2 Million Copies of Leopard Sold in First Weekend

Wow, two million in first weekend! That is really impressive! I have no statistics, but I think that tops Vista's launch.

 

Vista and OS X have such different target markets really that they aren't directly comparable... Not to mention Apple's customers seem to put them up there with God...

 

Vista was slow after its release, but more than likely its sales were equal to Leopard in the same timeframe. Its market is huge.

 

I fail to see the relevance even if every single Mac owner bought Leopard this weekend. Apple has about 8% of the market now, compared to 90% for Windows. 10% of 90% is still 9%, so if 1/10 of Windows users bought Vista the first weekend, it would still be more than if every Mac owner bought Leopard this weekend.

Those are some pretty comparable numbers IMO.

 

Yeah, you can't compare Leopard to Vista sales...

We can, however, compare how many Gutsy (Ubuntu) downloads were made in the first week to Leopard purchases though! ;P

 

It's not the same, considering that Vista was confusing at first, with many versions, the x86 crap version and also, criticism.
Apple could sell **** and people would still buy it, 'cause it comes from Jobs.
Apple users are a distinct category, considering that people are not using high-spec PCs so that there can be a real comparative. The price has put many people into a hating category at the moment. And I really hate having to spend double the price of Leopard to buy a similar Vista.

 

Over the long-term, though, the cost equalizes. You can buy a license for Windows, and it will be supported with free service packs for years. Major updates to OS X cost money. Of course, major OS X updates actually include new features that many feel are worth the extra cost, but strictly speaking, the overall costs aren't that much different if you look at the bigger picture.

 

I know what you're getting at, but I don't think so...I mean, OS X Leopard (consider it "Ultimate edition" ) is $129...by comparison Vista is well over $300 for a full version of the higher editions. Windows is usually updated every two-three years (Vista was a screw-up), and Leopard is two years after Tiger as well. So if you wanted to keep with the latest OS, you'd spend less on OS X than continuing upgrades with Windows.

 

Please for the love of Pete, give people more credit for being smart consumers. Has it ever occurred to you that people buy Apple products because they actually like the products? Steve Jobs doesn't just say, "Kiss Me" and every does so. It's no cult. Take a look around, is there anything really out there that's as cool as what Apple offers?
So many of the Windows users buy MBP's just because of the fit and finish and of course the looks when they know they have plenty of choices of Windows laptops. Trust the fact that they are not buying MBP's because Jobs is their leader.

SJ is a good salesman which is true but at the same time he offers great stuff. What's wrong with buying from the salesman that's got the good stuff? I hardly see people that believed deeply in SJ and bought his products and had serious remorse because he lied about what he offered to the customer.

 

And I got some new numbers that are really interesting:

It took Mac OS X Tiger a month to get 2 million copies sold. Leopard took one weekend!

Of course, awareness and admiration of OS X has increased tons since 2005, but yeah.

 

hldan I agree, but it's really a cult. Think about the iPhone...not a great phone, a cool gadget. If Microsoft would of released the exactly same product people wouldn't have made lines waiting for it to be released in stores.

 

Worth noting that there were huge lineups for Windows 95 back in the day...its not an Apple only thing (worth noting that Apple gets it a lot more though . Its just Apple really hit it with this product, whereas Microsoft hasn't lately.

 

Vista is the first major update to Windows in almost 6 years. Leopard was 2-1/2 years after Tiger, but Jaguar and Tiger were separated by less than 3 years. Puma is about as old as XP, but the latter is still currently supported with updates you haven't had to pay for.

 

As I said, Vista was an exception. Before Vista, Windows 95, 98 and 2000/ME were released pretty close together. And Windows Seven, the next release of Windows, is scheduled for 2009. Two years from Vista, launched in January this year.

And XP is still supported because most people are still on it, unwilling to switch to Vista yet (or ever ). If most people were still on Puma and unwilling to upgrade, then it'd probably be supported as well.

 

The point is that Vista was a mistake. It was intended to be out in 2004. It was going so badly, though, that they had to go back to the drawing board and start all over. Thus, it was released in 2007.

Microsoft has already stated that they want to release a new version every two years; Windows 7 is scheduled for 2009 currently. If you look at previous releases, you'll see they stuck to that pretty closely; Windows 95 in 95, Windows 98 in 98 (three years), Windows ME in 99 (one year), Windows 2000 in 99 (also one year from 98), and Windows XP in 2001 (two years). The release schedule that Microsoft plans for is pretty much in line with Apple.

As per the updates, yeah, Microsoft gives you service packs, and yeah, they're free. But there's really no big features that are added. What did we get with XP SP1? A bunch of security updates and bug fixes. SP2? A wireless center, crappy security center, and laughable firewall. SP3 is just a package of all the updates since SP2. Vista SP1 is just a bunch of performance enhancers and bug fixes.

You really can't compare upgrade paths of the two systems; they're of a different philosophy.

 

saturnotaku, more like 5 years.

 

I disagree about the iPhone but I will agree most of the Apple fan base is a flippin' cult. It's hilarious how Steve Jobs will introduce a new "feature" and how crazy the crowd goes. I almost feel embarrassed watching some of his presentations on how long he will draw out such a simple feature (recent example: iTunes ringtones anyone?). Leopard with it's "300 features" is a great example as well. But hey, Apple's marketing strategy is obviously working so more power to him. I think most "informed" consumers will watch him during his presentations and sort of chuckle though. One of my biggest gripes is how long Apple will take to implement some of the most simple features that should be released in updates and not a new OS X release that cost $129. There are a lot of "features" in Leopard that should have been added as updates to Tiger, imo. But again, Apple is a business and they are here to make money so who can blame them. More features in their new release = more reason to buy = more sales, yada yada.

In my opinion, the iPhone is a revolutionary product and a great phone. I was a Windows Mobile user with an HTC 8125 before I purchased an iPhone. The user friendliness, full HTML browser, email, touch screen technology, beautiful screen, and so on... are all top notch.

 

It lacks modern features such a good camera, 3G and others...

 

Definitely, but that doesn't change the fact it still has a ton of other things about it that totally kicks butt. My whole theory behind why it lacks some "standard" features (like a lot of Apple products) is so that they can release an updated version in the future and it gives people a reason to buy it. Just my two cents.

 

Yes, agreed.

 

Apple likely have the best marketing apparatus of the world. If they every merge with Google, we'll be bowing to our overlords, Gappoogle, and Be happy about it.

 

I *wish* they would start integrating more closely with Google. Unfortunately, it looks to be the opposite. Seems like Apple is tied more closely with Yahoo (syncing contacts with Yahoo address book...boo).

Google > Yahoo

 

Yeah, but I don't like Google's policy about privacy.

 

They'll probably start to get more close. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on the Board of Directors for Apple, so Apple and Google already have executive connections.

 

For comparison, Ubuntu 7.10 had more than 1 million downloads on its first week.