Apple reveals business and education upgrades to Lion

Stephen Withers
Monday, 20 June 2011 15:12

Business IT - Technology

Since Apple keynoted Mac OS X Lion at its Worldwide Developers Conference, one of the burning questions has concerned the mechanisms that will be available for large users wishing to upgrade to the new operating system. Now we have an answer.

Apple has stated that Max OS X 10.7 Lion will (at least initially) be available only via the Mac App Store. That's fine for the typical individual user - bandwidth permitting - but what about those who manage installations of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of Macs?

Late last week Apple quietly revealed that business and education customers will be able to buy volume licences. Businesses will need to buy at least 20 licences at $US29.99, and education customers will see Lion added to the Apple Software Collection (alongside iLife and iWork) with prices starting at $US39 per licence for a minimum of 25 licences.

Those customers will download Lion once and use their existing mass installation techniques to deploy it across their fleets.