Will Mavericks be a free download?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JmJcjNE.jpg[/IMG]
No price mentioned. This is new. I think they should switch to a free download model, like they do with iOS. And please don't give me a stupid excuse like accounting, they can change that easily
This would really please the Mac userbase, will really stick it to Microsoft, but most importantly will get EVERYONE with Macs even a few years old to upgrade: thus making the Mac platform even more attractive for users and developers, and giving devs an easier job of writing and selling software. The money they make from OS X will be minimal to the benefit they'll give their platform. Just like the way iCloud is free, everyone uses and benefits from it, and iOS products become far more attractive to consumers and developers.
This is the future! It just makes sense.
Microsoft won't know what to do.
No price mentioned. This is new. I think they should switch to a free download model, like they do with iOS. And please don't give me a stupid excuse like accounting, they can change that easily
This would really please the Mac userbase, will really stick it to Microsoft, but most importantly will get EVERYONE with Macs even a few years old to upgrade: thus making the Mac platform even more attractive for users and developers, and giving devs an easier job of writing and selling software. The money they make from OS X will be minimal to the benefit they'll give their platform. Just like the way iCloud is free, everyone uses and benefits from it, and iOS products become far more attractive to consumers and developers.
This is the future! It just makes sense.
Microsoft won't know what to do.
Comments
The thing with iDevices is they sell like hotcakes and people upgrade more often. They sold 28 million copies of Mountain Lion so that's $560m. The trade-off might be more hardware sales but that benefit is not really apparent at the time of purchase.
There was something about a publicly traded company not being allowed to give away free updates too. I'm not sure exactly what it applies to.
I won't complain at getting a free update but at the same time, the price isn't that high. What I wouldn't want to happen eventually is that the software not making any profit means it gets less attention.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
What I wouldn't want to happen eventually is that the software not making any profit means it gets less attention.
By that logic iOS shouldn't receive any attention.
Like I say, the iOS devices sell very well. If you compare average software prices in the Mac App Store vs App Store, you can see similar differences. It's partly the economies of scale. OS X used to be much more expensive too but the Mac user base has grown so the $20 charge makes more sense.
Maybe they will make it free one day, I certainly don't think it's bad from a consumer point of view, I just don't think it matters much if it's $20 or $0 and that shows in their upgrade figures.
I think it matters, personally. The point is to get everyone on the latest OS and give them all the new features for free as a good will gesture for choosing the Mac. And for devs, then, they can focus 100% of their time on building for Mavericks. It's a no brainier.
The goal within Apple should be to get Mavericks to a 100% adoption rate on machines 5 years old, or newer. If it were free I could see them reaching this 35% adoption rate perhaps in the first two weeks. That's the idea. I'd make OS X free. Just think if everyone was on Mavericks, I'd imagine Apple's 30% of app sales on OS X in that scenario would easily make up for the lack of an OS X system money maker. And the whole platform would be A LOT healthier as a result.
Did they say if they included new machines that came with ML or was that adoption rate just upgrades? I think the adoption rate would be higher if it was free no question but I wouldn't rush to upgrade my desktop OS even if it was free like I do with iOS. There's a lot more software compatibility to check. I prefer to leave about a 6-9 month delay to give 3rd party developers a chance to sort any software problems.
One thing it would do is allow them to advertise their other services so that might be one way they can monetize it. Get people to upgrade but ask if they are interested in iWork apps, iTunes Match or paid iCloud services. Kind of like getting 70 million ad impressions.
I'd say the choice comes down to how important that extra $0.5b/year is to them. They obviously decided on $20 for a reason. They could have picked $1, 5, 10 but they went with $20 so I think they must want to be paid something.
Mobile Me? That was $99. And older versions of OS X were $129. But now iCloud is free and ML was 20 bucks. I think at this stage it makes all kinds of sense to make Mavericks free. And like you said, 'it would allow them to advertise their other services' to all of OS X users. It simplifies everything having all Mac users on the same system, and we know the only way to do that.
I DO think it's a possibility ... but I don't expect it to happen.
I expect Mavericks to be $29.99.
I expect people who create things of value to be compensated for them ... giving intellectual property away for free has never made sense to me.
But perhaps I just don't understand how marketing works.
The only way I expect it to be downloaded for free is if you bought a computer within a couple months of its release, or if you steal it via Bittorent (or similar).
OSX doesn't face as stiff competition, so apple can probably afford to charge for it and stomach a lower install base.
Hey, happy 13,000, Ireland!
I still don't see anything less than $19.99 for 10.9, though.