Any rumors on the next major upgrade cost?

[lelereb]

Phanter will be the next major upgrade. Any rumor on the Apple shipment strategy? Full price like Jaguar or an upgrade price?

Most of the new Apple (and non-Apple) applications requires Jaguar... so anyone is forced to pay the entire OS price and get Jaguar. There will be the same for Phanter? I hope not.

[serpicolugnut]

Not entirely out of the realm of possibility for the final version of Safari to be Panther only.

Nobody knows at this point what Panthers feature set will be, and this is the most significant factor in what the price will be.

If Apple goes gung ho with new features (like they did with Jaguar), expect a full $129 price.

If Apple makes Panther more of a bug fix release with a few new features, expect a price anywhere from $19.95 to $99.

It used to be Apple would release a major paid upgrade, and then follow it up with a bug fix/feature enhancement upgrade, usually at the cost of s/h.

For example:
Mac OS 7 - full price
Mac OS 7.1 - s/h
Mac OS 7.5 - full price
Mac OS 7.6 - full price, discounted upgrade
Mac OS 8 - full price
Mac OS 8.1 - s/h
Mac OS 8.5 - full price
Mac OS 8.6 - s/h
Mac OS 9 - full price
Mac OS 9.1 - s/h

We should know what to expect when Panther is demoed at WWDC.

[wtmcgee]

i really hope they do some sort of discounted upgrade. if they charged 129 for a full version, and something like 79 for an upgrade, i'd feel a lot better about getting 10.3 when it comes out.

[Inline_guy]

I think if the new OS is all about working with 64bit, and they put safari and iChat 2.0 in it, (among a few others) we will see a $129.00 upgrade. I would imagine a 64bit retooling would have taken some effort, and only people who buy a 64bit powermac will get the benifts of such an OS. So that makes me think that it will be cheaper, IF they do not put a few new great apps with it.

Matthew

[Vyper]

I'll bet 129 bucks that it'll cost that much.

[Arden]

It's going to cost $435 (as much as Office), and it'll be a mandatory upgrade because all copies of 10.2 will cease to function on Panther's release date. It will also be incompatible with all the software not specifically written for it, meaning you have to buy new versions of everything, because Classic will not be included in this version.

And if you believe that, I saw Saddam Hussein working at a soup kitchen the other day.