Upgrading to Lion Means Embracing the iPad

It must be excruciating to design a new version of an already mature operating system. How do you add enough new stuff to attract upgrade customers — without junking up the works? And how do you revamp enough things to make the upgrade exciting — without alienating people who don’t like change?

Upgrading to Lion Means Embracing the iPad

In Mac OS X 10.7, known as Lion, Apple went with the “shake things up” philosophy. It follows an old Apple pattern of embracing what’s cool and progressive, and ruthlessly jettisoning what it considers antiquated. That’s great if you love stuff that’s cool and progressive, and not so great if you hate people moving your cheese.

Even the way you install Lion is radical; starting immediately, you can download it from the Mac App store for $30. You can’t buy it on disc or in a box. It’s a 4-gigabyte download. If your Internet connection is too slow, or your monthly Internet plan data caps too restrictive, you can download it at an Apple store, or buy it on a USB flash drive in late August.

Read the full article at The New York Times >