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Through the new plan, institutions can purchase annual coverage. Each year, a license renewal provides 12 months of guaranteed upgrades to the latest releases of Apple software. The program includes a one-time enrollment fee of 10 percent of the annual purchase price, though schools that sign up before Dec. 13, 2009, will have the fee waived.
Apple has said that the new program replaces all including programs, including Apple Maintenance Program, Volume License and K12 School Site License. Those under the old plans with credits can be transferred to the new system if they do so before Dec. 13.
"The new Apple Education Licensing Program makes it easier to keep your school's Apple software current and compliant," the company's Web site says. "Coverage is purchased annually, keeping costs consistent year after year, and the new bundle structure allows you to manage against a single expiration date."
First noted by MacNN, the licensing change replaces a plan that had schools purchase Mac OS X for $39 to $59 per copy. Now, guaranteed upgrades for Mac OS X, iWork and iLife run from $899 per year for 25 seats, to $199,999 per year for 10,000 seats. Options are also available for Aperture, Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Logic Studio, Logic Express, Apple Remote Desktop, Mac OS X Server, and Xsan.
The program also allows at-home licenses for faculty, staff, and students to use Mac products and remain up to date. Student licenses are available with Mac OS X if it covers 100 percent of the student-owned Mac computers on a higher education campus. The Mac OS X, iLife and iWork collection ranges from $1,499 for 25 college students to $339,999 for 10,000 students.
Though the K-12 institutional business in the U.S. has been weak this year due to budget cuts, it is still a significant segment of Apple's market. In the second quarter of this year, the Mac maker spent $390,000 to lobby the U.S. government. One of the focal points for Apple was education funding, as the company hopes to see stimulus funds help boost the institutional business.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
19 Comments
I think Apple needs to give away iWork for free on any new Mac like they do with iLife. I guarantee far more people will upgrade it with the next cycle, like most do with iLife. Most people new to the Mac platform don't even take advantage of the free iWork trial let alone purchase it outright.
Interesting that seats for XServe are free and this costs so much per user (relative to XServe - but not in comparison to Mafia$oft who needs to give away a jar of Vaseline with each seat bought).
how much of a hardware discount do schools typically get? with the big premium apple charges for hardware it may just make sense to buy a new Mac instead of pay for a rent-a-software plan
the reason people buy into the Microsoft rent-a-software plan is for the server CAL's. the desktop hardware is so cheap these days that you buy a new PC if you want a new version of Windows
So . . . instead of a non-expiring license purchase of the OS, schools will have to purchase 1-year expiring licenses at a cost that isn't substantially lower than what was being paid before. The benefit to the schools, free upgrades to newer versions of the OS (should they occur during the license year).
Sounds like a effort to increase revenues by adopting a more similar program similar to MS. Major cost increase to the schools for upgrade insurance. Am I missing something?
So . . . instead of a non-expiring license purchase of the OS, schools will have to purchase 1-year expiring licenses at a cost that isn't substantially lower than what was being paid before. The benefit to the schools, free upgrades to newer versions of the OS (should they occur during the license year).
Sounds like a effort to increase revenues by adopting a more similar program similar to MS. Major cost increase to the schools for upgrade insurance. Am I missing something?
$200,000/10,000 seats for iLife, iWork, and OS X. It doesn't seem that the licenses expire, just the ability to upgrade. So if they buy a Mac, they are pretty much getting a revision of iLife and iWork for $20, and OS X upgrade should it happen that year.EDIT: Wow did I misread. Forget what I said above.