The launch of Apple Inc’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, was its best ever, NPD Group said on Monday.
“When comparing the first full month of sales of Apple Mac OS 10.5 ‘Leopard’ (November 2007) to the first full month of sales for Mac OS 10.4 ‘Tiger’ (May 2005), dollar volume for Leopard was up 32.8 percent and unit volume up 20.5 percent, NPD Group Inc said in a statement,” Duncan Martell reports for Reuters.
“The new version of Apple’s OS X software costs $129 for a single user and $199 for a ‘family pack’ that can be installed on as many as five computers in a single household,” Martell reports.
“Leopard is the sixth version in as many years, a fact the Cupertino, California-based concern is quick to contrast with Microsoft Corp, which went more than five years between new versions of its Windows operating system,” Martell reports.
Full article here.
Let me save you whiners the time: “Apple is not releasing full new versions every year, so you can’t compare it to Vista’s release.” Wah, cry me a freakin’ river.
@Jimbo
More likely they’ll whine about how buggy Leopard’s launch was compared to Tiger, even though when Tiger launched I remember hearing all about how it was so incredibly buggy, Apple had let them down, blah blah blah.
These numbers are one thing… but the quality of the product is another… Leopard has had more bugs than I can remember an update has ever had… and some pretty non-Apple interface changes to boot!
wellll…. this is the buggiest ever. Installed all the upgrades on about 20 machines over the past 7 years: from the first OSX 10.1 ( I forget the name… ) thru leopard. This is definitly the buggiest. Obviously, 100X better then ANY windows upgrade, ever. But relatively poor for Apple’s standards. They could have waited another month or 2 to clean it up. When your stuff works that good, the expectations are perhaps unreasonably high. But they should have known that.
Msft: 1 release every 6 years at $330 (Ultimate Premium) = $330
Apple: 1 release every 12 – 18 months at $129 = $620.
Assume every other skipped it comes out to $360.
(6 x 12 = 72 / 15 months average = 4.8 – 2 skipped = 2.8 x 129 = $360)
Mac users wind up paying just as much (or more) for our choice of operating system. In general terms, Apple makes more off box sales of the OS, per sale, than Microsoft.
Of course this is a comparison of off the shelf sales price and makes no consideration for the hardware which, in general, Mac users do not have to replace everytime we upgrade the OS.
10.0 Cheetah
10.1 Puma
10.2 Jaguar
10.3 Panter
10.4 Tiger
10.5 Leopard
“Apple: 1 release every 12 – 18 months at $129 = $620.”
I don’t recall this $129 yearly release.
That’s ridiculous.
If you just didn’t buy any of Apple’s in-between upgrades and bought the most recent OS X whenever Microsoft came out with a new version of Windows, voila! You’re spending $129 for your Mac “choice of operating system” in comparison with Windows.
Bill H. “
Mac users wind up paying just as much (or more) for our choice of operating system. In general terms, Apple makes more off box sales of the OS, per sale, than Microsoft.”
My time is worth much more than messing around with Window’s problems. “Cancel or Allow”. How much does it cost per year to be free of viruses in Windows?
@Bill H.
Yes, you may pay more but you’ve also had the opportunity to be using the new capabilities earlier. Or you could’ve waited six years and paid just $129 (assuming your hardware still supports it). Or you could’ve waited six years and paid nothing extra by just buying a new Mac.
5 user family pack, that’s $40.00 per Mac to upgrade to Leopard.
Best operating system& best value on the planet.
What would a downgrade from 5 Vistas to 5 Windows XP ‘s cost?
Thanks Apple for making great computing affordable.
@Bill H.
Should’ve also added just to be fair: Of course, the latter is exactly the same for Windows.
“That’s ridiculous.
If you just didn’t buy any of Apple’s in-between upgrades and bought the most recent OS X whenever Microsoft came out with a new version of Windows, voila! You’re spending $129 for your Mac “choice of operating system” in comparison with Windows.”
Yeah well, in reality 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2 sucked, .. BAD! I’m sure you don’t think so since of course, “Steve said” it was the best ever. But for us who actually used (or tried to) early releases of OSX, the fact of the matter is that every version prior to Panther was downright horrible and almost unusable. It was slow, clumsy, and crashed, a LOT!
Beginning with Panther, OS X over took Windows and with Tiger did indeed pull years ahead of M$. What you are saying is absolutely true – Today. But in the early days you HAD to upgrade just to make your system 1/2 way stable.
Schedulerr, I reckon Jaguar was the first usable version. But Panther had the better Finder layout and introduced Fast User Switching and Expose.
“Schedulerr, I reckon Jaguar was the first usable version. But Panther had the better Finder layout and introduced Fast User Switching and Expose.”
Agree!!
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Actually, Scheduler, only 10.0 sucked. 10.1 was fine, if not a bit sluggish, and 10.2 performed well plus had great compatability with Classic – you could run classic OpenGL games better than with any other relase of OS X.
Panther was, IMHO, the best OSX release to date – OS X really matured and had a minimum of fluff. Tiger is very much like Panther – Spotlight was a great addition, but Dashboard is just bloat that leaves me flat. One of my machines is still on Panther, and I see no compelling reason to upgrade.
I’ll wait for new towers to worry about Leopard, which seems to be the fluffiest release yet, although Spotlight has been improved.
@Zuno the Clown
Well the strange part is this:
I have Leopard loaded on my Intel Mini and MacBook. I have Tiger loaded on my 12″ 1.2 G G4 iBook, and Panther loaded on my 14″ 1.0 G G4 iBook. All run well, and I am quite satisfied. As a matter of fact, I could be satisfied with any of the 3 OS’s.
Now, I also have an old Powermac G4 Digital audio. It had 10.2 loaded on it, and it crashed regularly. It wasn’t at all snappy. I installed a 1.2 G G4, loaded it with 1.5 G of RAM, and reinstalled 10.2. Same difference. BAD…. So I loaded 10.4 and the machine literally jumped to life. No more crashing, no more hesitation, the machine runs beautifully.
My early experience with 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2 was with a Wallstreet, and I kept running back to MacOs 9.2. At least for me they were horrible. I loaded Panther on it when it came out and the machine again suddenly stabilized (of course I sold this one a few year ago)….
I guess different folks can have different results depending on your individual hardware configurations, but these are my experiences..
Regards
Yeah, when I had 10.2 Jaguar I would boot into OS9 so I could use my printer and scanner. It really wasn’t until 10.3 that I went full out and dumped OS9. Panther was sweet (still using it on a eMac) and Tiger awesome. Just a matter of time till Leopard is tweaked to perfection.
“How much does it cost per year to be free of viruses in Windows?”
Nothing, use Linux.
Compared to zero upgrades in over five years any at all would be a lot.
I wonder how many folks are like me – bought it but haven’t installed it once I saw all the major issues people are having with it. Also, the promise of wireless backups via an Airport Extreme never materialized, as promised, so it will wait. For now, Tiger rocks!
Brau,
Maybe I’m just one of the lucky ones but I bought it and so far (knock on wood) it has worked beautifully on both my Intel machines. No issues.
I have not loaded it on the G4’s because I believe that it might be pushing it a bit and I’m afraid it might kill their responsiveness, but who knows.
I didn’t have any real problems with Leopard. I’m still convinced that if people had taken reasonable precautions, 95% of the “problems” people had could have been avoided.
Installed on 4 Machines. I have had no problems.
Best ever?? No way. It all sucks, you hear me?
You’re all sheep. Steve has you all duped. He’s a modern day Joseph Smith.
Blah de blah.