Now a Mac user for a week (thanks to the special educator’s discount =D) I knew Snow Leopard was coming and apparently it’s coming sooner than expected, on the 28th of August 2009. So I sent a tweet to AV Electronics asking them for the prices and availability in Brunei and their response was:
- B$48: Single user
- B$78: Family Pack (5 Apple computers in one household. Non-commercial use)
- B$268: Single Mac Box Set (for non-leopard users)
- B$369: Family Pack Mac Box Set (for non-leopard users)
Snow Leopard Enhancements and Refinements
Estimated time of arrival 31st August, so go book your copy at AV Electronics
Kiulap: +673 2237650/1
Mall: +673 2456436
Email: info_AT_ave.com.bn
Update 1 [2009/08/28]
So today I got a response from AV Electronic’s Twitter feed that they will have the Up-to-Date program for recent Mac owners. So recent Mac owners (Mac bought on or after 8 June 2009) should be able to get Snow Leopard at an even a greater deal. Currently in Singapore it’s S$18 so here’s hoping it will be like B$20 here.
Funny thing though. I personally went to AV Electronics yesterday and ask them if there are any offers for recent Mac owners. And the person told me ‘no’. After that to find out today that they do offer such an offer, it makes me, as a customer, feel cheated of the facts. I would have felt even more cheated had I pre-ordered Snow Leopard at B$48 only to later find out I could have got it for cheaper. It’s not the price but the principle of the matter. Hope AV will work on their inter staff communication on their business activities to help provide customers the better service with accurate information to make the best choice.
The Wheat Field 
But you should be able to get it for much cheaper if you recenlty bought your macbookpro right?? In Singapore that one costs $18 only.. :P
I ask the only official Apple reseller (at least I think it’s the only official one) and they said there isn’t any here. So sad. Family pack perhaps. Works out to be cheaper too =P
Would it be good to get Snow Leopard, you think? =X
Make sure the software you’re using is compatible with Snow Leopard
Check out the Enhancements and Refinements and see if there any anything that you want
If you want to be extra safe, make sure you are willing to backup all your stuff first in case something should go wrong with the upgrade
With that said I will most likely give it a while before installing, cause I’ve got some work stuff I rather not risk (even if the risk is minimal) an upgrade at the moment. As seen from the Enhancements an Refinements page there are general usability improvements as well as some new technology with would improve Snow Leopard but may take some time for applications to utilize it (Grand Central Dispatch & OpenCL). Mostly just evolutionary changes that are worth a cheap upgrade price.
Hi Tim,
I just caught hold of this article from you, and I felt that it’s best we explain. Firstly, we truly apologize for any misunderstanding on this regard.
Let me clarify the case with Snow Leopard up-to-date program and why it was not actually available immediately.
Apple actually had this process ready only much later after Snow Leopard was introduced, and we were not made aware (or any of it’s other authorized partners/resellers anywhere else) that they had a process for up-to-date before the release of Snow Leopard.
This is why our AVE staff couldn’t inform you that there was such a plan before it was made available to us.
To complicate matters, when Apple launched the Up-to-Date program, it was only launched in major cities, and customers will have to fill up the UTD form Apple had online, and wait for 6-8 weeks for their UTD kit to arrive.
We felt this was quite long, and our customers had to be inconvenienced by these procedures, thus, we subsidized the retail pack (which is B$48 off the shelf), to only B$28 (same retail pack) for all our AVE customers that has brought a CPU from us after June 8th onwards. This subsidy was paid by AVE, and not by Apple, as a token to assist our customers.
We ran this program for 1 month, from Oct 1st to Oct 31st. We published this thru our usual mediums, and standees are also displayed at all our point-of-sale counters. This is for the Single User pack only.
Customers could still utilize the UTD program from Apple which, as you correctly stated, was listed at S$18 from Apple’s website, but will need to wait 6-8 weeks for the packs to arrive.
In light of this, and as good faith, if any of our customers out there that has bought a CPU after June 8th, 2009 and still have not utilized our subsidized UTD program above, do let us know, and we will extend the above to you for the month of February 2010.
We hope this clarifies the situation better, and should you need more info, do email us at info[at]ave.com.bn
Thanks!
[Soffian]