Growl!

Posted on May 4, 2004 by Ian Betteridge

Get your credit cards ready for another $129 purchase: Steve Jobs is to give the first look at Mac OS X 10.4, AKA Tiger, at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference. I’m not sure yet what could persuade me to shell out yet again for the yearly upgrade.
And do you think that it’s a coincidence that Apple announces this the week of Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Developer Conference?

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  • http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ Yoz

    I’m continually amazed that Apple gets away with this every 18 months. It’s a great OS and each version *does* feature big improvements from the previous one, but charging the same to a new switcher as they would to a Panther-using faithful is a bit of an insult, no?

    Your take, Mr Betrij?

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    18 months? More like every 12 months.

    Do I like paying every 12 months for the latest OS? No. Are the upgrades generally worth the money? Yes. One of the little-heralded features of the OS X upgrade plot has been that each releases has been faster on older machines, the reverse of what you’d expect. It’s meant that the useful life of my iBook (500MHz G3) has been much longer than it should have been.

  • http://www.adam.tinworth.name Adam Tinworth

    I fully expect the opinion curve to be the same as normal on this one:

    “Oh, I won’t rush to upgrade.”

    “Hmmm. Some of those new features look quite fun.”

    “Wow. That’s really useful – but I’ll hang on for a few months.”

    “Here’s my credit card, Mr Shop Owner, and this is a fine Tiger launch event you’ve put on.”

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    You’re absolutely right, Adam – some astounding huge percentage of Mac owners upgrade on Day One of release. I can’t remember the figure offhand, but I remember how hard it was getting a copy of Panther in the UK last time – it was sold out all over the country.

  • http://www.nickminers.co.uk Nick Miners

    When Jaguar was first announced, or more correctly the PRICE was announced, I remember a huge online petition asking Apple to reconsider. I wonder how many of those who signed the petition actually stuck to their guns and continue to use 10.1 …

    I await the feature list of 10.4 with interest.