Here’s an added incentive to upgrade to Apple’s soon-to-be-released Mac OS X ‘Lion’: free iCloud services.
The Cupertino, Calif. company will announce next week users who upgrade will get some iCloud services normally priced $99 for free, according to a Wednesday report.
However, don’t bet on the free service including music streaming. Apple likely will want to pass onto users the expense of paying the music industry for rights to store tunes on iCloud. One potential middle-ground will be Apple offering a free trial period, according to another report.
Apple could sweeten the deal by offering a low-cost pricetag for Mac OS X 10.7. Execs of the tech giant are “pushing for an aggressive price point on Lion — an approach the company already employed with great success when Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard launched in 2009,” writes AppleInsider, citing a source with “an unproven track record.”
To provide the low-cost software, Apple may require purchases be made through its Mac App Store. There is precedence for such a move, with the company offering photo software Aperture for $79.99 – $120 less than the boxed version.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference is expected to kick-off June 6 with CEO Steve Jobs delivering a keynote speech announcing iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and perhaps a new iPhone.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
