While Apple’s “Mac App Store only” plan for OS X Lion may be great for most consumers, it doesn’t scale well for business and education customers. Today, Apple has released details on what these types of customers can expect when upgrading their machines to OS X 10.7.
When Lion ships next month, business and education customers will be able to contact Apple and request a volume license agreement for the OS. Volume license contracts are $29.99 per license. Maintenance contracts, which ensure that the next version of OS X is available at no cost, are available for $49.99 per license. Both agreements require a minimum requirement of 20 licenses.
Schools will be able to get Lion, iWork and iLife starting at $39 per license, with a minimum of 25 licenses.
Existing Volume License, Maintenance, and Apple Education Licensing Program customers will receive one redemption code for each contract to download Lion from the Mac App Store. The installer will be able to be used on any of the machines covered by the contract. Lion can be installed manually, or via NetRestore using Mac OS X Server.
It is important to note that this installer is still digital — Apple does not appear to be preparing any physical media, even for these customers. I believe this is a mistake, but thankfully, there is a workaround in place. One that hopefully will continue to work when the final version of Lion ships in July.
A PDF outlining this information can be downloaded here.
Article Via TUAW
