Just what does Apple owe users?

I just happened to catch the commentary,  Sometimes, Apple Blows.  It is about Apple's software upgrade policies. To be honest almost any Apple "upgrade policy" is an ad hoc one which usually requires the Apple sales organization to battle with the corporate folks.

I heard a number of explanations over the nearly twenty years that I was at Apple as to why the company did not like to do upgrades.  At one time it was blamed on some tax rules.  Then there was the time during the dark days when supposedly Apple needed every penny and couldn't afford to allow upgrades.

I finally came to the belief that Steve just did not like upgrades or anything which provided products at less than full price.  It was a battle of epic proportions just to get Steve and product marketing to allow us to sell OS X licenses at anything but full retail to large customers who did not even want the box and were willing to commit to thousands of copies.

I think Apple's software maintenance program ended up being pretty reasonable.  Still it was like a corporate root canal due to all the internal opposition.  Unfortunately no one was fighting for individuals, so aside from the OS X family pack, the policies are not designed to be friendly to individual users.

The whole time I worked at Apple I had no doubt in my mind that the greatest Apple sales force was the army of Apple users.  Many of us would wonder at the corporation's reluctance to throw even a small bone to those individual users.  The theory almost seemed to be that the individual user, once they are hooked on the Mac, is less likely to leave, so Apple should make sure to get some money from them at every possible chance.

It is kind of an interesting policy that corporations get a better deal and individuals usually pay full price at Apple (education & government aside).  Perhaps that is the American way, but I think Apple is particularly good at exacting its pound of flesh because there is often no warning when new products are on the horizon. It is ironic that the company that champions individualism penalizes it with its policies.

I actually wrote about my unfortunate experience in buying Quicktime Pro a few years ago, just before Apple announced another Quicktime upgrade.

Apple has a very good update system, it would seem to make sense to have policies in place to get everyone to put their software on auto pilot with Apple as far as upgrades.

I am like most people. I buy software and don't mind paying for upgrades which have major features which I need.  I hate having to buy something which has features which I do not need.  I think that might be the old Microsoft way when you had to buy the latest version of Office in order to open files.

I am still on the fence on Leopard.  Maybe the best way for me to experience it is with a new desktop.  I really resent paying $129 to upgrade my MacBook which I have had only since July.  I am not looking for there to be any policy changes from Apple on this. Not surprisingly that will likely be the way I get '

Actually I was even thinking of buying the latest version of Pages since I skipped the last full price upgrade, but being an experienced Apple buyer, I know there might be a software announcement to go along with the potential hardware announcements at NAB.  We all know that unless you are in that tiny Apple window when you buy a new product, you are going to pay full price for the next version.  For that reason, I've held off buying.

Apple's anti-individual policies are certainly an irritant and keep me looking for companies' with reasonable upgrade policies.  It's actually why I think software as a service makes a lot of sense.   The best deal going  has to be Google apps for you domain which is free. Even the enterprise version which costs $50 per seat and comes with five times the storage is a good deal. 

In Google's case the individual gets the deal and enterprises pay the tariff.  Almost anyone who has ever dealt with Apple's enterprise sales force knows that they will discount at the drop of the hat.  In fact if you work your cards right, you can actually get Apple competing against itself.

It happens almost automatically due to Apple's strange commission system which ends up pitting parts of the organization against each other.  If you are working with a reseller and working with someone from Apple selling direct, they will fight for your business with discounts.

As individual purchasers we really don't have anyone at Apple fighting for our business since individuals are Steve's version of house accounts.

I think it ends up being one of those things we grumble about, but put up with since the alternative, going to another platform, is far more hassle and probably not much better as far as upgrades.

It would be nice to think that we, the users who sell Macs probably more successfully than some Apple sales people, would at least get some break or recognition for our efforts.  However, it is probably too idealistic for us to expect  that from any company, even Apple.  Maybe that should be especially Apple since it appears Apple loves sitting on a pile of cash more than anything else.

They are after all a business charged with making money for their stockholders.  I can't say that it would make very much sense to them to shower their customers with cheaper upgrade products.  They already have the world's most loyal group of users.

All it really takes to keep us loving Apple is a few new hit products each year and for the competition to keep screwing up.

Well time for some oysters, the season only has a few days left here in eastern North Carolina, so I'm off to the beach at Emerald Isle to enjoy some fresh cooked bounty of the sea.  If you're at all interested in living on the beach in our Coastal Paradise, check out my blog or my Realtor® site.  The views are pretty hard to beat whether you're a couple sitting on the beach or some young guys on the roof.  Anyone actually interested in looking at a few houses can check out my last night's post to Blogger, "How do we value a home?" or visit the rental site that our company runs.  Contact me if I can be of any help, I'm often online at night at my Realtor® homepage.

Comments

[Matthew]

I agree with you - $129 seems like too much, and Apple could do a lot more for its users.

But then I thought about this: When the iPhone was introduced, people (Steve himself?) remarked that Apple didn't want to discount the iPhone with rebates because that would make it less valuable (ie. look at the RAZR, which you can now get for $40, more or less).

Perhaps Apple is merely trying to maintain a sense of value and quality by not giving any obvious discounts on the OS upgrades.

[John Muir]

OS X family pack is definitely a decent deal. That's how I paid my Tiger dues. Not bad when sharing between five!

Overall, Apple are kind of playing the same game as Microsoft. You buy a computer and it comes with the appropriate system bundled with it at OEM price. The only different with Apple's "tax" compared to Windows is that a major proportion of the total Mac user base DO upgrade every major release, compared to virtually no one with Windows where OEM is all or nothing.

Oh, wait, one more thing: each OS X upgrade comes with a real "wow" factor capable of urging consumers to buy it!

When people wheel out the tired old argument that Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and soon Leopard too are all "service packs" or "minor version upgrades" I roll my eyes. 10.4.9 was a "service pack". 10.5 is the next OS. Apple use the "ten" as their equivalent of Microsoft's monicker: "Windows". Personally I'd prefer to be running 10.10 and 10.20 years from now than Mac OS Eleven!

[Jay]

Not sure where to go with this. If I bought a Dell last July with XP would I get a free Vista license? Didn't think so.

Looking at it a different way, Apple could offer individuals a software maintenance contract but at what price? The tech company I'm thinking of that does this charges roughly 10% of list per year for it's hardware and OS. On a MacBook that would be $110 each year. AppleCare on that model comes to $83 per year. Would anybody sign up for an additional $27/year to get the latest OS when it debuts every couple of years? Amazon was hawking 10.4 for $99 a copy for a while so it works out to be much the same.

Software development isn't free and while Apple's h/w and s/w are much more tightly bound, I'm not sure giving it away will exactly win more business for Apple. Or have I missed your point completely?

As for me, I'd rather buy now than wait for 10.5. Why? Assuming 10.5 hits the street mid-June it'll be at least year-end before I'd consider upgrading, perhaps longer given how 10.4 behaved (or didn't) when it was released. That's just me though. I hate being somebody's beta tester when I'm paying for the privilege.

[ocracokewaves]

Well, we can agree on one thing. I don't like being a beta tester either when I have paid for the privilege.

Looking at the prices of iMacs, and considering the challenges I had with with 10.4, perhaps the advice that I have given myself on Windows now works well on a Mac.

That would be that the best way to experience a new operating system to buy a new computer.

If Apple could get the Mac Mini back to their original pricing, It would be a very easy decision.

[alpabarot]

Hi,

You have a very cool blog here…loved the content.
U know there is an awesome opportunity for people like you who have ur own blogs n sites…I came across this site called Myndnet.com…it’s a platform for people to buy and sell IT related information. and everytime you sell some information you get paid for it…Good money for people like us in the IT domain. Here the link http://www.myndnet.com/login.jsp?referral=alpa83&channel=ZW

Sign up is free…check it out…
You can contact me at my id here for more questions : barot.alpa@gmail.com

Cheers
Alpa

[Charles]

I've also been putting off buying iWork because I know a new version is coming out. Except, I bought my mac in January, so I don't have the old version... I can't seriously be expected to buy a copy of software for $80 that will be updated in five months, then have to spend another $80 for the update. I would just bite the bullet and not upgrade, except the secrecy about the new version is keeping me from doing so, as I don't want to miss out on any genuinely useful new features. I can understand the secrecy thing Apple has and I can understand the no upgrades policy, but together it really makes consumer life difficult.

[Bill McGonigle]

I've been of the opinion for a while that Apple ought to sell a $300 "No Worries" option on new Macs which entitles you to OSX and iLife upgrades for the life of the machine. That's about what I actually spend on OSX and iLife for a machine over its life, but it allows Apple to get the money up front and have it as a selling point that the PC crowd just can't offer. Best of all, it can be a license key like QuickTime Pro (OK, it should *include* QTP) and automatically update itself via Software Update.

Automatic and integrated updates and upgrades is the best thing about a Linux machine - and it's not the cost, it's the convenience. Currently Apple loses out here. How does that strike your Apple Sales neurons?