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Apple to Offer Free Tier of iCloud Without Music Streaming? 'Aggressive' Pricing for Mac OS X Lion? [Updated: Education Pricing for iCloud?]

Wednesday June 1, 2011 8:39 am PDT by Eric Slivka

AppleInsider reports that it has received information from a source claiming that Apple will offer at least a basic tier of iCloud services free of charge to Mac OS X Lion users, although it remains unclear exactly what would be included in that package.
People familiar with Apple's plans indicated to AppleInsider that at least one of those secrets is expected to be that at least some of the services included in iCloud will be offered for free to Mac users who make the upgrade to Lion. iCloud is expected to replace the company's existing MobileMe service, which offers e-mail and remote file storage, along with syncing of bookmarks, contacts and calendar events, at a price tag of $99 per year.

That price tag may remain for users who do not make the upgrade to Lion, or for Windows users. But it is expected that the cloud services will become free to Mac users who run the latest version of Mac OS X.
One thing the free tier is not expected to offer, however, is music streaming. Apple has been negotiating licensing deals with major music labels and publishers to support that functionality, and those deals come at significant cost that Apple will almost certainly be passing along to users, although the company may offer a free introductory trial period in order to help bring users on board.

A separate, "unproven" source has also indicated that Apple may be planning to offer a relatively low price point for Mac OS X Lion, enticing users to upgrade to the new operating system. That low price could be specifically tied to Mac App Store distribution, offering users an incentive to embrace the company's new iOS-like distribution platform for Mac OS X.

Apple has historically offered new Mac OS X versions priced at $129 for single installations, although Mac OS X Snow Leopard has been priced at only $29 since its 2009 debut due to its relative focus on under-the-hood changes that may have led some users looking for more substantial visual changes to refrain from upgrading at a higher price point. It is unclear whether an "aggressive" price point for Mac OS X Lion as claimed by the source would match the $29 price point of Mac OS X Snow Leopard or if it would simply be below the usual $129 price point for major operating system releases.

Update: 9 to 5 Mac also reports that Apple may be planning to offer special educational pricing for iCloud services.
A source with some success in the past has passed along that iCloud will have educational-tiered pricing, perhaps being free for students and teachers to a certain level or with the purchase of Apple products.
Apple has been said to be announcing its annual back-to-school promotion offering free and discounted iPods (and perhaps discounted iPads) to educational customers purchasing new Macs at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week. The association of WWDC with the back-to-school promotion would be unusual, but would make more sense if it was somehow tied into educational customer pricing for iCloud.

Tags: 9to5mac.com, appleinsider.com
[ 178 comments ]


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Small White Car
101 months ago
I believe it.

'Free cloud stuff' is where Google has Apple totally licked. I don't think Apple has any choice if they want to attack Android and Chromebooks head-on.

Yeah, charge for the music stuff, but contacts, calendars, Pages documents...all that stuff is eventually gonna have to be free for Macs and iOS devices if Apple wants to keep selling devices.
Rating: 16 Votes
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Žalgiris
101 months ago
'Free' and 'Agressive Pricing' are the words i like to hear.
Rating: 14 Votes
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longofest
101 months ago

And Im not changing my email to @icloud.com


agree... I actually still use @mac.com
Rating: 9 Votes
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abhimat.gautam
101 months ago
The ultimate iOSification of Lion would be to make it a free update.
Rating: 7 Votes
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Thataboy
101 months ago
I find it hard to believe Apple will rebrand iTools, I mean .mac, I mean MobileMe again. Hmm maybe I shouldn't find it so hard to believe.

I think it is more likely that MobileMe will become a component of iCloud (or vice versa). MobileMe on the web now already seems a bit like a collection of apps.
Rating: 6 Votes
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GadgetGav
101 months ago

This having to pay to update OSes rankles with me anyway (I don't care what anyone else thinks), but now as a long-time MobileMe user (MM being integrated in part of my life) they're going to twist my arm even further by giving me an ultimatum: change to Lion or keep paying up for MobileMe? Aren't the free alternatives ever increasing?


Really? You rankle at having to pay for major OS updates, even when the last one cost $29...? Do you know any software programmers? Have you any idea of the amount of work that goes into a major OS release?
If you don't want to pay, find a free distribution of Unix. Just don't expect Apple (or Microsoft) to give away the major releases of their OSes for free.
Rating: 6 Votes
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rmhop81
101 months ago

Ummm, the raised eyebrows and smiles may be one of those laughing at you vs laughing with you things.

:rolleyes:


kinda like your username?
Rating: 5 Votes
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Popeye206
101 months ago

I hope you're right and I'm wrong. but experince tell us that apple is simply not good at that kind of service.


I think spending millions on a all new Data Center sort of shows they want to make it better. I would bet, you'll see a vast improvement over the older MobileMe services. Apple tends to learn from the past.
Rating: 4 Votes
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BLACKFRIDAY
101 months ago

Exactly! and then Amazon sent out an email apologizing for what Apple users put up with every day, offered the album on sale for 99¢ again on Monday, and allowed all users to re-download the album. That's how you run an online store. Apple's sorry state includes none of that.


I was able to lose 25GB worth of music on my macbook sometime back.

Good thing, I had backed up Megadeth, Judas Priest and Metallica on Dropbox that I bought from iTunes. The other stuff was stolen with my macbook pro.

Apple was kind enough to let me download more than 10GB worth of music for 'FREE' from the iTunes Store.

They seem to care whether you care or not.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Skika
101 months ago
I really want game center to have save games in the cloud or something like that it would be awesome. Ability to continue a game on my iPad that i started on my iPhone?

This would make sense to me.
Rating: 4 Votes

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