ยป Snow Leopard and Software Pricing
I just paid for software! Specifically, the Snow Leopard update. After installing it, I have ~20 gigs more space free! Plus, I got stickerz:
The $40 CAD price point was just about right for me to not consider it a “real” purchase. Conversely, I pirated some effing fantastic software today because it was at a $100 price point which I thought a bit much (though if I had it to spare it would be worth every penny). Partly I figured I could pay up when it started generating income for me.
Both would, essentially, have been fully deductible* because they were business acquisitions. The second application gave me a little “Please don’t pirate!” popup when I mis-clicked, which I circumvented. Similarly, I could have got Snow Leopard for free but didn’t. I was looking at the torrent description, which mentioned the price of a legit copy, and I ran to the Apple retailer around the corner and just bought it:
- It was faster than downloading, and
- I’m terrified of being thrown out of the Garden of the Apple by the mighty ban-hammer of
ThorSteve.
I thought I’d mention the fact that I paid though, and go into just a tiny bit of my psychology — I assume our readers are at least somewhat interested in the software purchase decision.
* Check with a real accountant.
Given that Apple bills themselves as a hardware company and given that they do not continue to support old versions of operating systems, I think it’s absurd that they charge for upgrades. It’s like saying “sorry we sold you this broken thing a few months ago, but how about we make it work the way it should for $40?” And then another $40 a few months later. Apple has a financial incentive to ship buggy operating systems!
The cost of upgrades is one of the main things that keeps me from switching to OS/X.
Jared
10 Mar 10 at 12:49 pm