Will Apple match Windows' free OS upgrades?

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tde632

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I have seen a couple of articles saying that to make up for the delay in Vista, Microsoft will offer a free upgrade to Vista for people who buy new computers with XP after October - presumably to keep people buying computers during the busy holiday season.

Has anyone heard of Apple doing anything similar? As much as I am interested in getting my parents an iMac for Christmas, it seems kind of hard to rationalize knowing that within a couple of months, the OS and iLife will both be updated (iLife is always updated in January, right?). I'd rather just wait and not have the major software components of my purchase go obsolete right after I buy them.

Any insight would be appreciated.
 
Well new Macs will come with Leopard when it's finally released, so it's kind of the same thing. I'd just wait till then, otherwise fork out the extra $129.
 
all macs bought in the time after they announce the pre order release date get a mail in rebate for the cost of upgrading. it's around a month or so, usually.

for example Tiger was released around may time, but the hype started around a month before hand. if you bought a mac in that inbetween time, you got free a upgrade.
 
I think that PC companies offer users a significant reduction or free upgrade when they purchase a PC so close to a new release of Windows, as an attractive selling point.
You could get your parents a Apple store credit, and they could wait until after the holiday to make their purchase.
 
The only reason MS **may** do this is because the PC manufacturers are screaming bloody murder over the delay of Vista. It is seriously going to affect their sales over the holidays.
 
Quite frankly, I wouldn't want to be in Redmond right now. Vista is proving to be a real pain in Micro$oft's side - its more than two years overdue, has lost several of its touted new features, which Apple already has, and is proving to be fairly unstable. It will take off, I have no doubt, but even the die-hard Windows fans won't be fully switching over to Vista for at least a couple of years.

The reason for the rebate, though, is part of Microsoft's promise to OEM hardware manufacturers. PC manufacturers are really reliant on Microsoft to build the OS that drives sales of PCs. The rebate is MS's way to make up for the extensive delays.

As for Apple's stance, they usually offer a rebate if you bought in the month before a new OS release. Besides, Apple's Mac OS X has a much better retail price than Windows ever will.

Right now, if I needed a Mac, I'd just go right ahead and buy one. It'll be January before we get full details on Leopard's planned release, where my bet is that a date will be announced about March-ish. Even when it is released, its worth waiting one week while the Mac faithful isolate all the bugs and issues - Apple's first "dot-one" release usually comes out two weeks after launch of any new OS.

And you never know; you might look at Leopard when it is launched and decide that you simply don't need to upgrade - perhaps none of its new features will really interest you. A lot of Mac users only do every second OS upgrade - Apple always keeps up patches on the previous major release.

Upgrading is nice, but not essential. Upgrades are priced accordingly.
 
tde632 said:
I have seen a couple of articles saying that to make up for the delay in Vista, Microsoft will offer a free upgrade to Vista for people who buy new computers with XP after October - presumably to keep people buying computers during the busy holiday season.

Has anyone heard of Apple doing anything similar? As much as I am interested in getting my parents an iMac for Christmas, it seems kind of hard to rationalize knowing that within a couple of months, the OS and iLife will both be updated (iLife is always updated in January, right?). I'd rather just wait and not have the major software components of my purchase go obsolete right after I buy them.

Any insight would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

This is nothing new at all... M$ did this free upgrades with the purchase of a new computer when 95-98-ME, and XP hit... Its just their way to get people to switch to the latest OS.
 
i'm just switching to a mac. i don't really mind that the release of the new software is probably going to release about a month or two after i get my mac. i'm just happy that i won't have to deal with a PC crashing because there was 5 programs running at the same time.
 
That's the spirit. :) Well. As with anything technical, many people will be upset when Leopard appears and isn't free. It happens _everytime_ Apple releases an OS upgrade. 'bit like a law of nature. I guess we'll have to see what Apple announces at MWSF in January. That show will probably let us see new hardware. If Leopard comes out in, say, May, Apple doesn't have to do anything about it. If they however want to release Leopard in March, it might be wiser to give those new machines a rebate for the OS upgrade... We'll know more when the time of Leopard nears.
 
I really wonder why anyone would expect a company to spend
thousands of dollars and man-power hours to develop a major
OS upgrade and then give the resulting product away for free.

That may work well in the land of elves and pixie-dust, but it
sucks shoe dirt as a successful business model in the real world.

(grin)
 
Thanks for the responses. I'll probably make up my mind as the time nears. Didn't realize it would be at least March, maybe May before it sees the light of day. I see the point of what some of you posted saying "why spend a lot of money developing an OS only to give it away for free?" But I think the way to look at it is as an advertising expense - if it hooks someone into your platform, they could potentially be a hardware, software and music revenue stream for years to come. And especially if your major competitor does give away the free upgrade (I now understand this has not been confirmed), it makes it more likely they'll stay on the PC platform. With most people buying new computers every 4 years or so (just a guesstimate), you have 4 years until you get to try to win them over again.
 
g/re/p said:
I really wonder why anyone would expect a company to spend
thousands of dollars and man-power hours to develop a major
OS upgrade and then give the resulting product away for free.

That may work well in the land of elves and pixie-dust, but it
sucks shoe dirt as a successful business model in the real world.

(grin)
Click to expand...
There is Linux... oh wait, it doesn't have a company!!!
 
My prediction, is not an outrageous one, Vista will hit the shelfs, with much news coverage and people will run out to get it. Sure, IT managers won't be equally enthusiastic. Every release of Windows gets the spotlight, and everyone wants to be the first to get it.
Then you have older people like my uncle who has been using Windows 98, because his computer came with it, and could care less. If he purchases another computer, then he will use whatever came on that system.
 
Well I have this friend who just brought a new laptop (Core Duo) and he was happy that it had a sticker saying "Vista Capable" and he was saying that he can't wait for Vista and Direct X 11 and new interface and stuff. He doesn't even know the interface thing is called "Aero", but hey. if it is a new version of Windows, it has to be good!!
 
Sunnz said:
There is Linux... oh wait, it doesn't have a company!!!
Click to expand...

What about Red Hat, Novell/SUSE, Mandriva, TerraSoft (Yellow Dog Linux), Linspire, Canonical (*buntu), etc.? Those are all companies that are willing to support their versions of Linux. As for the more "non-commercial" distros, the support is out there on the Internet. It's not as elegant as having a company to support you, but you might get the answer sooner all with a simple Google search.
 
powermac said:
My prediction, is not an outrageous one, Vista will hit the shelfs, with much news coverage and people will run out to get it. Sure, IT managers won't be equally enthusiastic. Every release of Windows gets the spotlight, and everyone wants to be the first to get it.
Then you have older people like my uncle who has been using Windows 98, because his computer came with it, and could care less. If he purchases another computer, then he will use whatever came on that system.
Click to expand...

If he does use it for Internet, I recommend upgrading him to at the very least Windows 2000. Windows 98 hasn't been supported for some time now by Microsoft, even for critical security updates. If he doesn't use it for Internet at all, then it probably doesn't matter.
 
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