I'm a total upgrade whore. I admit that.

Well, that and the fact that I'm going to be at the Mall of America anyway this evening means that I may just swing by and pick up a sparking-new copy of Tiger.

But while browsing Apple's website, I noticed that they're going to be giving away scratch-off cards this evening as part of their "world premier." Curious, I downloaded the schedule of prizes. Prizes range from an iTunes download to a free 15" laptop.

But the really strange thing is that every store has different odds of each prize! Not just because the number of cards at each store varies. For example, the odds of winning an iTunes download vary from 1:3.6 (at the North Michigan Ave. store in Chicago) to 1:1 (every card is a winner...at the smaller stores). The odds of winning a coupon for a 10% discount (not by the way usable for a Tiger upgrade) vary from 1:1.4 to 1:6.1

What I'm wondering is: what is Apple doing here? Are they constructing some grand marketing experiment to see what the optimal odds are for generating revenue? Or do they have a very expensive consultant telling them that a 10% discount gets them more benefit in Chicago, whereas a free iTunes download is optimal in Minneapolis?

In any event, each store seems to be giving away exactly one free laptop, so you want to go to one of the smaller stores to have the best chance at the really big prize.