Read more.Quote:
With Apple slashing the upgrade cost of Snow Leopard, we revisit rumours hinting at the retail cost of Microsoft's Windows 7.
Printable View
Read more.Quote:
With Apple slashing the upgrade cost of Snow Leopard, we revisit rumours hinting at the retail cost of Microsoft's Windows 7.
This can only be good news, as it will drive the price down further :)
Now, if Apple reduced the price of their hardware by that much, we might be getting somewhere.
A price war seems pretty pointless seen as you need apple hardware to run OSX and people with apple hardware not likely going to buy W7. Its not as if they both operate in the same market really.
If Apple really wanted to deal a blow to MS, they'd de-couple it from the locked hardware, and sell it as a retail product for anyone. At that kind of pricing (or even 49$) it'd be a nice little shockwave.
As it is, MS can realisitically ignore it, since the only people who can take advantage of the price have already locked themselves into Apple hardware/software-wise, and are therefore not MS customers in the first place (I know boot-camp affects that a bit). A low priced OS upgrade for expensive hardware doesn't really impact MS who are largely selling to the sub-500$ brigade.
Either way it's good news, i'd happily pay under $100 to upgrade both my desktop and my macbook :)
Oh, and i have the Win 7 beta on my macbook, it's great to have a safetynet for when i need to run Office 2007 properly - the Apple version is fine, but you can't input equations easily. Remember that a lot of people are in the situation i am, they have a laptop and a desktop and went for OS X on the move and a windows desktop for things like 3D work (i.e. 3DS Max/Autocad) and gaming with a proper graphics card.
The thing to bear in mind is that Apple is ramping up their market base, macbooks are becoming more common with people going to University/College and the offer of a free iPod Touch in the states isn't something to sniff at (works out to something like a $200 rebate). Yes, they're nowhere near as large as Microsoft, and once again - Microsoft does not care about it's profits from consumers, they make their money from business and large scale contracts and that is probably why they dropped their price. If you are a corporation with 2000 computers to upgrade, do you want to be paying $100 for Vista per machine? With a potential $50 tag (probably reasonable for a large license cost per machine) it's much more palatable.
Apple have never really made very expensive operating systems - OS X Leopard has been consistently under £80 for a new disc and of course they tout that there's only one version (none of this home, business, ultimate nonsense). Snow Leopard is somewhere between a new operating system and a glorified service pack. It's not got quite enough new to be called a complete overhaul (it's all about tweaks, not about features), but it's got more than enough to qualify for a reasonably priced download.
IMO, the full 64bit-ness of Snow Leopard fully justifies it as a new OS.......and that's one feature alone.
I forsee a huge spike in downtimes and cries for help this autumn as millions re-install their operating systems :)
Apple announced hardware discounts of up to $700 yesterday on their laptop line. So yes, they've not only met the $100 software discount, but, exceeded it quite a bit on the hardware side :)Quote:
Originally Posted by aidanjt
I think this statement is so wrong and may have been true a few years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by aidanjt
When I bought my Mac Pro you could not build it yourself for the price it cost. The processors alone where over £400 each.
I think a lot of people don't realize there are ways with Apple to get the price down quite a bit.
Untrue, take a look inside a Mac, no mac user is locking them selves down Mac specific hardware.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irien
you have more options with a Mac.
I am sure you may have seen some of the many reviews in the past were Apple machines running Windows faster than PC's. I am not saying this is always true but it is documented.
I am not sure how old EFI technology is and the true advantages are of it but its newer technology than the antique BIOS which every PC is running on & maybe it has some performance value.
Saves me a post, thats exactly what I was thinking..Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBloodyNine
Unfortunately not on the 15" or 13" Macbooks though :/Quote:
Originally Posted by tickedon
And the Air is still overpriced.
Uh this seems a silly story since when can you install OSX (legally supported) on a PC ?
Oh that's right you cant its tied to a closed Apple computer.
Ramedge EFI doesn't have anything terribly useful over bios (it was conceived as a bios replacement) but no one really cares enough to use it because the bios works just fine and continues to do so. Apple only went with it so they could lock down their computers and try to keep OSX in their walled garden.Quote:
I am not sure how old EFI technology is and the true advantages are of it but its newer technology than the antique BIOS which every PC is running on & maybe it has some performance value.
Please direct me to AMD CPU equipped Mac's and Apple systems with PCI-e graphics cards other than the ones sanctioned by Apple. Apple deliberately limit the choice of hardware on their computer and their special graphics cards are so special you can flash one intended for a PC with its firmware and have it work in a Mac.Quote:
Untrue, take a look inside a Mac, no mac user is locking them selves down Mac specific hardware.
you have more options with a Mac.
Windows 7 is a far bigger upgrade than Snow Leopard is though, so I don't think anyone can expect MS to offer similar pricing. Also, bear in mind that the $29 price only applies to people using Leopard already, not to those on any other version. Anyone still on Tiger or older will have to get the full version.
No, it's as true now, as it was many moons ago. Their cheapest 'bargain basement' Mac is the mini, at $600, their cheapest 'bargain basement' laptop is the Macbook, $1000. And both are lackluster performers compared to their generic counterparts at the same pricing point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramedge
Add on any hardware upgrades when you order your Mac, and the price explodes something shocking. Seriously, you could buy separate components yourself, and save money, and you get to keep the old parts, which you could recycle for use with another machine, or sell on, and get even more money back.
You probably didn't shop around that much then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramedge
With fairy dust?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramedge
Where's this $700 discount you're talking about?.. Show me which product has been reduced by $700.Quote:
Originally Posted by tickedon
EVGA GTX 285 MacQuote:
Originally Posted by Kato-2
Not really true. EFI is in use on the PC front but it is only with Vista SP1 or 2 and Windows 7 is it supported.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kato-2
So it is not a case of BIOS just works, its a case of only Vista and 7 support it. Should MS make XP work with EFI then it will be used in a lot more boards
Kimbie
Yup, the PC-BIOS should just go ahead and die in a hurry.
"10:16AM "We're also going to update the MacBook Air with more aggressive configs and pricing. It starts at $1499... the SSD config is $1799." Wow, that's a deep cut. $700 than previous."Quote:
Originally Posted by aidanjt
From the Engadget WWDC feed.
In fairness that is like pissing against the tide!Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiternoise
But seriously price war?
Apple could give free hand jobs with every copy and it would still be a fraction of a % in market share.
Then lets not even get into a competition of who has added the fewer features. Fact of the matter, win 7 is a big leap from vista, in UI (different shell, lots of touch input support) and performance as well as things like UAC. Snow Leotard is?...
But in fairness against your point, Snow Leopard is not about features. It never was. The whole idea was that OS X Leopard was about all the new stuff, new UI, stacks and all that stuff (i.e. the whole "over 300 new features" thing). Then they realised that actually it bloated their operating system even though it looked cool and trendy, so Snow Leopard was brought in to make all the changes under the bonnet.
I'd say that all apps being 64 bit is a pretty big improvement, as is their "Grand Central" architecture along with the introduction of OpenCL. Snow Leopard is, first and foremost optimisation and it looks like it'll deliver. A 6GB decrease in installation size isn't to be sniffed at. Neither is searches being performed almost 90% faster apparently.
Windows 7 on the other hand IS a whole new OS, it's a lot lighter than Vista (the install clearly shows that) and it's been made a lot more usable and a lot less "hey this is just XP with a lot of bloat and Aero".
If MS release 7 as a fifty buck upgrade it'll be a landmark occasion, it's not even comparing like with like - even though most people see Snow Leopard as a new OS. As i said before, it's basically a glorifed service pack that's got too much in to give away for free.
EDIT: And i agree about the above, it's on the Air which is basically that they've realised that giving away a 64GB SSD or whatever it was is actually pretty cheap these days. However, the $300 drop on the macbook line is pretty damn good anyway.
typo :)Quote:
Originally Posted by article
So are you telling me the starting price of the MBA was $2,199?.. Or did someone fail very hard at mathematics?Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiternoise
Also, I don't care about US prices, because we don't buy at US prices, now do we?
I shopped around enough to get a good idea of how much 4 core xeons cost.Quote:
Originally Posted by aidanjt
Infact nearly everywhere I looked was about the same. Scan at the time had them on their site for just over £420 a piece.
Then you've got to get a motherboard for those processors, one that can hold 8 sticks of ram.
So you are looking server grade motherboard - £200-300 would be a fair price if not more.
Then the memory,2gb DDR2 ECC Registered Ram that it comes with as standard - Again quite expensive at the time of purchase, I added an extra 4GB into mine
Hard drive/Graphics card wouldn't cost more than £200 in total
Then you have the Mac Pro Chassis - which is really well designed for great air flow so that the fans don't have to be spinning full pelt all the time.
I mean the closest you are going to get to a Mac Pro case is is top end Silverstone which you can easily spend £140-£200 on.
I have to say it is the quietest computer I have ever owned.
My Mac Pro cost little over £1500 - this is the 8-core 3.1 from this time last year.
Even if its was £100 cheaper to build your own its not worth it.
Every time I have phoned up Apple to place a big order for a machine i have managed to get 15% off.Quote:
Originally Posted by aidanjt
OK Mac folks, time to put your one-button-mice to good use...
To support a business customer, I have to get two Macs for work. I have around 1500ukp budget. Ideally one will be used for demo/public-facing purposes, and one for light dev/support.
I'm ready to be converted... what's the best deal? I have to order this week or next.