You're both right: I think the Parallels website WAS briefly showing $49.99 as the upgrade price, but all "registered" owners of Parallels received an email offering them "Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac for just $39.95." The small print says, "This special upgrade offer is available to registered users only and requires a previous installation of Parallels Desktop for Mac." And the email claims that the deal will end in 14 days, but I'm guessing it'll last for longer.
Here's the full offer that the email linked to:
http://parallelsupgrade.com/
But now the regular Nova store has the upgrade price listed at $39.99 too:
http://novadevelopment.com/software/parallels-desktop-128985
What I'm wondering is if we could ALSO get the $20 rebate -- bringing the price down to just $19.99? The Nova site says that you can purchase the program at the limited-time discount rate of $39.99 OR use the rebate . . . But the rebate form itself doesn't mention a restriction against getting a rebate on an already discounted upgrade price:
"Previous owners of Parallels Desktop are eligible for a one-time upgrade rebate of $20 when purchasing Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac. To get your rebate all you will need to do is to provide the following redemption code PAR5U20 and click http://usa.novadevelopment.com/support/rebate/Registration.aspx to begin the rebate process. . . . Get a $20 mail-in Upgrade Rebate if you own any prior version of Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware Fusion and upgrade or switch to Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac."
Seems to be sending a mixed message there. But at $19.99 I might actually upgrade to Parallels 5. Although I HATE having to go through mail-in rebate processes, so maybe not.
I'm definitely not going to pay $49.99 or even $39.99 to upgrade . . . . I loved Parallels 3 and it was worth what I paid, but the upgrade to Parallels 4 was not impressive . . . It's still a good program, but the $39 upgrade fee didn't deliver much . . . Some improvements, some bugs . . . I'm guessing Parallels 5 will be more of the same: Improvements, but nothing to justify the cost. I mean, it was cheaper to upgrade from Leopard vs. Snow Leopard: These yearly upgrades to Parallels should cost like $10. Maybe $20 max.
I'd like to have Parallels 5, but at these prices I can wait until Parallels 6 or 7. Lucky for them I'm too lazy to switch to VMware at the moment.
I wonder if I can install the upgrade without parallels actually installed. I bought it originally when it came out but haven't had the need to have it installed since snow leopard.