SL. There are a lot of nice additions and added polish, but nothing to write home about. It seems as if their development efforts are gearing OS X to be more touch friendly. Others here may disagree, but I would have a very hard time paying $129 for Lion.

Although, I am looking forward to playing around with Lion Server.

 

[3282868]

I think £27 was okay for Snow Leopard. Apple's reason for that price wasn't that "it's almost like Leopard and there aren't many changed in it", it was "we want everyone to upgrade to Snow Leopard". Following that logic, wouldn't they want everyone to upgrade to Lion? They never said price reflected the amount of new stuff in the OS, they said it reflects how badly they need people to adopt it (for developers to transition to new APIs and stuff like that).

Remember, Apple gave that $29 price only if you had Leopard previously installed. Otherwise you had to buy the box set that included iLife and iWork with Snow Leopard for $129

Snow Leopard via Apple's Site

Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set, which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6.3 Snow Leopard; iLife, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork, Apple’s productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Box Set on Apple's site for $129

Of course not many followed that regulation and simply told Apple floor specialists that they already owned Snow Leopard and paid $29 instead of $129. It's been common practice for Apple to charge $129 for their 10.X updates, with the exception of 10.1. Apple didn't charge a full premium for Leopard as:

The company continued that line today. "We love Leopard, we're so proud of it [that] we decided to build upon Leopard," said Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of software engineering. "We want to build a better Leopard, hence Snow Leopard."

10.7 Lion is a completely different OS with new features, not just a re-write of Snow Leopard.

 

[baryon]

Remember, Apple gave that $29 price only if you had Leopard previously installed. Otherwise you had to buy the box set that included iLife and iWork with Snow Leopard for $129

That's just what Apple said, but the Snow Leopard install DVD works regardless of what OS you have on your machine, and this has been confirmed. It can also be installed on an empty hard drive. It was just obscure advertising on Apple's part... You could go to the Apple store and say "I'd like to buy Snow Leopard", and they'd give you the disc, they didn't ask me at least whether I had Leopard or not. I think they didn't really care much, but they wanted those who didn't really do much research to buy the full set.

 

[3282868]

That's just what Apple said, but the Snow Leopard install DVD works regardless of what OS you have on your machine, and this has been confirmed. It can also be installed on an empty hard drive. It was just obscure advertising on Apple's part...

Yeah, Snow Leopard is a full DVD and can be used on an empty system. I was asked by the sales rep, who just laughed it off. Still, I don't expect Lion to be anything less than the usual $129.

 

[Jayrcee]

Probably around $100.

 

[mysterytramp]

I voted for it to be expensive, because of earlier releases, but I think I was wrong. The cost will be nominal -- easily less than $50, and probably something like $9.99 or $19.99.

Reasons:

1) Apple will capitalize on the App Store as a distribution channel, reducing costs wildly.

2) Apple will want a PR victory over Microsoft especially with Jobs on medical leave. A new operating system with new features -- Versions and Air Drop look really cool -- at a ridiculously low price will keep people's attention away from other issues with the company.

3) Related to the PR issue, there's sure to be someone on CNBC or Fox Business who will wonder why the iPhone gets free upgrades but Apple's desktop and laptop computers don't. There are probably good reasons for that, but rather than answer the question, it's better that the question never get asked.

4) They still have all that cash.

mt

 

[axu539]

Also, the developer program AFAIK doesnt give you the released OS for free, it gives you access to the pre-release only.

Do you have sources for this? I'm considering signing up for a Mac Dev account, and doing some hobbyist developing (more of just a learning experience). If it doesn't get me a full version at the end though, I won't bother, as $100 would be a little much for me to just play around with.

 

[mrsir2009]

$80-$120. However as long as its under $150 its not going to get in the way of be buying it for my MBP

When you think about it Mac OSX costs very little compared to Windows - One of my friends was looking to buy Windows7 and its a whopping $400!!!

Since Apple are leaning towards the iOS with Lion, I'm hoping they'll make everything more instant. Like faster waking up from sleep, faster start up etc...

 

[talmy]

Also, the developer program AFAIK doesnt give you the released OS for free, it gives you access to the pre-release only.

I just joined the developer program (I actually do develop software!). Among the downloads available are OS X Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server, both the current releases and the 10.6.7 seeds. Also a bunch of other programs, SDKs and OSes back to 10.2 Jaguar.

I also don't think Lion will be $129. I expect it will be far less when bought through the Mac App store. And I'm more concerned with it breaking or obsoleting existing programs -- replacement costs for those are likely to exceed anything Lion costs!

Don't expect to save any money by becoming a "developer", and only a fool would run Lion for production in its current state.

 

[Charlie Sheen]

I hope it will only cost 29 but have a feeling they'll charge us more

 

[MattInOz]

More and more people are using Mac OS, so Apple will reduce the price over time.

I suspect standard price of $49.99, with the App Store charging $39.99.

I don't think Apple needs to charge as much as it did for Leopard because there are more users now and I think it's not going to be that much of a redesign.

The installed base Lion is targetting is what 2-3times that of Snow Leopard. Which has to be the biggest jump in users between two OS updates but the way the market is going that number will stablise for the next release much like it was probably fairly stable up to Leopard.

I think your right Pricing in the half to third range with a download option but retail edition on USB this would become the pricing for OS X from now on.

Which make me think with all the touch gestures the Left Field option would be to do a USB wired(maybe just a USBcharging cable) edition of magic mouse/pad that has say 4-8GB of Flash embedded in it. Ever need to do a rebuild then the mouse would have everything you need. Maybe then they could sell for $129 retail.

 

[OneMike]

$129 full
$29 full in upgrade packaging

 

[Joshuarocks]

Same as Leopard... 129.99 for the full version
maybe 90 for the upgrade.

Who knows at this point, but I know it possibly won't be as cheap as Snow Leopard was.

 

[MattInOz]

$129 full
$29 full in upgrade packaging

Mac OS X only comes as an Upgrade.
The question is delivery method, and price.

 

[CarsonGallo]

Facetime for Mac Co$t$

Well maybe now I'm actually leaning away from free right now, I know its definitely going to be cheaper. And they'll offer it through the Mac App Store, and sell it retail in limited amounts, but they'll probably charge half of whatever they're charging for the retail version for the digital version to influence people to use The Mac App Store. But anyways based on Apples apps they've released through the Mac App Store with Aperture at half price, iLife and iWork a little cheaper, and Aperture at half its retail price, but still $80 bucks a pop. Then Facetime for a dollar which really surprised me, since its free on iOS. I may be thinking that things on iOS that are free are gonna cost on Mac OS, although this may be a little joke by Apple and they just may end up charging just a dollar for Lion, just like they did with Facetime. And if you think about it, charging a dollar for it is actually a lot better than making it free. Sure free sounds nice, but a DOLLAR! For just a DOLLAR! ONE DOLLAR! Sounds a little bit nicer to me. Plus they get more publicity for it being just the dollar, plus the face that we know why they charged a dollar for Facetime when they could've just gave that away for free, speaking of which, Facetime actually WILL BE FREE! Well in the Lion beta it is anyways. Plus the fact that Steve Jobs only gets paid a dollar, so theres that too. O wait a second, I just realized I'm wrong. Apple never charges anything in any of their stores or anything they make for a dollar whatsoever...CAUSE THEY ALWYAS CHARGE 99 CENTS!

 

[buckers]

If being a developer is around £100 a year and they get free Lion downloads, I'd say it'd have to be less than £100. My guess is around the £80 price range, like Leopard was.

 

[gta50419]

$29 like snow lep.