Apple Australia has named the price it will charge for “Leopard” -the sixth major release of the Mac OS X operating system – when it is released in October 07.
The Aussie price will be $199 including GST, identical with the price of the current “Tiger” Mac OS X version. This is somewhat more than the US$129 ex-tax (A$153) its American parent is charging for Leopard in the USA, but rather less than Microsoft Australia charges for the multiple versions of its Windows Vista, released in January.
Vista pricing ranges from A$385 for the basic “Home” version to $751 for Vista “Ultimate”.
Announcing the US price at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a lot of fun telling the audience there would be five versions: “We’ve got a Basic version, which is going to cost $129. We’ve got a Premium version, which is gonna cost $129. We’ve got a Business version, $129. We’ve got an Enterprise version, $129.
And we’ve got the Ultimate version, we’re throwing everything into it, it’s $129. We think most people will buy the Ultimate version.”
He was joking of course. There’s just the one version for everyone – and it will run both 32- and 64-bit applications, Jobs said. New features in Leopard include a redesigned Dock with 3D icons and a feature called Stacks, which he said helps manage desktop clutter.
