Bargain price boosts Apple's Snow Leopard to swift sales start
With sales twice as high as Leopard and four times better than Tiger, Apple's new operating system, Snow Leopard, is off to a tremendous start, new sales figures show.
New figures released Thursday by NPD Market Research show that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard not only bested its two predecessors in terms of sales, but it also has showed strength beyond the initial week. While each 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.
"Even though some considered Snow Leopard to be less feature-focused than the releases of Leopard or Tiger, the ease of upgrading to Snow Leopard and the affordable pricing made it a win-win for Apple computer owners - thus helping to push sales to record numbers," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.
Specific sales numbers were not provided by NPD, but the company said it is another strong launch for an Apple operating system. When Leopard debuted in 2007, the NPD heralded the Mac maker's ability to continually produce "blow-out" launches of its new software. In its first month, Leopard sold 20.5 percent better than Tiger in 2005. Similarly, Tiger was a 30 percent increase over 2003's Panther, and Panther was a 100 percent improvement over Jaguar in 2002.
NPD credited Apple's bargain pricing of $29 for Snow Leopard with the software's strong start.
"With pricing reduced by more than $100 for both the single-user and five-user pack versus Leopard pricing, Apple has clearly demonstrated that aggressive pricing policies in this economic environment generate an outstanding consumer response," Baker said. "As we head into the fall selling season, and the release of another major OS upgrade, it will be instructive to see if that upgrade - currently projected to sell at ASPs much higher than Snow Leopard - can deliver the same incremental increase in consumer demand that Snow Leopard has enjoyed."
In addition to pricing, Snow Leopard's mostly subtle, under-the-hood improvements were largely viewed as positive from the mainstream media. The new operating system brings a 64-bit architecture, built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, and streamlined and refined programs. The upgrade will have applications load faster, and free up an average of 7GB of storage on a user's hard drive. It was released Aug. 28.
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray has predicted that Apple will sell 5 million copies of Snow Leopard during the September quarter launch window. He believes those sales will bring the Cupertino, Calif., company an additional $66 million in operating revenue during the quarter.
New figures released Thursday by NPD Market Research show that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard not only bested its two predecessors in terms of sales, but it also has showed strength beyond the initial week. While each 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.
"Even though some considered Snow Leopard to be less feature-focused than the releases of Leopard or Tiger, the ease of upgrading to Snow Leopard and the affordable pricing made it a win-win for Apple computer owners - thus helping to push sales to record numbers," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.
Specific sales numbers were not provided by NPD, but the company said it is another strong launch for an Apple operating system. When Leopard debuted in 2007, the NPD heralded the Mac maker's ability to continually produce "blow-out" launches of its new software. In its first month, Leopard sold 20.5 percent better than Tiger in 2005. Similarly, Tiger was a 30 percent increase over 2003's Panther, and Panther was a 100 percent improvement over Jaguar in 2002.
NPD credited Apple's bargain pricing of $29 for Snow Leopard with the software's strong start.
"With pricing reduced by more than $100 for both the single-user and five-user pack versus Leopard pricing, Apple has clearly demonstrated that aggressive pricing policies in this economic environment generate an outstanding consumer response," Baker said. "As we head into the fall selling season, and the release of another major OS upgrade, it will be instructive to see if that upgrade - currently projected to sell at ASPs much higher than Snow Leopard - can deliver the same incremental increase in consumer demand that Snow Leopard has enjoyed."
In addition to pricing, Snow Leopard's mostly subtle, under-the-hood improvements were largely viewed as positive from the mainstream media. The new operating system brings a 64-bit architecture, built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, and streamlined and refined programs. The upgrade will have applications load faster, and free up an average of 7GB of storage on a user's hard drive. It was released Aug. 28.
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray has predicted that Apple will sell 5 million copies of Snow Leopard during the September quarter launch window. He believes those sales will bring the Cupertino, Calif., company an additional $66 million in operating revenue during the quarter.
Comments
We don't need massive new features and a new UI every OS release.
Not to say there are no problems with the OS, I just haven't run into any
I for one absolutely love SL. I have my iMac 8,1 set up to automatically boot with the 64-bit kernel and so far have not run into any problems. No incompatibility crashes or apps unable to load. My HP printer worked exactly the same after the update with no need to update my drivers.
Not to say there are no problems with the OS, I just haven't run into any
Do you have any issues with choppy animations with the 64 bit kernel. If I boot SL with 32 bit kernel on my Mac Pro, all animations are butter smooth. If I switch to 64 bit kernel some animations are somewhat choppy, but dashboard is totally choppy. It's as if it has 6-7 frames per second instead of usual 60.
I for one absolutely love SL. I have my iMac 8,1 set up to automatically boot with the 64-bit kernel and so far have not run into any problems. No incompatibility crashes or apps unable to load. My HP printer worked exactly the same after the update with no need to update my drivers.
Not to say there are no problems with the OS, I just haven't run into any
I'm with ya and am loving how everything went very smooth.
I was surprised by Fijitsu not having their ScanSnap ready for the update and it is crippled until they get the fix out (including OCR). My Canon IPF755 large format printer doesn't get updated drivers until Oct. 17th.
Do you have any issues with choppy animations with the 64 bit kernel. If I boot SL with 32 bit kernel on my Mac Pro, all animations are butter smooth. If I switch to 64 bit kernel some animations are somewhat choppy, but dashboard is totally choppy. It's as if it has 6-7 frames per second instead of usual 60.
None whatsoever. I wonder what could be causing this, especially on a Mac Pro???
I'm with ya and am loving how everything went very smooth.
I was surprised by Fijitsu not having their ScanSnap ready for the update and it is crippled until they get the fix out (including OCR). My Canon IPF755 large format printer doesn't get updated drivers until Oct. 17th.
I couldn't stand using the standard HP scanning program so I got VueScan. It's updated regularly and have had no issues with it on SL. (This is important because I keep paperless records so I scan everything in.)
The Expose is not as nice as before, the Stack icon are huge, Safari is taking much more resource than before, and everything flickers more often
The HDD is non-stop spinning, my MBP 15" Unibody with 4GB RAM feels like 1GB RAM after upgrading to SL...
I spend most of the time waiting, because of the whole system freeze, mostly Safari, I've notice it takes about 1GB RAM of Real Memory, what's with that?
I'll find a way to downgrade back to Leopard
My final thoughts SL is not up to the par as Leopard, being an upgrade of an existing OS, feels cheap, no wonder they are just asking for 29.00
Will Rosetta slow down SL to where Leopard was? If so I may need to buy a new printer. My Photo R800 is too good to discard.
WHy has Apple messed up so many previously existing print drivers that were in Leopard? COuldn't they have sent out word long before relasing SL?
Just goes to show, give customers a bit more speed and a few refinements to an already good OS and people are happy if the price is right.
We don't need massive new features and a new UI every OS release.
Exactly. We need some stabilization now after the mad rush of change from OS 9.
<begin rant>
In fact I would appreciate it if Apple goes back to free OS upgrades, because OS X is nearly perfected as it is already and Apple needs to think about rewarding it's customers for buying their pricier hardware in these tough economic times, instead of milking them for every little thing.
<end rant>
I've been using it and notice actually is worst than Leopard....
The Expose is not as nice as before, the Stack icon are huge, Safari is taking much more resource than before, and everything flickers more often
The HDD is non-stop spinning, my MBP 15" Unibody with 4GB RAM feels like 1GB RAM after upgrading to SL...
I spend most of the time waiting, because of the whole system freeze, mostly Safari, I've notice it takes about 1GB RAM of Real Memory, what's with that?
I'll find a way to downgrade back to Leopard
My final thoughts SL is not up to the par as Leopard, being an upgrade of an existing OS, feels cheap, no wonder they are just asking for 29.00
My current 15" Unibody MacBook Pro SL upgrade was carried from Leopard upgrade, which was carried from white iMac Tiger. Two OS upgrades from two computers with no single file lost and no issues whatsoever. You MBP is still under warranty so I suggest you take it to Apple for diagnosis. Complaining about it won't get you anywhere.
Just goes to show, give customers a bit more speed and a few refinements to an already good OS and people are happy if the price is right.
We don't need massive new features and a new UI every OS release.
I agree with everything you stated, but I wonder if the percentage of viable Mac users buying SL may actually be lower than with Leopard. Meaning, if the sales are double but the installed base that is eligible for the update is 4x the size then we have a smaller percentage buying the update despite its reduced cost. Now I'd wager that Apple will take in less revenue for SL than Leopard but we don't know the R&D costs so we don't know if they won't actually make more money from SL retail sales.
I've been using it and notice actually is worst than Leopard....
The Expose is not as nice as before, the Stack icon are huge, Safari is taking much more resource than before, and everything flickers more often
The HDD is non-stop spinning, my MBP 15" Unibody with 4GB RAM feels like 1GB RAM after upgrading to SL...
I spend most of the time waiting, because of the whole system freeze, mostly Safari, I've notice it takes about 1GB RAM of Real Memory, what's with that?
I'll find a way to downgrade back to Leopard
My final thoughts SL is not up to the par as Leopard, being an upgrade of an existing OS, feels cheap, no wonder they are just asking for 29.00
Put in your disk and do and archieve and restore, but it sounds like you are just bellyaching over any change whatsoever so I wonder why you even updated to begin with. The changes in Exposé were needed and and the app is profoundly better now. To each their own, but I think you are just complaining for the sake of complaining.
I've been using it and notice actually is worst than Leopard....
The Expose is not as nice as before, the Stack icon are huge, Safari is taking much more resource than before, and everything flickers more often
The HDD is non-stop spinning, my MBP 15" Unibody with 4GB RAM feels like 1GB RAM after upgrading to SL...
I spend most of the time waiting, because of the whole system freeze, mostly Safari, I've notice it takes about 1GB RAM of Real Memory, what's with that?
I'll find a way to downgrade back to Leopard
My final thoughts SL is not up to the par as Leopard, being an upgrade of an existing OS, feels cheap, no wonder they are just asking for 29.00
Yea sounds like a bad upgrade or other issue.
My advice is to backup files (copy Documents, Music etc to another drive/disk and check them). Better yet is to clone the whole drive to another using Carbon Copy Cloner.
You'll need to have the original sources and passwords/key codes of your applications as they will be gone if you go further as well. They will have to be reinstalled.
Now hold c and boot from the Leopard install disk and use Disk Utility to Erase with ZERO option your boot drive. (warning: everything will be gone and leave you with a blank drive). This will take a hour or so and marks off the bad sectors on your drive, which could be causing your problems. (don't bang your computer around)
After that's done, then install Leopard and use the same name/passwords as before. (Don't use Filevault as this slows down the computer drastically, unless you really need it)
After you installed Leopard, upgrade to Snow Leopard. Then copy and replace the Documents, Music etc. folders from backup to the boot drive in your same name user.
You should get a near, highly optimized and cleaned up drive this way. Although a Snow Leopard fresh install would be better than a upgrade.
If you cloned your Leopard boot drive before installing Snow Leopard, it would have been really easy to downgrade. Just a simple option boot from the clone and a reverse clone and a hour it would have been done automagically.
Also if your boot drive is nearly full, this will slow down the computer regardless, keep it below 50% filled for the best performance as it degrades the more it's filled beyond 50% capacity.
I can't print with my Epson Photo R800 and it says I need to install Rosetta and then install the driver- Waghh!
Will Rosetta slow down SL to where Leopard was? If so I may need to buy a new printer. My Photo R800 is too good to discard.
WHy has Apple messed up so many previously existing print drivers that were in Leopard? COuldn't they have sent out word long before relasing SL?
1. Usually Rosetta is just needed for the installer package. A lot of companies don't upgrade their build/packaging/distribution system often enough. It shouldn't have any affect whatsoever (save some extra disk space used up) if you don't run PPC code.
2. Apple has been sending Snow Leopard preview releases to paid developers for a long time. I don't think you can blame Apple here... complain to your vendor.
I can't print with my Epson Photo R800 and it says I need to install Rosetta and then install the driver- Waghh!
Will Rosetta slow down SL to where Leopard was? If so I may need to buy a new printer. My Photo R800 is too good to discard.
WHy has Apple messed up so many previously existing print drivers that were in Leopard? COuldn't they have sent out word long before relasing SL?
Rosetta will not slow down Snow Leopard. I have no idea why it wasn't a default install, other than maybe pressuring developers to focus on Intel now. Apple has also pushed some driver updates, so who knows, maybe those'll work without rosetta.
On the topic of the article though, I'm really pleased takeup has been high. I'm looking forwards to seeing third party applications take advantage of Grand Central, and it seems more likely that will happen with a large installed base.
I can't print with my Epson Photo R800 and it says I need to install Rosetta and then install the driver- Waghh!
Suck it up, Ace.
Will Rosetta slow down SL to where Leopard was? If so I may need to buy a new printer. My Photo R800 is too good to discard.
No, it will only run when you're running PPC code, which the printer driver seems to be. Otherwise, Rosetta has no perceptible effect.
WHy has Apple messed up so many previously existing print drivers that were in Leopard? COuldn't they have sent out word long before relasing SL?
Even the printer makers will take time to update their ancient, creaking print drivers.
It's not like they couldn't see that PPC support would be going away, and not in some dim misty far future.
1. Usually Rosetta is just needed for the installer package. A lot of companies don't upgrade their build/packaging/distribution system often enough. It shouldn't have any affect whatsoever (save some extra disk space used up) if you don't run PPC code.
2. Apple has been sending Snow Leopard preview releases to paid developers for a long time. I don't think you can blame Apple here... complain to your vendor.
Actually I do blame Epson - they probably figured that if the printer is no longer produced and they make it difficult then many will buy a new one rather be hassled.
However I wished Apple could have included a warning when installing SL that the driver I use is not compatible or published a list before they released Leopard of what was not gonna be available.
Oh well I will be forced to play with Rosetta this weekend I guess.
Luckily my HP Deskjet has worked perfectly.