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As we all know by now Apple's next Mac OS X version, Snow Leopard, will be available from tomorrow, Friday, August 28 2009. It's available for Intel Macs only (bye bye Power PC Macs).

In the US, Snow Leopard costs $29 or for a family pack with a license for five computers $49. Mac owners who bought a new Mac since June 8, 2009 can order Snow Leopard by mail for a shipping cost of $9.95.

In Indonesia's Apple Online Store, Snow Leopard costs Rp 379,000 ($38) or Rp 679 000 ($67) for family pack. Qualified users can order it for Rp 119,000 ($11)

If your Intel Mac is running Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) Apple makes Snow Leopard available via the Mac Box Set which includes iLife '09 and iWork '09. It retails for Rp 2.1 million ($210) on the Indonesian Apple Online Store ($169 in the US). The family pack of this Mac Box Set is Rp 2.8 million ($280; $199 in the US).

A bit expensive? Possibly. Some ratios: $280/$199 is 1.41, $210/$169 is 1.24, $67/$49 is 1.367, $38/$29 is 1.310, $11/$10 is 1.1. As you can see the ratio generally increases as the price goes up. Granted, the tax component is missing from the US price because each US state has its own tax rates which is why you hardly ever see the final prices on US e-commerce sites.

As for the surprise component, we at Macworld Indonesia found out while playing around with the new cat that it turns out you can install Snow Leopard on a blank drive from the supposedly upgrade-only DVD.