[RndTbl] OS X tips

Mike Pfaiffer high.res.mike at gmail.com
Wed Dec 16 23:36:59 CST 2009


On 2009-12-16, at 10:19 PM, Adam Thompson wrote:

>> I was at the Apple store yesterday, asking about Snow Leopard.  I had
>> understood earlier that it was an 'upgrade' from Leopard - but the guy
>> in the store says it's a complete OS and has no previous requirements
>> (except the firmware, I assume).
>> 
>> So there is also one being sold for $200?
> 
> Snow Leopard is available as an upgrade or as a bundled license with
> purchase of new hardware.
> To purchase it as an upgrade, you must be running Mac OS X on an Intel CPU,
> which implicitly limits the offer to owners of Mac OS X 10.4 or newer only.
> If you purchased a machine running 10.5 after June 8th, 2009, the 10.6
> upgrade is available for CAD9.95, otherwise the upgrade costs CAD35.00.
> (Prices are taken from the Apple Store online, Canadian site.  Actually,
> another page says the "up-to-date" program costs CAD13.00, not CAD9.95... go
> figure.)

	BTW, if you want to take advantage of the cheap pricing of $10, you need to send in your paperwork within 90 days. Apple is NOT flexible on this. Lindsay (who sometimes attends meetings) waited 93 days and was turned down.

> Note that Snow Leopard is NOT available for purchase online as a full
> license.  I don't know if the Apple Store sells it as such, but I doubt it
> because:
> 
> 1) 10.6 requires an Intel processor.
> 2) 10.6 is available as an upgrade to ANY MAC with an Intel processor.
> 3) ALL MACs with Intel processors were sold with a bundled license for
> whatever version of Mac OS was current at the time of manufacture.

	I think you are correct. I only saw the $40 and $200 versions on the shelf.

> 
> ...so why would it be available as anything other than an upgrade?
> (Note: This is the same logic Microsoft uses to justify only selling Windows
> 7 "upgrade" licenses to volume purchasers - the underlying assumption is
> that all your PCs came with OEM licenses.)

	I think they just sell the major upgrades. The minor ones are free downloads via patches. I suspect the cheaper versions are because people are having sticker shock. After all $200 is a pretty big hit every 18 months or so.

> -Adam


				Later
				Mike





More information about the Roundtable mailing list