Is Apple going to lose a lot of money?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
So my friend and I were talking about Leopard and I told him "I hear Leopard doesn't have any copywrite protection at all" and he replied "They're going to lose millions."



And I understand that Steve Jobs wants Apple to be above the fray and trust people with their stuff, but....people can't be trusted. College dorms across the country are passing around the leopard disc right now. "That computer guy down the hallway" doesn't have moral judgement and he's setting up all the chicks on the 2nd floor with beach backgrounds for their ichat! omg! Lets get drunk! This kind of activity is very common, I live in a res. hall right now.



Won't this affect Apple's bottom line? A lot? Is your average user going to upgrade to leopard anyways?



I guess the following things come to mind:

1) a large quantity of people who steal wouldn't buy it anyways (i.e. dumb drunk blondes at FSU)

2) Apple is giving it away in its new computers, and perhaps one could consider that their software development is recovered by the price of the computer

3) Leopard is a sweet branding tool, and is really meant to increase computer sales (hence they're giving it away in new computers).





Does this make sense? Does apple just not care that people can/will steal their software? Please spare me the "They're criminals, this is wrong and support the company you like", thats not what I'm asking. This is more a psycho-economic question than a socioeconomic social justice question.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by blingem View Post


    So my friend and I were talking about Leopard. He works at a best buy reseller and drools over imacs and stuff too. And I told him "I hear Leopard doesn't have any copywrite protection at all" and he replied "They're going to lose millions."



    And I understand that Steve Jobs wants Apple to be able the fray and trust people with their stuff, but....people can't be trusted. College dorms across the country are passing around the leopard disc right now. "That computer guy down the hallway" doesn't have moral judgement and he's setting up all the chicks on the 2nd floor with beach backgrounds for their ichat! omg! Lets get drunk! This kind of activity is very common, I live in a res. hall right now.



    Won't this affect Apple's bottom line? A lot? Is your average user going to upgrade to leopard anyways?



    I guess the following things come to mind:

    1) a large quantity of people who steal wouldn't buy it anyways (i.e. dumb drunk blondes at FSU)

    2) Apple is giving it away in its new computers, and perhaps one could consider that their software development is recovered by the price of the computer

    3) Leopard is a sweet branding tool, and is really meant to increase computer sales (hence they're giving it away in new computers).





    Does this make sense? Does apple just not care that people can/will steal their software? Please spare me the "They're criminals, this is wrong and support the company you like", thats not what I'm asking. This is more a psycho-economic question than a socioeconomic social justice question.



    i doubt they lose money. let's say it costs them a million bucks to create the os; all the people who buy the cd = more than the people who steal it. Each cd is about 150 with tax included, depending on where you got it of course ( got mine at futureshop). There are hundreds of thousands of people who buy the cd and mabye thousands who steal it. even though it's wrong, and unfair to the people who buy the cd's, apple still makes money. this paragraph seems to make no grammatical sense as i write it, but this is what i think.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    Serial numbers don't work, activation doesn't work, suing music sharers doesn't work, shutting down bittorrent sites doesn't work, the war on drugs isn't working, prohibition didn't work, etc....
  • Reply 3 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Daffy_Duck View Post


    Serial numbers don't work, activation doesn't work, suing music sharers doesn't work, shutting down bittorrent sites doesn't work, the war on drugs isn't working, prohibition didn't work, etc....



    ...but you can make the dorm room kids spend an hour or so googling "leopard serialz" or something. At least the colombian drug lords have to hide their coca in forests now.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    cubitcubit Posts: 846member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by blingem View Post


    ...but you can make the dorm room kids spend an hour or so googling "leopard serialz" or something. At least the colombian drug lords have to hide their coca in forests now.



    Now that's an idea! I'm the dumbist one around. I'm a registered developer and I still bought the familiy pack for all my Macs....
  • Reply 5 of 18
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    For college kids they may be abusing Apple's liberal OS upgrade policy. However you're saving what $69 at most institutions?





    There comes a point in your life where it means more to keep your dignity and integrity than to save $69.



    I buy music on iTunes when the same music is available on P2P because I "want" the artist to be recognized for their accomplishment. I want Apple to be recognized for their accomplishment. My $129 pays for a portion of the developers salary.



    If you're out of college and making money in a FT gig and you're STILL cheating that's downright pathetic.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by blingem View Post


    So my friend and I were talking about Leopard and I told him "I hear Leopard doesn't have any copywrite protection at all" and he replied "They're going to lose millions."



    And I understand that Steve Jobs wants Apple to be above the fray and trust people with their stuff, but....people can't be trusted. College dorms across the country are passing around the leopard disc right now. "That computer guy down the hallway" doesn't have moral judgement and he's setting up all the chicks on the 2nd floor with beach backgrounds for their ichat! omg! Lets get drunk! This kind of activity is very common, I live in a res. hall right now.



    Won't this affect Apple's bottom line? A lot? Is your average user going to upgrade to leopard anyways?



    I guess the following things come to mind:

    1) a large quantity of people who steal wouldn't buy it anyways (i.e. dumb drunk blondes at FSU)

    2) Apple is giving it away in its new computers, and perhaps one could consider that their software development is recovered by the price of the computer

    3) Leopard is a sweet branding tool, and is really meant to increase computer sales (hence they're giving it away in new computers).



    Does this make sense? Does apple just not care that people can/will steal their software? Please spare me the "They're criminals, this is wrong and support the company you like", thats not what I'm asking. This is more a psycho-economic question than a socioeconomic social justice question.



    Here's my humble opinions.



    1. You are talking about the student market, piracy is very high in this market.

    2. Apple derives a lot of revenue from hardware alone. However, consider that the [gross]profit margin for any legal software sales are very high.

    3. Leopard/Tiger/MacOSX/iTunes/iLife/iWork is a very, very indispensable tool for the continuing momentum of Apple's services and products.



    To answer your "Does this make sense?" ... yes I think you are seeing it quite clearly.



    1. Think about as mentioned earlier above DRM, Vista/XP Activation. Quite a joke. A waste of time, resources, punishing the legal users.



    2. Stealing software, music etc. is related to your view of karma. You can take a stand yourself, and advise others. In college/uni though I understand it can be a very tricky time. Rest assured that when you graduate, choose jobs, lifestyle, friends as what you feel best --- things will start to make a lot more sense.



    3. At the end of the day, remember how drug dealers/users give away free drugs here and there every now and then, then when you are hooked you start to pony up the cash for the premium stuff? That's the Apple ecosystem.



    All those dumb blondes will probably choose jobs/ husbands/ careers/ friends/ computers that are Mac ...Because if they have to sit infront of a PC all day they will be like WTF
  • Reply 7 of 18
    I think Apple fights piracy the easy way, by making the product reasonably priced.



    I could have paid $158 for single copy and pirated it 3 times, but for a little bit more, I got a legal 5 mac copy.



    Did the same with ilife and with iWork.



    Not something I've ever done with MS software!
  • Reply 8 of 18
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Answer to question: No. They will sell plenty of copies not to lose money on Leopard.





    Thread over.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    Absolutely not. They make most of their money on hardware. You can't pirate hardware.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Ignoring the EFI Firmware issue aside and assuming one is using an EFI motherboard by Intel that isn't from Apple, I say, "Pirate the shit out of it."



    The more people using it the more they will be switching and wanting to develop applications and buy applications.



    Microsoft became the leader because they gave away their early incarnations. It's when they created a pyramid scheme, so-to-speak, on pricing that people started to realize the cost/value equation.



    OS X and Linux are the platforms moving us forward.



    OpenSolaris is promising. FreeBSD is solid but undermanned.



    There are more operating systems today than ever before.



    Use the Internet and add skills.



    Turn those skills into careers and make yourselves a living.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Daffy_Duck View Post


    Serial numbers don't work, activation doesn't work, suing music sharers doesn't work, shutting down bittorrent sites doesn't work, the war on drugs isn't working, prohibition didn't work, etc....



    QFT.



    Apple doesn't want to punish paying customers for paying.



    For something like Windows, at this point the pirate copy is much better than the real thing. None of that activation crap.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by blingem View Post


    2) Apple is giving it away in its new computers, and perhaps one could consider that their software development is recovered by the price of the computer



    lol giving it away. The profit they make on any mac is HUGE. The stuff they put in the computer isn't really worth the amount you're paying for. You're paying more for a reliable safe computer and a good OS (thus the reason I stick with Apple). Apple is skorrring in huge profits.



    so basically i agree with you on the second half of your argument. [just wanted to elaborate]
  • Reply 13 of 18
    smeesmee Posts: 195member
    So like one of the above guys was saying...



    Say it costs Apple 1 Million bucks to make the OS.

    Then it cost them 50 cents to pop the disc into there computer, load the os on it, box it and ship it to us.



    I don't think there losing any or much money. They've got the market out there and there gonna Win!!
  • Reply 14 of 18
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by smee View Post


    So like one of the above guys was saying...



    Say it costs Apple 1 Million bucks to make the OS.

    Then it cost them 50 cents to pop the disc into there computer, load the os on it, box it and ship it to us.



    I don't think there losing any or much money. They've got the market out there and there gonna Win!!



    Win what?
  • Reply 15 of 18
    smeesmee Posts: 195member
    Win over the PC market, eventually.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    Apple, unlike Microsoft, is a hardware company. Sure, they'll get denied some revenue from pirates but they'll get 10-20 times more in 3 years when these pirates need to get new hardware and they're hooked on Apple. You can't download hardware.



    Pirating XP or Vista really screws Microsoft because software is the only thing they do (ok, not counting keyboards, mouse, and joysticks).



    You can see it two ways...Mac OS X is free with a Mac purchase...or you can consider the 'premium' on Macs to be the price of the OS and the software package that comes with it. 129 dollars for OS X and 79 dollars for iLife and all the 3rd-party du-jour package.



    I don't think Apple is worried losing a couple million here and there to pirates. In the end, it'll be the difference between a 1 billion profit for the quarter or 1.010 billion profit. Nobody will care.
  • Reply 17 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol View Post


    You can't download hardware.



    This. This right here is the crux of the matter.



    Get them hooked, and then they'll want to buy the hardware.



    I think that if pirating was a problem, it would have been known to be a problem before this, and Apple would have changed things by now. They've distributed their OS like this since forever.



    Also consider that while college students live in close proximity and can freely share the Leopard disk, a lot of us live in environments where it's not so easy to get a bootlegged disk, even if we were interested. I personally do not live within driving distance of anyone who would be willing to give me a bootlegged copy of Leopard. I have no other choice but to buy. (I expect an "Up to Date" upgrade to arrive tomorrow! ) Oh, sure, I guess I could look for illicit downloads, but I don't feel comfortable doing that.



    I daresay that a lot of users are in the same boat that I am. They might know other Mac users, but none would "loan' them their Leopard disk.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    Leopard is priced correctly so people are willing to pay for the upgrade rather than nick it. Most Apple users tend to appreciate their OS and are therefore happy to buy it, whereas a lot of Windows users begrudge having to pay real money for something so crap, so are more likely to try and steal it!
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