Why no upgrade prices for iWork / iLife 05 to 06?

[fpayne]

Has anyone actually used iLife 05 and 06 to compare the two and give a verdict. I only bought my Mac in November and iLife came with it. I will use all the applications, especially garage band and iphoto. Does the upgrade actually justify buying the newer product, regardless of the sum of money involved? Any amount is too much if the product is not worth it.

Even on the Apple site I can find no comparison of the two products advising us as to why we should upgrade.

[Lt Major Burns]

generally it's never that good upgrading year over year. leave it a couple of years to get the most out of your $79.i have iLife '04, and i'm still not tempted enough by '06.

[fryke]

I can't repeat it enough: 79$ isn't much for the software you get. I'd look at the reviews that are certainly coming out in the coming days.

[fpayne]

I agree, $79 is not much to pay if you get something for your money. But it is a lot to pay if you gain nothing over what you already have. Sometimes an upgrade contains components which make it almost essential while other times an upgrade is nothing more than re-packaging.

My problem is I only have a few days to make a decision and I doubt many reveiws will be out by then.

[fpayne]

For anyone inetersted there is a a review at CNet
http://reviews.cnet.com/iLife_06/450...2.html?tag=nav

I personally found it helpful

[irg63]

I can certainly imagine how you feel!... Could it be that there is a difference in our perceptions of what is a fair price?... I don't mean just a difference between you and I,... i find this genuinely interesting, perhaps there is a difference between UK and US and even between long term Mac users and 'Switchers' (like myself)...

I know that if I were you, and had just bought the product a month before they brought out this upgrade I would be livid and would be back down to the Apple store demanding a free upgrade... Did they tell you that there was probably going to be an upgraded version in a months time?...

I don't think it is a fair comment (not from you, but from the manufacturers) that computers are updated all the time - the fact is that they are canny marketing guru's and create needs in the minds of users where there clearely aren't really needs,... they want us to upgrade and they don't give a monkey's whether or not we need the new features of the product that they are producing...

Originally Posted by mdnky

I just got it Dec 4th of this year (36 days ago)...how do you think I feel? I'm sure someone else got it after me. That's the way the cards lie in the computer world.

It's not really that big of a deal to me. Things get updated all the time and some of those cost a whole lot more than $79 (or 45 GBP, 427 FRF, 128 DEM, 609 SEK, 9000 JPY, 837 MXN, 65 EUR, etc. [not counting fees, taxes, or other charges during conversion]).

If it's worth it to someone to upgrade, they will. If it's not, they won't. I think I'll be happy with the '05 version for a while...I really didn't see anything I "have to have" out of '06 just yet. As it is now, the only programs I use are iTunes (everyday), iPhoto (maybe once a week), and iMovie/iDvd (rarely). iWeb would probably never be used (that's what BBEdit is for, for me at least) and I think I've opened GarageBand once so far.

[fryke]

Well, then we have to repeat something else, too: This forum and quite a couple of rumour sites *know* that Apple has released iLife '04 at MWSF 2004, iLife '05 at MWSF 2005 and it wasn't _that_ hard to imagine that it would release iLife '06 at MWSF 2006. Also: Keynote was first released at MWSF 2004, went into iWork '05 with Pages 1.0 at MWSF 2005, so it wasn't that hard to imagine that iWork '06 would come out at MWSF 2006! People who think they were _betrayed_ in some fashion, I think, are plain wrong. They went to a store, looked at a product, read its description and paid the price for the software. At the time, this price seemed right or they wouldn't have paid it. The box contained no "get free/cheap upgrades for life" inside or anything, so it's, after all, just tough luck. What can we say, really?

You can still sell your iLife or iWork '05 on eBay. If you get 20 dollars for it and buy iWork or iLife for 79, you just _had_ your upgrade pricing.

[mdnky]

I wouldn't want the MacBook Pro though. Sure the extra power would be nice...but I'm happy with what I have. The lack of a s-video port, only having one FW port (have to have 2...3 would be nice), and the slower SuperDrive (not to mention lack of dual-layer capability) makes it as bad of a choice as an iBook for me now. The fact that they haven't released power consumption (battery life) ratings and the information I've seen on the Intel Duo chip (as high if not slightly higher draw than the G4, not to mention a brighter more hungry screen); and the fact that its a first run version just don't make me real eager to want one.

I kind of agree on the upgrade thing, but then again this kind of thing has been going on since day one, particularly for hardware. On the PC side of things its even worse...you're lucky to last a month or two before your new system is outdated (its slowed down recently though). The Mac side has always given you around six to eight months before that happens, so you kind of have to be happy with what you get. They are in the business of selling their product and the only way to do so is to create something better so that the sales continue. It just boils down to buyer-beware I guess.

A year in time for software is on the inner-edge of the norm really. Quite a few people actually get ticked off when they don't see some kind of upgrade show up within a set amount of time.

I think a bigger issue revolves around the notion people have that they have to have the latest, greatest 'thing' to rate. People do it everyday for far more expensive items than a computer—cars for example. Why some people buy a new car (or lease) every two years is beyond comprehension to me; not to mention a huge waste of money. Generally the answer is it's human nature that causes it; companies of course know this and want to profit off of it.

As far as fair price...maybe. I am after all used to paying quite a bit for software given my occupation. Someone posted on here about wanting a 2d/3d capable CAD system and I ranked programs under $250 as "low price"...which in that area it is. Some are pulling $4000+ per seat, with a majority pulling in the $700 to $1300 range. So yea...$79 seems like a steal in comparison to what I'm used to.