AppleInsider StaffApple revealed on Wednesday that Lion will be available on a USB thumb drive through its online store "later this August." It will carry a price of $69, or more than twice the $29.99 cost of downloading Lion from the Mac App Store.
For users who do not have broadband access at home, work or school, Apple is also offering customers the ability to download the multi-gigabyte install at its retail stores immediately.
AppleInsider was first to report in May that Apple planned to release Lion through the Mac App Store, but also that Apple would offer a physical copy of the operating system for those who would prefer to have one. And in June, an exclusive report suggested lower pricing for Lion could be tied to purchasing through the Mac App Store.
For those who opt to download Lion, it carries the same aggressive price strategy that Apple chose for Snow Leopard. The low $29 price for upgrades proved to have great success, doubling Apple's previous records.
Those who opt to buy a new Mac won't need to worry about downloading Lion from the Mac App Store, as all new computers sold by Apple will come preinstalled with the next-generation operating system. That includes already released devices, like the latest MacBook Pro and iMac, as well as Wednesday's newly released hardware: MacBook Airs and Mac minis.
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93 Comments
Queue the complaints about overcharging for a thumb drive version....
The delay and cost are definitely trying to push users toward digital downloads.
PS: You can make a bootable backup of Lion from the App Store that can be copied to any medium, including DVD, very easily with Disk Utility.
Makes total sense, a shame that Apple decided to release this in August. Either thorugh deliberate planning or ineptitude on their part.
Considering that they have to buy the drives, install the data, package them and then ship them to the Apple Store I think the pricing is fair, certainly far cheaper than Windows.
I was suggesting they do this, and at a higher price. But I thought $49 would be more appropriate. This is unexpectedly high.
Makes total sense, a shame that Apple decided to release this in August. Either thorugh deliberate planning or ineptitude on their part.
Considering that they have to buy the drives, install the data, package them and then ship them to the Apple Store I think the pricing is fair, certainly far cheaper than Windows.
Considering that I recently bought a high quality and fast 8GB USb drive to do this very thing for $15, I do think the cost is a bit high. I'm sure Apple would get the same drive for less than half of what I paid, and a slower drive for a quarter as much. I don't as yet even know if 8GB is overkill. If a 4GB drive is enough, it could cost them a couple of bucks, as 4GB drives are given away at the MicroCenters for gifts.