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Attention Turning to Leopard and Rocky Launch of Vista

by , 11:30 AM EDT, September 27th, 2007

Now that the frenzy of the iPhone and new iPods is in the past, many are turning their attention to the imminent arrival of Leopard, especially in light of the rocky launch of Vista, according to Information Week on Thursday.

IW reported that developers received version 9A559 on Friday, and it could be the first of several release candidates according to some observers. An Apple spokespserson confirmed that this is the latest build, but wouldn't confirm if it's a release candidate.

It's coming down to the wire in time, and Apple only has a few weeks of testing before committing to the Golden Master for reproduction. "There's no certainty in software, but all signs are pointing to it shipping on time," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst for Technology Business Research.

Michael Silver with Gartner said, "I think another slip for them is not likely, but if it happened, it would not be as big a deal for them as when Microsoft slips."

Despite the new features of Leopard, Mr. Gottheil believes that Mac OS X reached a "a plateau in terms of accessibility and respectability as an alternative to the PC." The features [that are known] were described as not groundbreaking. He went on to say, "It's sort of like (Windows) Vista to XP -- Leopard to Tiger. In both cases, XP and Tiger are already good enough, and now they're getting better."

On the other hand, if Apple wants to take advantage of the difficult times Vista has had, now may be the time to do it. Apple typically focuses on one product launch at a time, and Apple marketing excels in this scenario.

In the end, just how the incremental improvements of Leopard, the final analysis of the significant improvements, Apple's superb marketing, the PC community's perception that it's time to switch, and Microsoft's snafu with Vista all combine to influence Apple's market share is anybody's guess right now.

"We won't really know those things until there's a larger footprint (of both products) in world," Mr. Gottheil concluded.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:burrito Posts: 176 Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:59 am Subject:

"The features [that are known] were described as not groundbreaking. He went on to say, "It's sort of like (Windows) Vista to XP -- Leopard to Tiger.

never mind the fact that vista ultimate is almost $300 more than leopard ultimate.. oh, and leopard actually works.


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View Name:Guest
Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:54 pm Subject:
Close Name:JulesLt Posts: 136 Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:49 pm Subject: XP to Vista

Well it both is and isn't the same. XP certainly isn't 'good enough', as Windows was lagging well behind OS X - no system wide dictionary, no equivalent to Spotlight, no Expose - to name some useful features rather than eye-candy.

So XP to Vista should have been a huge leap. Not quite Classic to OS X, but after 5 years certainly as significant as XP itself.

Tiger to Leopard - well than's more like Win2K to WinME - a small intermediary release. We'll see the significance over the next 12 months though in third party software, just as we've seen with CoreImage in Tiger.


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Close Name:ericmurphy Posts: 19 Joined: 01 Aug 2001
Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:07 pm Subject:

Quote
JulesLt wrote:
Tiger to Leopard - well than's more like Win2K to WinME - a small intermediary release. We'll see the significance over the next 12 months though in third party software, just as we've seen with CoreImage in Tiger.


God help us if Leopard is to Tiger what ME was to Win2k.


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Close Name:gopher Posts: 271 Joined: 28 Mar 2002
Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:29 pm Subject: I know what you mean

ME was the update Windows should have never released. In fact of all the Windows releases, I still prefer 2000 over ME, XP or Vista.


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Close Name:Pashtun Wally Posts: 143 Joined: 18 Dec 2001
Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:31 pm Subject: wrong end of the telescope...

Leopard as WinME to Tiger's Win2000?

I'll have some of whatever you're drinking...

I think we'll find that Leopard is to Tiger what Vista was supposed to be to XP; reports from the 'unofficial' testers are breathless in their praise of the speed, stability & polish shown in the new beta (I am *not* one of those, so I couldn't possibly comment) AS COMPARED TO TIGER.

Beyond that, I think the pundits (so-called are wrong when they suggest that 10.5 will not sell Macs or otherwise increase the Mac market slice. The Mac has been largely rehabilitated in the public mind (tho haters still lurk), and the tale of Vista has been so plainly a tale of Redmond chasing Cupertino that Leopard is firmly fixed onthe PC radar as something to watch.

An enormous number of savvy PC users did *not* make the leap to Vista; I am convinced that there is a general wait-&-see attitude that now leaves this undecided crowd expectantly wating to see what Apple has up its sleeve (MS having already dropped trou on Vista). If 25-30% of th wait+see brigade likes Leopard better than Vista, Apple's installed Mac base could triple in a fortnight.

Exit Vista, air hose cut...


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Close Name:burrito Posts: 176 Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:07 pm Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
"...and leopard actually works."

Well, not to slag Apple but this remains to be seen, especially in light of how Apple's been acting lately with/re the iPhone and iPod Touch. It could well be that Leopard includes a bunch of "features" that lock us into things we don't want to be locked into. Or the minimum requirements could be a cruel joke and it requires a brand-new mac to run properly.

I don't think this is the case necessarily - I'm just saying we haven't seen the final shipping product yet, and so can't make any evaluation.


i dunno man, i'm rocking the latest build right now, and i gotta say it's pretty sweet. the nice thing about apple is that they keep the stuff that works the same. it may look different or feel different in some ways, but the heart and soul are the same. it's like tiger is like gandalf the grey, but leopard.. is gandalf the white.


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View Name:Guest
Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:21 pm Subject: Burrito: Vista pricing?
Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2048 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:13 pm Subject: Re: Burrito: Vista pricing?

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Um, hold on a second. Leopard should be $129 like every update to OS X so far. Vista is usually sold with a new machine, with a *HUGE* discount. Vista Home Premium is around $60 in that scenario. Half the price of OS X.

Also, bear in mind that Vista's already sold 60 million copies, mostly on new computers, not retail.

How big is the entire OS X user base? I wish I could launch a product with that kind of "rocky" start...


Burrito was comparing the cost of Vista and Leopard for those who are upgrading. A new Mac will come with Leopard after the release date. (In the past, Apple has given an almost-free--pay S&H--OS upgrade to those who buy a Mac with the "old" OS after the announcement of the release date of a new OS.)

I expect that "rocky start" refers not only to Vista's sales but to the problems and complaints.


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