question for Mac owners

[cellio]

I've searched Apple's site for this and done some googling, and near as I can tell Apple hasn't published an answer to my question and it's all speculation. But I might not be looking in the right places -- and certainly don't know the relevant history -- so I'll appeal to my friends for insight.

A relative has Jaguar and is eyeing Panther. He's also eyeing Tiger, which (officially) is being released in the first half of 2005 (but some people seem to be skeptical about that). It costs $129 to upgrade from Jaguar to Panther. No Panther-to-Tiger price has been published.

My question: would an upgrade path that goes through Panther cost appreciably more than a direct upgrade from Jaguar to Tiger when it comes out? Or, by buying Panther, does one get a better price toward Tiger later? If we spend $129 to get him an upgrade now, are we just buying six months' worth of joy or are we doing more for him?

Comments

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

You won't find an official answer on something like that until the product is pretty much released. I'd advise just waiting for the next one unless the relative needs something in the current version. When Apple gives an update discount, it is often just to those who purchase the previous product at a time very close to the release of the new one.

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

I have no insight, but maybe someone here does:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/
In my experience, a forum like this is filled with members who are literally sitting at their keyboards, waiting for someone to ask a question. Yes, this usually means that not all the answers are reliable or useful (or polite), but it may be worth a try.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I'm far from expert, but I would bet that Jaguar -> Tiger is likely to be the same price as Panther -> Tiger.

Also, you should consider your friendly neighborhood Apple employee and the discounts that he can offer.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

All that I can add to this query is that I'll ask around to my mac afficionados. I'm a mac user, but I don't keep up on the gossip... I wait until someone tells me, "you need this" to get something new.

However, I can tell you that I'm pretty pleased with panther, and not likely to bother upgrading for a while. This may not be the case for your relative, though.

Max OS X 10.x versions

[jslove.livejournal.com]

Apple has pretty much held the line on price at $129 for 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3; it would be quite surprising if 10.4 were different. There have not been any upgrade discounts; skipping a version will save exactly the cost of the version skipped.

This is rather more annoying when the version you want is Mac OS X Server, which is more like $500 per upgrade. The last time that there was a better price was when upgrading from 1.0 to 1.2; which were before the release of 10.0; Apple has held the line on price there also.

The price break is for the family pack, which allows up to five computers in the same household for $200. Businesses are not covered by this license, nor the same family in multiple households, but if you have several Macs this allows you to be 100% legal and upgrade several of them.

I don't work for Apple, but I have 11 Macs. I'll start paying the business license rates when my business makes money.

[lyev.livejournal.com]

It costs $129 to upgrade from Jaguar to Panther

My first thought was, "Wow!" This is what I get for skimming entries without reading the subject lines first, and doing this right after doing a literature search on genitically engineering animals.

[jducoeur]

May I just say that, not knowing anything about Mac software, this question comes across as a tad surreal...