When Apple announced on June 6 that OS X Lion would be available for a mere $30 from the Mac App Store in July, they left a question in the minds of many as to how they would handle volume licensing for businesses and education. They’ve just provided an answer. Read on.
Today, TUAW reports, an Apple Sales Web document was released that clears up this confusion, which provides details on the licensing and deployment of OS X Lion to business and schools. The good news is that Apple has made it simple and inexpensive for all to upgrade.
Beginning when Lion is released, business customers can purchase Lion and Lion Server by calling 1-800-854-3680, or by enter the Apple Business Store online. The volume licensing reflects the same $29.99 price for each license, and require a minimum purchase of 20 licenses. Maintenance contracts, which make sure you always have the latest version of OS X for a set amount of time, are available for $50, with the same minimum.
Educational institutions can buy through the Education Store at store.apple.com or contact their Apple Education Account Representative. Schools are presented with the Apple Software Collection, which includes OS X, iLife, and iWork, and the pricing is set at $39 per license – a pretty damn good deal when you figure in the added value of iWork – and require a minimum of 25 licenses to be purchased.
Existing Volume License customers will simply receive a single redemption code for each contract that they have which can be used to download Lion from the Mac App Store, and that single copy will be able to install Lion of all of the Mac systems at that particular school or business – it’s a simple matter of just copying the installer onto each system and executing it. System Administrators can mass-image their machines with Lion using Lion Server’s System Image Utility.