Jake Widman
Tuesday, 25 August 2009 00:17
IT Industry -
Development
Page 2 of 2
Snow Leopard represents a break for Apple with its PowerPC past: it's the first version of Mac OS X that will only run on Intel-based Macs, which Apple started selling in January 2006.
Owners of PowerPC-based Macs will not be able to run Snow Leopard, though Leopard may continue to get minor upgrades.
Starting Friday, new Macs will ship with Snow Leopard preinstalled. Qualifying Macs bought after June 7 will be eligible for an upgrade to Snow Leopard for $A14.95, US$9.95.
Mac owners who are already running Leopard on an Intel machine will be able to upgrade for US$29 -- or $A39, as
predicted by iTWire contributor Stephen Withers back in June.
There is, however, no standalone price for the full Snow Leopard version of OS X, which means that Tiger users who never upgraded to Leopard won't be able to simply buy a new version of Snow Leopard.
For them, Apple is offering the "Mac Box Set," which includes Snow Leopard along with iLife '09 and iWork '09, at US$169, $A229. (Family packs of five licenses are US$229 and $A299.)
Judging from the US and Australian online Apple stores, standalone Leopard has already been pulled from the virtual shelves. The only option now is to preorder Snow Leopard.