they should sell it through itunes as download. although it's nice to have a dvd for reinstalls.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Snow leopard In store?
- Thread starter JamesGorman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
they should sell it through itunes as download. although it's nice to have a dvd for reinstalls.
I just ordered mine through apple's website. Paid 9.95 + 0.87 tax with free shipping. I just typed in my login information and pswd and the 9.95 price came up. I guess they automatically know when you purchased your mac. Mine of course was purchased after June 8th.
I'd love to see it available in iTunes as a download as I'd be making an image of the disk anyway. It would save me a step. However, there are 2 drawbacks of doing it this way. 1) Having a physical product, in many cases, enhances the experience of ownership and 2) Going to the store to partake in the launch festivities is always fun. So I'd probably go to the store anyway. It would be nice for people who didn't live near a store.
Yes it would most definitely be a large download, but the average Mac user would be buying it from a store. I don't think anyone believes that an OS is ready for download-only purchasing.
Again, if it were an option to either download it or go to the store, most Mac users would opt to go to the store to buy it.
Also, (nearly) all of the beta developer seeds are via download, and they're rather large. So it's not like Apple doesn't know how to distribute it's OS via download. I'm afraid that the biggest reason they don't or won't is the strain on their servers would piss off everyone who attempted it (What if iPhone OS 3.0 were 5-6 gigs rather than a few hundred megs?
and lots of ).
Fair enough. I misunderstood what you were saying exactly.
However, if they wanted to, Apple could simply create a utility that would automate the process (at least in the case of burning) for the user. Click the utility, system prompts you to insert a blank DVD (or DL-DVD), burns the media, verifies the media and offers to restart from the disc. No messing with Disk Utility or any other "scary" utilities.
But like I said earlier, people who would opt to download the OS are going to be technically inclined, and burning a DVD or setting up a bootable drive aren't going to pose major technical hurdles. Non-technical users would still choose to buy it from a store.
Selling it through iTunes as an option would be nice, though, for people who wanted it. But while Apple has the infrastructure in place, the logistics of a download that large in that volume would be problematic. I know they sell HD movies which would be about the same size, but I doubt it's in the same initial volume as a major OS release. I could be wrong.
Well, they haven't even started building it yet. From what I have heard, they aren't expected to break ground for a few months and won't be up until later next year. I think we can safely exclude that option.
Well it would be much larger than a HD download. I think those are about 4 gigs or so. The OSX DVD's require a dual layer DVD.
apple could simply have a few lines of code in the SL installer to check for presence of the leopard OS. it could just check the about this mac section info. if it says leopard then its fine, if not FAIL.
I think the most important thing people are overlooking is the lack of a free T-Shirt if you download Snow Leopard. Mind you as it's a cheap update maybe the t-shirt will be a vest instead.