Some would say that Mavericks was launched for free because Windows 8.1 did the same. Those same people might also say that Apple did one better by offering the update for computers running older than the most recent version of their software.
OS X upgrade revenue is now such a minuscule piece of the pie that it probably doesn't matter anymore.
Yes, 129 for single-user and 169 for family (5-user).
And these are not so old days, Leopard was 129 and that was in 2007. Snow Leopard and Lion were 30, and ML was 20 (in USD, IIRC $129 translated to 129€ but ML is "only" 18€)
This is why Windows 8.1 is free and I will assume the next iterations of Windows will be. Windows now has an app store and they are banking on getting as many people into that ecosystem as possible. While they may lose money in the OS purchase, that isn't where the bulk of the money is made anymore.
It's all about money.
Microsoft should be terrified. Both of their cash cows are getting rapidly commoditized.
It's the same reason iOS is coming into corporate environments: people want to use it.
iWorks is never going to be a threat to Microsoft in corporate environments, really. But the fact that Apple's customers don't need Microsoft at all just as Microsoft is taking a big step into consumer devices is probably an issue.
[0]http://blogs.forrester.com/philipp_karcher/13-10-17-office_p...
Well you can install Mavericks on machines from 2007, that's money from quite a long time ago.
Or "Nixploration."
OS is not necessarily tied to a single machine.
I have an external hard drive with all my documents, projects, music, movies, etc. on it. What's absolutely essential is recopied to my hard drive each time. It's kind of addictive to dive into a new operating system and learn it every so often. That's why there's a term for it - distro hopping.
It's good for some things. It gets you very good at doing rote computer tasks because you do them over and over in slightly different environments each time - install homebrew, update ruby, install rvm, configure common programs, tweak preferences and small aspects of the OS, etc.
As a result, I can wipe my entire hard drive and bring it back up to my workflow speed in less than 3 hours on a linux distro I roll myself via Arch.
All that said, I like OS X, so I'll be sticking with Mavericks for a while now.
Of course they make money from it. That's very naive of you to think that they don't.
Windows 9 might be free for the same reason -- the new features are in apps and services, and the OS is a compatibility layer than needs to keep up.
For example, hypothetically: Office 2014 is expensive, Win 9 is free to provide access to Office 2014 Viewer or whatever.