BizSugar.com › News › Apple’s OS X Mavericks Spells the Death Knell for Paid Software – Not All Bad News

Amidst a slew of product upgrades yesterday, Apple announced the tenth major release of its operating system – codenamed OS X Mavericks. Named after a notoriously dangerous surfing beach, Mavericks is unique in that it is the first major operating system that is completely free.What’s telling about Apple’s decision to ship the operating system gratis is the shift in importance towards hardware (i.e. MacBooks, iPhones, and iPads) and services (i.e. iCloud and the App Store) and away from one-off costly pieces of software. In this article, I will look at the growing trend of companies to offer software free and then charge a premium for services.