Apple announced an upgrade of OS X, its new operating system, from 10.1 to 10.2. The upgrade will be released in late August. It fixes a bunch of bugs in previous versions, and adds a handful of new features. Keep in mind, this is not a big change, like the change from Windows 98 to Windows XP. This is just a collection of bug fixes.
And the price for every single Mac user in the world will be $129 – thirty dollars more than the cost of an upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows XP. It doesn’t matter if you bought a new computer last week, or if you go to the store tomorrow and buy OS X 10.1. You’ll still have to pay $129 to get the bug fixes in August. Here’s an article about Apple’s decision to gouge its users, which is causing howls of outrage in the Mac community.
Keep this in mind when you read the stories about Microsoft and how wonderful the world would be if there was just more “competition.” Don’t assume that “competition” would mean lower prices for a wider range of compatible goods! My problem with the Microsoft antitrust action is that I strongly believe the result of increased “competition” would be exactly the opposite – higher prices for incompatible hardware and software.
