Apple to Charge for Bootcamp?

by Aaron Wright Jan 24, 2007

Rumor has it that Apple Inc. may be charging users to obtain the final release of Boot Camp when it moves out of the Beta testing phase in the coming months. This may come as no surprise to many who have recently been told that they would need to pay a small fee to unlock the ability to use 802.11n Wi-Fi technology in their Intel Macs.

The source of this rumor? MacScoop! While this really is just a rumor at present, a senior analyst with Pike & Fischer says, “At $30, Boot Camp is a steal. That’s a drop in the bucket for software that allows for a dual operating system.”

For some it may be a steal but for me it’s almost a joke. Apple’s main reason for developing Boot Camp in the first place was to:

    A) Prevent users from hacking their systems to run Windows B) Allow users to actually run a stable copy of Windows on their machines C) Attract existing Windows users to the Mac platform in the knowledge that they could use both Windows and Mac operating systems

Why would a Windows user, who is probably too scared of a change anyway (as many are), want to fork out over $1000 for a computer, then pay more money again to run a Windows operating system? Sure, to a Mac lover like you or I this is a case of “stop being so tight, tight ass,” but a lot of Windows users are already put off by the expense of the Mac range without having to fork out even more money.

The question I find myself asking now is: why is Apple charging people for this? Here’s one thought, although it’s a long shot. Is there a possibility that Apple’s sales aren’t going as well as expected from the moment they announced Boot Camp, and they feel as though they would gain more money by charging current Intel Mac users for it? Meaning, there’s more revenue being generated by existing customers than by new customers?

Or here’s another more likely thought. Maybe Apple knew that the free beta release of boot camp would entice plenty of Windows users to cross over, and now that they’re over, Apple wants to hit those users with a bill for using the product they switched platforms for in the first place because they thought it was free? Clever business strategy, if you ask me.

According to Bit-tech.net, users who are currently using the Beta version will still be able to use the software even after the pay-for version is released, they just won’t get much driver support from Apple. Of course, if you wait for Leopard to be released you’ll get the full version anyway, without a fee (we hope). Apparently users can also expect Windows Vista to be supported on the pay-for Bootcamp.

I’m still in two minds about whether charging users for a handy piece of software is the right way to go anyway. On the one hand, it’s only $30 (£15); on the other hand, why should we have to pay when, realistically, we have already spent enough on a Macintosh computer in the first place?

What’s your view on this? Is Apple being greedy or is this fair play?

Comments

  • Lets just hope they provide a method of importing an entire old Windows machine, and throwing it into Bootcamp.

    That way - whether you’ve got an old PC or Mac, you can have your new Mac take your old settings and programs across. And if you buy parallels, you can run it in parallel smile

    Greg Alexander had this to say on Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 228
  • Lets just hope they provide a method of importing an entire old Windows machine, and throwing it into Bootcamp.

    I think that would be more of a function within Windows and not so much BC, which merely provides the platform and the drivers and does not inherently support Windows itself.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 2220
  • They can do what they damn well please. It’s their software.

    And Bush is free to say that anyone who criticizes his foreign policy is a traitor who sides with the enemy.  That doesn’t make it right or prudent.

    It’s true of EVERY company about their own products that they can do what they want.  Does that mean that we cannot legitimately criticize ANY decisions made about any company and its own software EVER?

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 2220
  • Speaking of the Windows migration… I found this COMEPLETELY Hilarious… Using QEMU you can install XP, activate it, etc… Then moved the folder to another Mac, open right up without fail (it’s supposed to, seeing it’s just been copied to another machine, fail to blue screen). But because QEMU makes up the CPU specs and whatver else it works… I wonder if you can do that with Parrallels????

    Would make windows distribution to multiple machines using the same system state very easy. Just build XP the way you need it with all the apps you need, copy the folder down to the server and move it accross as needed. However I think people in redmond might get upset.

    xwiredtva had this to say on Jan 25, 2007 Posts: 172
  • It’s true of EVERY company about their own products that they can do what they want.  Does that mean that we cannot legitimately criticize ANY decisions made about any company and its own software EVER?

    Beeblebrox… well said.

    There I said it.

    OTOH, I don’t really give a damn whether they charge for boot camp on Tiger, so long as it’s free as part of Leopard. The sort of person who’s likely to dual-boot is probably also the sort of person who’ll be upgrading.

    Whoever said this was from greed though, needs to look at some figures.

    Benji had this to say on Jan 25, 2007 Posts: 927
  • I have paid for the $29 Quicktime Pro upgrade. I have paid for the $19 Quicktime MPEG-2 module. For these, they were essential functionalities that added to the base, $0 cost, product. They made my job a lot easier and more fun.

    As for the purported $29 for Bootcamp on Tiger. Dream on. Bootcamp does not give me an advantage as a Mac user at all when I am already running either Parallels or VMWare Fusion on a very capable machine.

    It is an OS functionality for keepsake! It will be $0 cost to Leopard buyers and upgraders so why not give it to Tiger users too.

    This is not part of some GAAP accounting farse that we’ve heard about regarding some pre-N wireless capability that hasn’t been charged to customers but already added to their books. As for that matter, why can’t Apple just eat that $1.99 against their bazillion profits and tell their investors the truth.

    So, BC does not give me an added functionality by itself. I have to have a glorious copy of XP or Vista in the first place. If I were Apple courting Windows switchers, I would not make their troubles all the more troublesome. You hear, Apple Marketing and Sales?

    Robomac had this to say on Jan 26, 2007 Posts: 846
  • Page 2 of 2 pages  <  1 2
You need log in, or register, in order to comment