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

irg63

irg63

Guest
I switched to Macs in 2003 because of OS X which I had been watching develop since it's earliest versions and which finally wowed me when it hit Jaguar - I am very happy with OS X and have bought a considerable amount of software for the platform, from both Mac and other software houses and don't mind spending money on software, but I find it incredibly irritating when the software I have purchased is upgraded and absolutely no concesion is made to those who have already purchesed earlier versions of that software and supported its development.

Any other views or comments on this?
 
Well, I think this kind of goes to the case that all macs come with OS X and some version of iLife. So really you have the case that everybody is upgrading so there is only an upgrade price. That doesn't work for iWork but hey that is for work right? ;)
 
lurk said:
Well, I think this kind of goes to the case that all macs come with OS X and some version of iLife. So really you have the case that everybody is upgrading so there is only an upgrade price. That doesn't work for iWork but hey that is for work right? ;)
Click to expand...

Not for work,... for study - but that is not the point they are really taking the mickey... as we say! And the version of iLife doesn't come with OS X as far as I'm aware - it certainly didn't come with my copy of Tiger... It comes with the machine I believe?... And iWork came with Tiger in the form of a 30 day trial.

I only bought iWork 05 8 months ago - it is simply not right that I should have to pay nearly £60 (60GBP) again for an upgrade to software that isn't even a year old.
 
Both iLife and iWork are very inexpensive for what they do. If they serve you well, you'll happily pay the price to upgrade to the newest version. If you think your current version is okay, you don't have to upgrade.
 
irg63 said:
I only bought iWork 05 8 months ago - it is simply not right that I should have to pay nearly £60 (60GBP) again for an upgrade to software that isn't even a year old.
Click to expand...

You don't have to do anything. There are a lot of people - for example - who still use Photoshop 6 or 7, because they haven't seen enough of an improvement in recent versions to justify upgrading.

And let's be honest, iWork '06 is pretty crap. I wouldn't expect anyone who aleady owns '05 to shell out £60 so they can do 3D graphs in Keynote (which is about the only new feature...ok, maybe a few more :))

And iLife...well, in all my life I have never seen a package that is more value for money than iLife. It blows my mind they aren't charging hundreds of dollars for it.

It is frustrating to always *feel* like you're behind because they bring out new stuff so fast, but it's just a phychological thing. There was nothing wrong with your iLife/iWork yesterday, so there's no reason why you should feel any different today.
 
It's good to hear your feedback, it's just that especially as a long term subscriber to 'dotmac' it I find it really annoys me that they have introduced new stuff to iWork / iLife which means that I have to pay more to be able to profit from their improvements to something I've paid through the nose for for three years now... So, in essence my being able to fully use something else that I've been paying for is affected by my willingness to pay the as new price for it even though I've already paid for it twice in less than a year and a half
 
irg63 said:
I only bought iWork 05 8 months ago - it is simply not right that I should have to pay nearly £60 (60GBP) again for an upgrade to software that isn't even a year old.
Click to expand...

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.
 
I think the iWeb app is pretty neat for what it does.
But the iPhoto "homepage" needs some serious work...I guess all that work went into iWeb.
As far as dotmac, well...umm...it's nice and all, but I don't know if it's $99 nice.
If you're a heavy net user who loves updating a webpage and giving all your friends the URL (even printed on business cards) then I could see where $99 a year would come in handy.
But for the average joe? Nah.
 
I agree that iLife and .Mac should be sold together as they really operate together. But that's just my opinion.

What about a model where one pays a fixed yearly level and get for that:
iLife
.Mac
Latest system
Exclusive iTunes songs
 
I think that Apple should allow you to publish to ANY web server of your choice and not just .mac. Heck, I'd pay $99 a year just for that privilage. ha!
 
You can publish yourself by exporting to HTML in iWeb, I hear. Although some features are missing then, it should basically work alright. But I agree... The ties between iLife '06 and .Mac are kinda sneaky.
 
the problem with .mac is that it should be free. cut it down, and offer it for free - as part of buying a lovely expensive mac you get ilife, the best suite of applications you can buy, and os x, the best os you can buy. then you have to pay £30 for Quicktime pro and £70 for some webspace and .mac. those things could quite easily be standard, and then everyone would be plugging their .mac website they made with their apple mac....
 
Well, I guess from Apple's view it's a little different. They don't make much money from iLife, since they give it away with new Macs. They sure sell some as upgrades, but the real kick for them is .Mac. And if they have over a million users, why stop getting that 100 million dollars a year? That's quite a lot of money, and since you're implying that the services would still have to be brought on, their costs would not only be 100 million dollars higher per year, but also what they have to pay for traffic (and they do!) and servers etc. would increase, since "free" would attract a _lot_ of users, wouldn't it. "Ads", you might say. But that would - for me - kill the appeal of the good service. (I'm not currently a .Mac user, though, and don't plan on becoming one.)

I guess they could give away a "light" version of .mac of some kind with iLife (and also new Macs, of course). It could allow you to have one E-Mail account (makes sure you'll want to keep .Mac afterwards), a bit less of disk space etc. They could make it work 6 months or something... But again: It would probably cost them too much.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top