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Apple Archive

Another Year, Another OS X Update - How About a Price Break?

- 2004.05.14

You know what I love? I love how Apple frequently updates its operating system in order to add new features and fix bugs.

While Microsoft just sits there saying, "We'll add it in Longhorn, we promise!", Apple offers a new Mac OS X release roughly once a year in order to incorporate some much wished for features while adding two or three neat "unexpected" things. For instance, Exposé in OS X 10.3 (Panther).

That's what I love about Apple - they never seem to quit fixing bugs and adding to their software.

But that's not what I really love. What I really love is how Apple proceeds to charge users of OS X another $129 every single time that they decide to upgrade their Mac OS.

If they decline to upgrade, "I'll wait until more people are using it," they get left behind. It doesn't seem to matter if the latest version of some critical app doesn't work with the older version of OS X you're using, because no matter what version it is, if it's not the latest - it's "too old," and if it's too old, then it's not worth supporting anymore.

It's not just Apple with that attitude. If you visited the Mac websites in the weeks after 10.3 Panther was released, far more articles were about it instead of Jaguar - new software for Panther, system hacks, and other little tidbits were coming out daily.

Articles about how to get the most with Panther, but what about Jaguar? It was but forgotten. I can't blame Apple for this - after all, they have to push 10.3 sales if they want to make a profit off of the software. They are a business, after all.

As far as the Mac Web goes, it's natural for people to be curious about the newest version of the Mac OS. Of course they'll want to play with it and write about their experiences, and that pushes sales in a way, too.

Pushing sales is fine, because OS X upgrades generally offer some good features that make upgrading worthwhile.

But if you buy every single upgrade, it starts running into money fast. Some of us have already spent several hundred dollars buying OS X plus the upgrades from 10.0 or 10.1 to 10.2 and then to 10.3. We'll probably buy 10.4 as well. What's another $129?

What Apple ought to have is a policy for frequent upgraders. If you have bought a certain number of OS X upgrades (maybe two), you should be able to get a discount on the next one. The more upgrades you've bought, the better discount on the next version. It's sort of a loyalty scheme to reward those who upgrade their Mac OS and stay up to date.

After all, it ensures that they have the most recent and (hopefully) less bug-ridden software, and it helps Apple by selling another copy of the OS. Fewer bugs and more features for the consumer, more profit for Apple. It's win-win, the way I see it.

Apple makes some pretty good products, and I like to see that consumers are receiving one of their Mac OS updates positively. However, I would really like software upgrades available on more affordable terms for Mac users, especially those who have supported Apple by frequently buying their products in the past.

Yes, Apple is a business and needs to make money, but I think it could make more money if it decided to give an incentive for people to upgrade from an older version of the Mac OS by allowing loyal customers to purchase the latest version at a slightly lower price.

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