For those of you who aren’t able to download your OS X Lion upgrade for any reason, Apple is now selling its $69 Lion USB thumb drives.
The device is intended for those who don’t have access to a broadband connection and makes it easy to upgrade your Mac:
OS X Lion is available on a USB thumb drive for installation without the need for a broadband Internet connection. Just plug the drive into your USB port and follow the instructions to install. OS X Lion is also available for a lower price as a digital download from the Mac App Store.
Of course, the downside to purchasing the OS on a USB drive is that $69 price tag — that’s more than double the price of the digital download in the Mac App Store, which is just $29.99.
Those of you who have already downloaded Lion and simply want the USB drive as a back up, you can create your own for a fraction of the cost using the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant.
[via 9to5 Mac]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
12 responses to “Apple Begins Selling $69 OS X Lion USB Drives”
That is insanely stupid. I love Apple products, but they should have bit the bullet and realized it is a bad idea and started producing discs already.
I don’t think it’s “insanely stupid”, but I agree that they should have sold these on day one. Not everyone has a 10Mb/s or more internet connection, so downloading 3.5GB is a pain. I bought one of these this morning so that I could include an install disk with my MacBook Pro when I sell it next year.
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[This comment has been edited for violating Cult of Mac’s rules on commenting.]
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How is this better then a DVD? A DVD costs less then a dollar to make where this costs quite a bit more. What a waste except for the systems without an optical drive.
I find this part interesting from the applestore:
When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.