Apple’s Tiger debuts April 29: was I close enough?
OK, so it’s official: Apple to Ship Mac OS X “Tiger” on April 29.
Back here I asked “late April do ya?” because everyone seemed to think that it was going to appear in mid-April, based on various hazy reports on some of the rumour sites.
Though (on looking back) my post seems to wander around quite where the release would happen, I’ll go with the title. Late April? I’d call the 29th “late”. Though of course the release is on time, coming in the first half of 2005.
So that’s 18 months or so since the last release. I’d expect it’ll be at least the same length of time before we see whatever the successor is called.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- How close is Tiger? Not *that* close, actually - here's the maths: late April do ya? (1 April 2005; score: 81.77%)
- OK, I'll say it: I hate Apple's Mail (9 December 2004; score: 39.11%)
- Get it while it's late: my exclusive review of Tiger (you know.. that new software thing) (2 May 2005; score: 38.43%)
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April 12th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
Apparently it’s available on a DVD only; if you want the CDs you have to send off for them and pay for postage. It’s yet another in a lengthening list of minor annoyances from Apple (following on from the lack of FireWire cable with new iPods and the omission of wireless cards from the Mac Mini) which on their own aren’t much but put together are exasperating loyal users.
April 12th, 2005 at 10:03 pm
Ah, I was wondering about precisely that point. Aimed at cutting costs? (Only have to print the DVDs?) Or is it a subtle hint that only machines which came with a DVD drive by default make the grade? Except that doesn’t even include many of the machines it sells from the store now. Hmm.
April 12th, 2005 at 10:05 pm
Well, they’re exasperating the small number of loyal Apple users who don’t have DVD-ROM drives. I’m sure Apple is just playing the numbers on this one: the number of people affected by the CD thing is small enough so that the cost of producing the OS exclusively on several CDs is higher than the cost of annoying said people.
Ditto the FireWire cable with iPods: the vast majority of iPod users are Windows users, and I suspect the vast majority of them don’t have a Firewire port. So they’re passing the cost of supporting the minority of users onto those users, as opposed to sharing it between everyone, in an attempt to increase sales, and save on un-used cables being sent out.
I think.
April 13th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Oh come on. My Sawtooth G4 bought in 2000 came with a combo drive. Next you’ll be saying Apple should also be putting software out on floppy drive cos there might be people out there who haven’t got round to getting CD readers.
My money is on Puma by the way - though I’d prefer Tabby.
April 13th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Ok I said it was a minor annoyance - I’m not going to lose any sleep over it as I have a DVD drive! It’s just that belonging as I do to a Mac users forum I’ve seen several people get annoyed by this sort of thing; as Small Paul says it’s a calculated gamble on Apple’s part given the small number of users involved. No need to start getting sarcastic!
April 15th, 2005 at 8:01 am
I personally think the reason they didn’t issue Tiger in both CD and DVD versions is not necessarily about cost, it’s about giving the less scrupulous an easy way to share their copies. Imagine if you got a package with a DVD version and a CD version. You would need only to keep one of these to ensure you could recover your machine. Give the other copy to your mate who’s so hard up, he’s begging you for it. So essentially they’re soft protecting themselves against theft.
Obviously there are some who won’t worry too much about having a physical backup anyway, but if it deters just a few percent of illegal copies it makes good business sense.
Ian