OS X Snow Leopard is Amazon’s strongest-selling software product

Written on 1:48 AM by Mujtaba

Apple’s upcoming OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard, is now apparently a bigger seller on Amazon than Windows 7. The online retailer’s software bestsellers chart ranked Snow Leopard as #1, knocking off the previously featured Windows 7 from the top 20 entries.

Of course, pre-ordering Snow Leopard on Amazon doesn’t mean you’ll get the operating system ahead of Apple’s planned schedule. “Official release date has not been announced by Apple, though they have indicated this product will be released sometime in September,” Amazon’s reads.

At press time, Apple’s operating system pushed the $120 Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade to #21. Microsoft’s operating system previously dominated Amazon’s software bestsellers list thanks to a meaty discount offered as part of the two-week promotion. Windows XP home Edition SP2, which used to top Amazon’s software bestsellers list as the second-bestselling Windows version, now ranks at #48. The $29 Snow Leopard and the $49 Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-user) are now listed as #1 and #2, respectively, followed by the $80 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Amazon also sells the $499 Snow Leopard version for servers.

Apple first announced Snow Leopard in June 2008, advertising top-to-bottom optimization resulting in a significant performance leap as its key feature. The software is designed to take advantage of the latest CPU and GPU chips and files as Apple’s first fully 64-bit operating system. Snow Leopard includes the OpenCL technology designed to re-route GPU power for general computing tasks.

Although Apple said it would “pause on innovation” to focus on speed, a couple of noteworthy tweaks and subtle changes in Snow Leopard should satisfy feature-hungry users as well. Apple’s marketing honcho Phil Schiller demoed a feature-complete Snow Leopard version at the developers conference in July, indicating that the software will hit stores sometime in September, roughly a month earlier than the October 22 Windows 7 launch.

Christian’s Opinion

Before you grab your credit card and pre-order Snow Leopard on Amazon, you should know that the $29 operating system upgrade requires OS X 10.5 Leopard. If you are running an OS X version prior to Leopard, you’ll have to purchase the pricier $169 Mac Box Set or the $229 Mac Box Set Family Pack that includes licence for up to five users. Both products include OS X Snow Leopard, in addition to iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09. People who purchased a qualifying Mac after the WWDC announcement can order Snow Leopard from Apple for $9.95 (free shipping) plus applicable sales tax.

Don’t forget the fact that Snow Leopard requires an Intel-based Mac. It’ll be interesting seeing if significant speed gains stemming from the 64-bit architecture, an optimized code base, and technologies like OpenCL and Grand Central will be enough to entice owners of PowerPC-based Macs to purchase the latest Intel-based machines. If anyone, those in the market for an upgrade are expected to make a jump to the latest hardware and software architectures.

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