Latest Snow Leopard seed includes QuickTime Pro
Apple’s next generation operating system release could be arriving as soon as the June Worldwide Developer Conference. Regardless of the timing, it is believed the Cupertino, CA-based computer, widget and software maker will eliminate a longstanding fee—a thorn in the side of Mac users for years.
MacRumors reports that a recent pre-release build of Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, seeded to developers arrived with QuickTime Pro enabled by default. That is, developers didn’t need to pay the usual $29.99 upgrade fee to access pro features.
‘Criminally Stupid’
Back in April, 2005, John Siracusa of Ars Technica (via Daring Fireball) had this to say about Apple’s policy of charging $30 for the QuickTime Pro license:
This is just criminally stupid. It mars the otherwise exemplary out-of-box experience for buyers of consumer Macs especially. Having spent well over $4,000 on my current crop of Mac hardware (plus $80 for iLife ’05 plus who knows how much for the Mac OS X Public Beta through Tiger), I find it personally insulting that I’m still not entitled to the “wonders” of QuickTime Pro.
Further, according to MacRumors, the “Buy QuickTime Pro” and “Registration” buttons have been removed from QuickTime’s menu and also from System Preferences.
And, what are these “pro” features that Apple deems worth depriving a family of four the privilege of eating a small, budget meal at McDonalds? How about cut, copy, paste and a relative handful of media codecs.
For what it’s worth, The Inquirer adds, “Apple has announced it will be revamping Quicktime in time for the next OS release but the chances of it losing this particular revenue stream are pretty slim in our not so humble opinion.”
Thereupon, the Inquirer has made a good living out of deriding and dismissing pretty much everything Apple has ever done, which doesn’t mean they’ve always been wrong.
And, our take? If QT Pro does become “free,” it won’t have come too soon…
What’s your take?
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