4 ms·

Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competitio

by polshaw 14y ago

Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can only assume they think this way is how they will get most money from selling to end users, and I wouldn't be surprised at that being the case. No doubt they make most of window's licence money from OEMs.

yuhong 14y ago
Except this is the upgrade version, so this requires a previous version on Windows too.
- spicyj 14y ago
  The Mac OS X price is essentially also an "upgrade" price because you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed).
  - dhughes 14y ago
    It's like Xbox versus PS3, you pay for XboxLive! but the Xbox is cheaper or (when new) you paid nearly $1000 for a PS3 but got PS3 Network free, either way you're paying. The old options was buy a lower priced computer with Windows but pay more for the OS/upgrades or buy a very expensive Apple computer but $40.00 for an OS upgrade.
    - polshaw 14y ago
      There is also the fact that a point upgrade in OSX is almost never as significant as a new Microsoft OS, that MS provides free service packs, and that (IIRC) apple allows upgrades to multiple macs with one purchase. So, really, they need to be assessed on their own merit.
      - rbanffy 14y ago
        Since the first OSX, all upgrades were point upgrades and all of them were very significant. They were also more frequent than Windows upgrades.
        Mythbusters 14y ago
        You put point upgrades and significant in the same sentence. Just saying...
        rbanffy 14y ago
        The upgrade between Snow Leopard and Lion was a point upgrade. Every OSX release is a 10.x release.
    - Useful_Idiot 14y ago
      I assumed it was common knowledge that Sony offered the PS3 at a huge discount retail <-> production costs to make Blu-Ray the industry standard (which did indeed succeed). e.g. Samsung Blu-Ray retailed @ $1000, PS3 retailed at $599. e.g. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ ~ costs the PS3 components at $850 vrs the $599 retail price. As for this topic: I don't think it's aimed at consumers, at all. Many companies still use XP as their back-bone, let alone 7. It's aimed at the software producers, akin to why some games companies are developing purely in DX11 now to reduce costs having to support DX9 ~ MS are making a switch to producing content for W8 as 'attractive' as possible.
  - zephjc 14y ago
    Except that I can install OS X on a blank hard drive when needed (which I've needed to do twice).
    - spicyj 14y ago
      True, that is an advantage! I was just speaking in licensing terms.
    - sigzero 14y ago
      Not with the latest versions of OSX. Lion...maybe. I think you can USB it. As far as I have read Mountain Lion is download only.
      - cmelbye 14y ago
        Exactly, you download it and then burn the disk image to a DVD or whatever media you'd like to boot from.
    - archangel_one 14y ago
      You can install the MS upgrades on a blank hdd too, can't you? It's been some years but I thought they just used to ask for a disk from the "qualifying upgrade" product to be inserted during install.
      - ceol 14y ago
        The parent was specifically replying to > you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed). It wasn't an attempt to compare OS X and Windows installations.
      - anotherblue 14y ago
        Usually, you can do following: - Install Windows retail SKU, but do not activate it. You can borrow disk or download ISO for this. - Start installing upgrade version, then reformat partition, supplying upgrade key in the process. At the end, you will have Windows upgrade installed and activated, fully functional.
tzs 14y ago
> Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can't use Chevy parts in my Honda, but if Chevy started charging 1/10th of what Honda is charging for similar parts, Honda would need to lower prices if they wanted me to stick with them for my next car, or to use genuine Honda parts instead of third party parts to repair my current Honda. That's because Chevy's price would help recalibrate my expectation as to what kind of prices are reasonable, making Honda look overpriced. OSes aren't as interchangeable as cars, but a Microsoft upgrade price significantly higher than Apple's upgrade price might convince more people to stick with what they have until it is time to buy a new PC and get Windows 8 bundled, rather than buying an upgrade, because Apple's prices lower the expectation of what an OS upgrade should cost.
- polshaw 14y ago
  I completely reject that anyone who would have paid $x for a windows upgrade has then decided not to because of the price of OSX upgrade. It's either worth it for them, or not. Lowering the price simply increases the number in the first category. And your forced car analogy is seriously flawed.
  - jgranby 14y ago
    The analogy went some way to showing how the argument based on there being "no direct competition" is a fallacy. I find it very hard to believe that MS hasn't had a good look at Apple's OS X pricing strategy before making this move. It mightn't be that they feel pressured into lowering the price so much as they've just seen what Apple has done and think it's a good idea to get as many people to upgrade as possible.
- metrop0219 14y ago
  Except that they also lower the expectation of what an OS upgrade should include.
- brudgers 14y ago
  If you've ever owned a Mercedes, Volvo, or Porsche,* I don't think that you would find the logic underpinning the auto parts analogy particularly plausible. *912, 914, 924, and first generation 944 parts sourced from VW excepted.

by polshaw 14y ago

yuhong 14y ago

Except this is the upgrade version, so this requires a previous version on Windows too.

spicyj 14y ago
The Mac OS X price is essentially also an "upgrade" price because you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed).
- dhughes 14y ago
  It's like Xbox versus PS3, you pay for XboxLive! but the Xbox is cheaper or (when new) you paid nearly $1000 for a PS3 but got PS3 Network free, either way you're paying. The old options was buy a lower priced computer with Windows but pay more for the OS/upgrades or buy a very expensive Apple computer but $40.00 for an OS upgrade.
  - polshaw 14y ago
    There is also the fact that a point upgrade in OSX is almost never as significant as a new Microsoft OS, that MS provides free service packs, and that (IIRC) apple allows upgrades to multiple macs with one purchase. So, really, they need to be assessed on their own merit.
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      Since the first OSX, all upgrades were point upgrades and all of them were very significant. They were also more frequent than Windows upgrades.
      - Mythbusters 14y ago
        You put point upgrades and significant in the same sentence. Just saying...
        rbanffy 14y ago
        The upgrade between Snow Leopard and Lion was a point upgrade. Every OSX release is a 10.x release.
  - Useful_Idiot 14y ago
    I assumed it was common knowledge that Sony offered the PS3 at a huge discount retail <-> production costs to make Blu-Ray the industry standard (which did indeed succeed). e.g. Samsung Blu-Ray retailed @ $1000, PS3 retailed at $599. e.g. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ ~ costs the PS3 components at $850 vrs the $599 retail price. As for this topic: I don't think it's aimed at consumers, at all. Many companies still use XP as their back-bone, let alone 7. It's aimed at the software producers, akin to why some games companies are developing purely in DX11 now to reduce costs having to support DX9 ~ MS are making a switch to producing content for W8 as 'attractive' as possible.
- zephjc 14y ago
  Except that I can install OS X on a blank hard drive when needed (which I've needed to do twice).
  - spicyj 14y ago
    True, that is an advantage! I was just speaking in licensing terms.
  - sigzero 14y ago
    Not with the latest versions of OSX. Lion...maybe. I think you can USB it. As far as I have read Mountain Lion is download only.
    - cmelbye 14y ago
      Exactly, you download it and then burn the disk image to a DVD or whatever media you'd like to boot from.
  - archangel_one 14y ago
    You can install the MS upgrades on a blank hdd too, can't you? It's been some years but I thought they just used to ask for a disk from the "qualifying upgrade" product to be inserted during install.
    - ceol 14y ago
      The parent was specifically replying to > you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed). It wasn't an attempt to compare OS X and Windows installations.
    - anotherblue 14y ago
      Usually, you can do following: - Install Windows retail SKU, but do not activate it. You can borrow disk or download ISO for this. - Start installing upgrade version, then reformat partition, supplying upgrade key in the process. At the end, you will have Windows upgrade installed and activated, fully functional.

tzs 14y ago

> Lets be clear; this has little/nothing to do with apple. You can't spend $40 to switch to the latest OSX on your regular PC, so it is just not direct competition. I can't use Chevy parts in my Honda, but if Chevy started charging 1/10th of what Honda is charging for similar parts, Honda would need to lower prices if they wanted me to stick with them for my next car, or to use genuine Honda parts instead of third party parts to repair my current Honda. That's because Chevy's price would help recalibrate my expectation as to what kind of prices are reasonable, making Honda look overpriced. OSes aren't as interchangeable as cars, but a Microsoft upgrade price significantly higher than Apple's upgrade price might convince more people to stick with what they have until it is time to buy a new PC and get Windows 8 bundled, rather than buying an upgrade, because Apple's prices lower the expectation of what an OS upgrade should cost.

polshaw 14y ago
I completely reject that anyone who would have paid $x for a windows upgrade has then decided not to because of the price of OSX upgrade. It's either worth it for them, or not. Lowering the price simply increases the number in the first category. And your forced car analogy is seriously flawed.
- jgranby 14y ago
  The analogy went some way to showing how the argument based on there being "no direct competition" is a fallacy. I find it very hard to believe that MS hasn't had a good look at Apple's OS X pricing strategy before making this move. It mightn't be that they feel pressured into lowering the price so much as they've just seen what Apple has done and think it's a good idea to get as many people to upgrade as possible.
metrop0219 14y ago
Except that they also lower the expectation of what an OS upgrade should include.
brudgers 14y ago
If you've ever owned a Mercedes, Volvo, or Porsche,* I don't think that you would find the logic underpinning the auto parts analogy particularly plausible. *912, 914, 924, and first generation 944 parts sourced from VW excepted.