Apple to Charge for Bootcamp?

Rumor has it that Apple Inc. may be charging users to obtain the final release of Boot Camp when it moves out of the Beta testing phase in the coming months. This may come as no surprise to many who have recently been told that they would need to pay a small fee to unlock the ability to use 802.11n Wi-Fi technology in their Intel Macs.

The source of this rumor? MacScoop! While this really is just a rumor at present, a senior analyst with Pike & Fischer says, “At $30, Boot Camp is a steal. That’s a drop in the bucket for software that allows for a dual operating system.”

For some it may be a steal but for me it’s almost a joke. Apple’s main reason for developing Boot Camp in the first place was to:

A) Prevent users from hacking their systems to run Windows B) Allow users to actually run a stable copy of Windows on their machines C) Attract existing Windows users to the Mac platform in the knowledge that they could use both Windows and Mac operating systems

Why would a Windows user, who is probably too scared of a change anyway (as many are), want to fork out over $1000 for a computer, then pay more money again to run a Windows operating system? Sure, to a Mac lover like you or I this is a case of “stop being so tight, tight ass,” but a lot of Windows users are already put off by the expense of the Mac range without having to fork out even more money.

The question I find myself asking now is: why is Apple charging people for this? Here’s one thought, although it’s a long shot. Is there a possibility that Apple’s sales aren’t going as well as expected from the moment they announced Boot Camp, and they feel as though they would gain more money by charging current Intel Mac users for it? Meaning, there’s more revenue being generated by existing customers than by new customers?

Or here’s another more likely thought. Maybe Apple knew that the free beta release of boot camp would entice plenty of Windows users to cross over, and now that they’re over, Apple wants to hit those users with a bill for using the product they switched platforms for in the first place because they thought it was free? Clever business strategy, if you ask me.

According to Bit-tech.net, users who are currently using the Beta version will still be able to use the software even after the pay-for version is released, they just won’t get much driver support from Apple. Of course, if you wait for Leopard to be released you’ll get the full version anyway, without a fee (we hope). Apparently users can also expect Windows Vista to be supported on the pay-for Bootcamp.

I’m still in two minds about whether charging users for a handy piece of software is the right way to go anyway. On the one hand, it’s only $30 (£15); on the other hand, why should we have to pay when, realistically, we have already spent enough on a Macintosh computer in the first place?

What’s your view on this? Is Apple being greedy or is this fair play?