The Leopard Report: Is it Time for a Subscription Program?
June 6th, 2007In interviewing author Kirk McElhearn for this week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, we got to talking about whether Apple should look at some alternatives for distributing Mac OS X and some of its consumer-level digital life products.
Today, you can buy Tiger for $129 for the single-user package. A .Mac subscription is $99 per year, and a copy of the latest iLife — still stuck at ’06 — is $79. Now Steve Jobs has admitted that .Mac hasn’t really progressed as far as it could or should, other than to add some minor frills, a fancier Web-based email interface and a storage upgrade.
I’m not about to suggest where .Mac can go. I’m a member, partly out of inertia I suppose, though I do use the iDisk occasionally as a method to send and receive large files that my email server will choke over.
As far as iLife is concerned, I expect there will be a new one by the time Leopard ships, possibly with an ’08 designation, since it’s too late for ’07, although I suppose Microsoft won’t agree. I’ve weighed in on this before, but I really think that iLife should be bundled with Leopard. It’s so closely entwined with the operating system, that you really have to keep versions constant with both. So it makes sense to put them in the same package.
There’s also another issue, one that affects the millions of you in our audience that do not have broadband. Apple’s updates are getting larger and larger, particularly with the Intel-based Macs. Even if you set up a brand new Mac, you may find yourself having to endure the download of several hundred megabytes of data to bring things up to date. This can certainly be a royal pain, particularly if the connection is disrupted from time to time. When it comes to dial-up — well, forget about it. Sure, you could bring your Mac to an Apple Store or a third party dealer that is generous about such things, and download to your heart’s content. But what if there’s no cooperating dealer nearby?
In light of all this, Kirk and I agree that the time is ripe for a new way to market these products, a way that will ensure that everyone is kept up to date. In other words, a software subscription program. I mean, the idea of delivering software this way as opposed to outright purchase has been discussed in recent years by Microsoft and others, but here it makes a lot sense.
Just imagine a special program from Apple that includes the latest Mac OS X upgrade kit, the latest iLife, a .Mac subscription, and regular update CDs with all the latest and greatest stuff on them. Would that make sense to you?
So how much should such a package cost? Well, that’s a good question. Apple no longer does annual Mac OS X upgrades, so a package of this sort would probably be of two year’s duration, minimum, to encompass all the possibilities. That would, of course, tie them in to a fixed schedule, but one that’s not really out of the question, considering the pace of past development.
I’m thinking in terms of maybe $149 per year. Kirk suggested a somewhat higher price.
If you purchase a new Mac with the latest and greatest operating system release on it, I suppose there could be a special $99 program that will include just .Mac, the CD updates and all major revisions to iLife.
Obviously, the logistics of such a program are far more complicated than I’d care to deal with here, and I can see lots of rules and exceptions to accommodate different uses. Those who buy family or small business packages, for example, would qualify for a higher-priced deal, but one that would still be more affordable than buying everything separately.
In the end, remember that you would still own your software licenses in the same fashion as you do now. That’s altogether different from a music rental scenario. There, I more or less agree with Steve Jobs that most people want to own music rather than pay a monthly fee for temporary access. While there are apparently several hundred thousand or more subscribers to such services from Napster, RealRhapsody, Yahoo Music and other music stores of that sort, I don’t think the future of that economic model has been demonstrated.
I can see maybe as a music sampling method, though, particularly if you don’t think the 30-second samples you get on iTunes are sufficient to help decide whether to buy the song. Obviously, with digital music, you can’t get a refund!
So are we going to see a new Mac OS X distribution strategy when Steve Jobs pulls the wraps off Leopard’s remaining new features at next week’s WWDC? Probably not, but it’s still worth discussion. What do you readers think?
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I have to agree since I have moved to a place where i cannot get broadband so dial up is the norm and I have a friend who never updated her macbook so is on 10.4.6 and it is 310 megs just for the intel update let alone iphoto itunes quicktime etc etc so I'd so nearer to 430 megs Our wonderful IP's disconnect dialup users evry 5 hours ! I have tried to get Aple to send update CD's but cant get them too and any of the Apple stores simply dont reply. So yes some sort of subscription offer would go down a treat but it will never happen because we are all suppose to have access to highspeed services..Â
It would be nice to have a choice, maybe a tiered system through .mac could be a way forward. Then as each new OS comes out you would get a discount depending on your level in .mac.
It's not an issue over here in Europe. Everybody in The Netherlands has got broadband. You can get a DSL subscription for as little as 10 euro's a month (1,5 Mb / 256 Kb/s, no limit, no contract, pay per month). Right now cable companies 'replied' with new subscription; 29 euro's; 6 Mb/ 1,5 Mb and a free phone service.
Apple's putting their efforts into fast internet, just look at high quality music, music video's, tvshows, movies, HD trailers and 'what not'… It's great!
There already is such a program. The Apple Maintenance Program is there mainly for schools and businesses to get upgrades for 3 years on iLife or Mac OS X packages.
It would have to be a good deal to get me hooked on a subscription. I bought iLife '04, but skipped '05 because I didn't see enough value in it for me. The fact that iPhoto 5.0 was corrupting people's libraries was another reason to stay on the sidelines. I have a .Mac account, but I used to work in Apple retail so I didn't have to pay for it. I won't be renewing unless Apple makes some significant improvements. Steve Jobs hinted in his D5 interview that big things are coming to .Mac later this year so I'll keep my eyes open.
I feel for the folks stuck with dial up. They are victims of vast and rugged geography and a sparse population. People in Europe have excellent internet and cell phone coverage because their population density is up to 250 times what it is in small town North America.
It doesn't include .Mac, nor does it affect consumers 🙂
Peace,
Gene
I agree that renewing .Mac is always a little problematic for me too. I'm never sure if I'm going to do it or not, but end up renewing anyway. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I do believe it'll get better — someday.
Peace,
Gene
Yes, this is one of the problems we have here in the “colonies.” There are millions of people in the USA who do not have broadband, and, alas, stand very little chance of getting it right now. As wireless Internet sprouts up around the rural areas, that'll change.
And there are people who fail to see the value of faster Internet service.
Peace,
Gene
Not even DSL? Surely there's a telephone line in those area's? Whats the hold up? Looks like there's mone to be made with a good DSL service.
Anyway, I'm glad 'the colonies' liberated us 😉 so we can enjoy all this information. I can't imagne doing business without it. But then again, I work for a design company. Just a few years ago everything was faxed and we had to re-type it!
Love the speed. I just hope the dikes will hold…
"Sure, you could bring your Mac to an Apple Store or a third party dealer that is generous about such things, and download to your heart’s content. But what if there’s no cooperating dealer nearby?"
Here in the boonies, before we got Wi-Fi, I would take a blank CD or a USB flash drive to a friend's place in town who had broadband, download the stand-alone installer then transfer it to the CD or flash drive.