Leopard - Very Important Feline for Apple

After 7 days of releasing, the latest MAC OS X down the line, Leopard is an important asset for Apple. After the shacking 90's, Apple firmed his grip only after releasing the much sought after iPod and then declaring an update to MAC OS X through Tiger. Though iPod is a mass hystiria & the greatest thing happened in PMP world, cell phone is likely to be reinvented through iPhone, Apple's wonder GUI that is Macintosh steadily lost it's glamour through the days with the invent of Windows.

So amidst all the latest activites, where does the Leopard stand? Do not be fooled by Apple's growing buisness interests through new products, MAC OS X is still their greatest asset to survive in market. And, why not? Beside iPod, every Apple products like iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPhone even run MAC OS X under the hood. Apple's standing in the PC market greatly implies on MAC OS besides their asthetics.

"Mac OS X is key to Apple's message of the integration of hardware, software and services," said Ross Rubin, director of analysis at market-research firm NPD. "Given the focus of integration it's easy to lose track of the components of that strategy. Without the Mac OS, the computer is just a pretty Windows machine."

Leopards financial success is not yet approved. Though Apple said they sold 2 million copies of Leopard within it's opening weekend, not everyone is going to the Leopard way all at once. That's because system and software compatibility issues. Also, the financial success is depended on Apple's strategy to ship every new MAC with Leopard.

Many user along with clearly stated that Leopard is not either a great performer over Tiger. It just manages to cut one or two second from the booting time and application performances are moreover same. Even with the Mac games, Leopard merely increase the Frame Rate with 1 or 2 FPS.

Vista comes in the way of Leopard in the OS market and remebering Steve Jobs' Keynote presentation, they say Leopard has many new features that Vista lacks. But in reality, when Leopard finally releases, I was not surprised by their so called 'New features'. They said there is 'Time Machine' which is not a great and revolutionary program over Vista's Backup & Restore. Anyway those programs are visual treats with core animation but in productivity, they are moreover same.

Apple's switch over the Intel Proccessor clearly demonstrates their fear for Windows. They are now, being second within two, follows the idiom "When you cannot defeat the enemy, join them." Many people, having installed Bootcamp, just enjoys Windows over Mac OS in their Intel MACs.

Leopard's thumbs ups are only that no MAC user ever asked to have Tiger switching Leopard, when they got Leopard in their new MACs."We are not going to see users getting a new Mac and asking if they can downgrade like we saw with Vista users," said Jupiter Research's Gartenberg. The opinion of individual users will be an important driver for Leopard's success, according to one industry analyst. While Forrester Research shows many people don't know that much about operating systems, the typical Mac user is different.

"In the case of the Mac, the user community is very influential," said Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder. "The reception of Apple enthusiasts will help determine the buzz."