Leopard A Leap Ahead Of Vista?

Apple has revealed that it sold two million copies of its new Mac OS X Leopard in the first weekend of it going on sale. Microsoft Vista, in its first month since launch sold a total of 20 million copies.

While Microsoft did not release its figures for first-weekend sales, only first-month sales, Apple has boasted its two-million figure which includes copies sold at Apple’s retail stores, Apple Authorised Resellers, the online Apple Store, under maintenance agreements and bundled with new Mac computers.

Whether Leopard will leap ahead of Vista is of course, yet to be seen. However, considering Apple COO Tim Cook’s comment last week that globally, about 21 million Macs were capable of running Leopard – suggesting that the two million copies of Leopard sold in the first weekend equates to a sizable 10 percent of those, it is easy to see why Apple is not afraid to boast.

The company also said that Leopard has far outpaced the first-weekend sales of its Tiger OS, which was previously the most successful OS release in Apple’s history.

“Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ” Leopard’s innovative features are getting great reviews and making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac.”

Leopard is the first Mac operating system that allows Mac users to run the Windows OS concurrently.

Other new features of Leopard, according to Apple, include Time Machine, an automatic back up on a Mac; a redesigned Finder; Quick Look, a way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; and enhancements to Mail and iChat.

RRP: $158 inc GST for a single user license.
$249 for the Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack: a single-household, five-user license

Full system requirements for Leopard can be found at www.apple.com/au/macosx/techspecs.