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Apple can do no wrong in recent months. Both the iPad 2 and MacBook Air have been generating a massive level of income in recent months. The buzz on the streets is that OSX Lion is going to rock the Mac user community by offering a more streamlined interface, incorporating elements of iOS. The developer build of Lion has been in the wild now for some time and comments online appear to be mainly positive. In fact the only real negative commentary revolves around the release of Final Cut which many are saying is ‘dumbed down‘ and not suitable for Professionals.
In the build up to the Lion release launch, Apple have been busy patching vulnerabilities in Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server. With 36 updates in total it was certainly not a minor patching regime either. They have also released a smaller '13 flaw' update to OSX 10.5, otherwise known as Leopard.
The updates however tie in the path to the upcoming Lion operating system which is going to be very competitively priced. Have you ever heard of Microsoft releasing a spanking new flagship operating system for close to £20? Well Apple are selling OSX Lion for £20.99 which means that everyone and anyone can afford it. A far cry from some of their high end ‘professional level' systems which can easily be specified to around £15,000, before even adding a screen.
So while Apple offer many computers, some of which are more expensive than a brand new car, OS X Lion will be retailing for only £20.99. Strangely enough, it appears that Apple wont be selling this in a physical store, and it will only be available online as a 4GB download. Mac users are already complaining that it is too much for their bandwidth limitations. Remember, many people in the UK are still tied into a monthly download cap. 4GB is nothing to people in Sweden, but the UK networking system in certain areas of the country is well behind the times.
So what is new in Lion? Apart from the aesthetic changes, there are bug fixes and VPN reliability fixes and other code enhancements with some applications. Apple have also shipped a series of new signatures to detect and delete variants of the MacDefender ‘scareware'. Fake programs which cause damage when people think they are curing a problem. Apple have already been battling the program with 12 different security updates to protect their customers.
Apple have an online support page which identifies all the fixes in the update.
Many are hoping that the final version of Lion is a worthwhile upgrade, but with the Apple gameplan of ‘merging' iOS and OSX it may be something that people new to the operating system will appreciate more, especially if they are moving from an Apple mobile device. There are already many people using Lion as the developer version was released and its available (illegally we might add) on both Bitorrent and newsgroups and some networking issues are already being highlighted – not due to bugs we might add, but due to code changes.
Kitguru says: Should Microsoft release their flagship operating systems for £20.99?
Microsoft would never even consider releasing for anything less than three-digits. Apple launched Snow Leopard (10.6) for about the same price as they’re launching Lion (10.7) now, it was a minor upgrade from Leopard (10.5), and people questioned that move. You got Leopard + Snow Leopard for a lot less that Leopard originally cost (which was in the lower 3 digits range).
Microsoft didn’t bother to go below 3 digits for the Vista-Fix OS, Windows 7, they didn’t bother to scale down Vista’s price when they saw what a failure it was, they won’t bother now with Windows 8. They’re bringing in the “Consumer Market’s World First Desktop Touch Operating System” with Windows 8. To them, that’s worth the 3-digit price tag they’ll put on it. And if they throw in DX12, I might start to agree.
Of course, if they did consider dropping the price, I’d say it would be only due to the ridiculously large amounts of people Pirating Windows 7, not because Apple decided to go on a price-cut mania or anything.
I think if MS released one OS, such as Windows 8, no model numbers, just the same singular OS with everything in it. £50 no one would warez it. over £200 for an OS/ they say apple are expensive!
Well M$ have never had to release hardware that goes upto 14ooo pounds …. Apple on the other hand are releasing software cheap as dirt, but…. but….. but…. you can only run it on Apple supported hardware. What they are losing in Software they more than make up for it in Hardware sales…… superb decpetion