After improving the software of its iPad tablets and MacBook laptops, Apple today announced monumental news about its older operating system: it will not charge for its latest software update, Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, breaking a tradition that dates back more than 16 years. Eighteen years earlier, the technology giant made almost half of its budget by selling licenses for its software. Now, Apple has confirmed, the OS’s prices are heading toward zero.
Apple's software prices have fluctuated considerably in recent years. After four releases at $129, Apple dropped the price to just $29 with 2009's OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, followed by last year's OS X Mountain Lion at $19. Microsoft, the king of systems software in the mid-1980s and 1990s, still charges computer makers for pre-installed software. But that kind of promotion is waning, with Apple having the most success in the field. And just last week, Microsoft announced that, like Apple, it would not charge consumers for its latest suite, Windows 8.1.
Now, for the average consumer, the change in the price of Apple software won't be so obvious. But for Microsoft shareholders, this change is more than scary, because it means they will have to make up for the 25% of their budget they lost to Apple's business move.
