Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard sales double previous records

[AppleInsider]

Retail sales of Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrades, boosted by a new low price, resulted in strong sales that doubled the previously record-setting launch of Leopard.

Speaking in the company's Q4 earnings conference call, Chief Operations Officer Tim Cook said that "the upgrade sales of Snow Leopard, which we include family and box sets, were more than double what we experienced from Leopard over the same five-week sales period."

Cook noted, "that was much more than we planned, very pleasantly surprised."

Leapfrogging the Leopard Launch

In December 2007, NPD reported that the first full month of Mac OS X Leopard sales had beat the previous Tiger launch by 20.5 percent. Leopard was released at the end of October 2007.

"It's really stunning to see Apple have one blow-out OS launch after another," NPD analyst Chris Swenson told AppleInsider at the time. "It's clear that Apple has hit upon the right strategy for rolling out new versions of its OS."

The 2005 release of Tiger itself had achieved a 30 percent increase over the 2003 Panther update, and 100 percent greater sales than the 2002 release of Jaguar.

Satisfaction spawns sales

A month later, ChangeWave Research founder Tobin Smith reported that customer satisfaction with Leopard was helping to drive dramatic new increases in Mac sales.

"It comes as no surprise that Apple sets the standard in terms of customer satisfaction," Smith said, "but there’s a new twist on why they’re outperforming the rest of the industry -- it’s the amazing customer satisfaction rating on Apple’s new Leopard OS."

ChangeWave reported that 81 percent its 4,600 survey participants had ranked Leopard as "very satisfied," compared to only 51-53 percent of Windows XP users or 15-27% of Windows Vista. The satisfaction survey targeted the preinstalled operating system of users who had bought a new computer within the last 90 days.



Maintaining Mac momentum

Strong sales and favorable reviews of Snow Leopard harmonize with the unprecedented sales of over 3 million Macs in the quarter ending in October.

Cook credited Snow Leopard's release with boosting sales of Macs in the quarter, saying that "with every new OS you have some pent-up demand that ships with the operating system as people hold to get the latest."

Last month, NPD reported that sales of Snow Leopard were strong and maintaining greater sustained momentum that previous releases. While Leopard and Tiger saw sales drop more than 60 percent following their initial launch, sales of Snow Leopard reportedly dipped only 25 percent in week two.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[brucep]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Retail sales of Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrades, boosted by a new low price, resulted in strong sales that doubled the previously record-setting launch of Leopard.

Speaking in the company's Q4 earnings conference call, Chief Operations Officer Tim Cook said that "the upgrade sales of Snow Leopard, which we include family and box sets, were more than double what we experienced from Leopard over the same five-week sales period."

Cook noted, "that was much more than we planned, very pleasantly surprised."

Leapfrogging the Leopard Launch

In December 2007, NPD reported that the first full month of Mac OS X Leopard sales had beat the previous Tiger launch by 20.5 percent. Leopard was released at the end of October 2007.

"It's really stunning to see Apple have one blow-out OS launch after another," NPD analyst Chris Swenson told AppleInsider at the time. "It's clear that Apple has hit upon the right strategy for rolling out new versions of its OS."

The 2005 release of Tiger itself had achieved a 30 percent increase over the 2003 Panther update, and 100 percent greater sales than the 2002 release of Jaguar.

Satisfaction spawns sales

A month later, ChangeWave Research founder Tobin Smith reported that customer satisfaction with Leopard was helping to drive dramatic new increases in Mac sales.

"It comes as no surprise that Apple sets the standard in terms of customer satisfaction," Smith said, "but there’s a new twist on why they’re outperforming the rest of the industry -- it’s the amazing customer satisfaction rating on Apple’s new Leopard OS."

ChangeWave reported that 81 percent its 4,600 survey participants had ranked Leopard as "very satisfied," compared to only 51-53 percent of Windows XP users or 15-27% of Windows Vista. The satisfaction survey targeted the preinstalled operating system of users who had bought a new computer within the last 90 days.



Maintaining Mac momentum

Strong sales and favorable reviews of Snow Leopard harmonize with the unprecedented sales of over 3 million Macs in the quarter ending in October.

Cook credited Snow Leopard's release with boosting sales of Macs in the quarter, saying that "with every new OS you have some pent-up demand that ships with the operating system as people hold to get the latest."

Last month, NPD reported that sales of Snow Leopard were strong and maintaining greater sustained momentum that previous releases. While Leopard and Tiger saw sales drop more than 60 percent following their initial launch, sales of Snow Leopard reportedly dipped only 25 percent in week two.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

With snowy a whole new world opens up
we have just begun openCL and G C D
and the 64 bit world
i can't wait
go 

[RobertSwier]

Well, I guess it only doubles Apple's own previous record. In terms of number of units sold, how did the launch of Snow Leopard compare to other operating systems, such as Windows Vista? It will also be interesting to see how it compares, in terms of number of units sold, to Windows 7.

[sheff]

Vista Home Basic Satisfaction 15%

[lilgto64]

How do they count the family pack? it is good for up to 5 computers - but when I bought it for 10.5 I did not have 5 Macs to load it on - and even now I have only loaded it on two - one more is ready to go now that I got my new printer running properly and two that I have are G4 and cannot use it. I might have a couple others that I can put it on soon.

[RobertSwier]

Originally Posted by sheff

Vista Home Basic Satisfaction 15%

I can't seem to find a good estimate, but don't laugh too much. 15% of Windows Vista Home Basic users might be more people than 81% of Snow Leopard users.

[BertP]

In my view, it's the concept of upgrading the software that comes with your computer that is important. The worst situation: buy a new machine to get the latest OS. If a good portion of Apple users learn by experience to regularly update their software, they will maximize the use of their hardware within it's reasonable lifespan (say 4 or 5 years). So, doubling of Snow Leopard sales over Leopard is a good thing in that respect.

[lunga]

Originally Posted by brucep

With snowy a whole new world opens up
we have just begun openCL and G C D
and the 64 bit world
i can't wait
go 

That's if all that crap actually runs on your hardware. Apple's promise was not delivered in my book.

[lunga]

Big surprise it was 29 bucks. I'm sorry that you took the time to write this story, but this is not news.

[nofear1az]

yep, it does help that it was a mere $29 bucks.... so, it's almost without saying that this was expected. When the next release ships at $129 let's talk.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by RobertSwier

Well, I guess it only doubles Apple's own previous record. In terms of number of units sold, how did the launch of Snow Leopard compare to other operating systems, such as Windows Vista? It will also be interesting to see how it compares, in terms of number of units sold, to Windows 7.

You can't make a direct comparison, because Apple only has a bit over 4% of worldwide pc sales, so it's selling to a much smaller market.

Vista sold poorly after the immediate launch, though because of the much larger market (Apple only had 2.7% of the world market then), they sold more units.

So because of that, MS will have to sell 25 times as many 7 retail boxes to equal it. But even the cheapest version of 7 is much more expensive that 10.6, so there's no real way to compare these two.

Well, I suppose the very low satisfaction with Vista for those who have it will be an incentive, though the difficult upgrade process for XP users will retard the upgrade sales there.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by lilgto64

How do they count the family pack? it is good for up to 5 computers - but when I bought it for 10.5 I did not have 5 Macs to load it on - and even now I have only loaded it on two - one more is ready to go now that I got my new printer running properly and two that I have are G4 and cannot use it. I might have a couple others that I can put it on soon.

Good question.

[NasserAE]

Originally Posted by sheff

Vista Home Basic Satisfaction 15%

The remaining 85% probably downgraded to XP

[melgross]

Originally Posted by RobertSwier

I can't seem to find a good estimate, but don't laugh too much. 15% of Windows Vista Home Basic users might be more people than 81% of Snow Leopard users.

That's obvious. But it's also irrelevant.

Though Apple is increasing its marketshare, and MS is shrinking theirs.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by lunga

That's if all that crap actually runs on your hardware. Apple's promise was not delivered in my book.

And what exactly IS your "book"?

[NasserAE]

Originally Posted by melgross

And what exactly IS your "book"?

We've been hearing a lot of "Snow Leopard is a failure" but you will never get a straight answer on why it is.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by NasserAE

We've been hearing a lot of "Snow Leopard is a failure" but you will never get a straight answer on why it is.

We haven't been hearing that at all.

Can you link to a few places where that is being seriously said?

[NasserAE]

Originally Posted by melgross

We haven't been hearing that at all.

Can you link to a few places where that is being seriously said?

I didn't mean articles or reports. They are coming out from people posting here and there. You will hear it from "Apple is doomed" crowd, which is not a surprise.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by NasserAE

I didn't mean articles or reports. They are coming out from people posting here and there. You will hear it from "Apple is doomed" crowd, which is not a surprise.

Well, that's the trolls or silly crowd, if they are being serious (assuming that they CAN be considered to be serious).

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by NasserAE

I didn't mean articles or reports. They are coming out from people posting here and there. You will hear it from "Apple is doomed" crowd, which is not a surprise.

Originally Posted by melgross

Well, that's the trolls or silly crowd, if they are being serious (assuming that they CAN be considered to be serious).

Paranoia lives on in the Apple world. You both fall right into their trap.
The only problem with SL is that you actually have to think when you install it as opposed with the other Apple OS upgrades due to the Rosetta issue.

[RobertSwier]

Originally Posted by melgross

You can't make a direct comparison, because Apple only has a bit over 4% of worldwide pc sales, so it's selling to a much smaller market.

Vista sold poorly after the immediate launch, though because of the much larger market (Apple only had 2.7% of the world market then), they sold more units.

You *can* make a direct comparison. Every OS has an absolute number of units sold, and you can compare those numbers. Sure, you can also do relative comparisons, like percent of existing machines that get upgraded. But the absolute numbers are comparable. Especially since that's what you have to multiply the per unit price by to figure out revenue.

I like this blog, and I like reading Apple news. But everything we read here does not need to be relentlessly positive, as if it were and Apple press release. A realistic and balanced assessment is far more interesting.

[newbee]

Originally Posted by RobertSwier

I can't seem to find a good estimate, but don't laugh too much. 15% of Windows Vista Home Basic users might be more people than 81% of Snow Leopard users.

It probably is ... but 15% is still 15%. and anytime that you have 85% of your customer base unsatisfied with their purchase it's just a matter of time before they try elsewhere ... do the math!

[lunga]

Originally Posted by melgross

And what exactly IS your "book"?

MacPro actually. 2006. No 64 bit EFI...

Hey I didn't say it was failure, i just said it didn't fill it's promise for me.

[buceta]

Originally Posted by sheff

Vista Home Basic Satisfaction 15%

I was surprised by how high it was. It should have been more like 5% but I guess some people are so traumatized by microsoft they have their expectations very very low.

[buceta]

Originally Posted by melgross

That's obvious. But it's also irrelevant.

Though Apple is increasing its marketshare, and MS is shrinking theirs.

And this is a trend that is going to continue for the forseeable future seeing as Microsoft has been the company of no new ideas for a while. At the same time Apple continues to push the envelope with OpenCL, Grand Central Dispatch, unsurpassed polish and stability, 64 bit, and a host of other innovations.

[buceta]

Originally Posted by brucep

With snowy a whole new world opens up
we have just begun openCL and G C D
and the 64 bit world
i can't wait
go 

Same here. Pretty soon we may be seeing apps for the Mac that are a factor of 10 faster than Winblows PC in the same box.

Go Apple, die Windows.