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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/03/20/leopard.to.ship.mid.april/

Analyst: Leopard likely to ship in mid April

updated 10:30 am EDT, Tue March 20, 2007

 

Leopard to ship mid April?


Apple will likely ship Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in mid April, according to research analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, offering an answer to Microsoft's Widows Vista which shipped in January. Munster also noted little-to-no Mac purchase delays as a result of Leopard's impending launch. "We believe Apple's new OS, Leopard, will likely be released in mid April," the analyst said. "Slightly more than half of the resellers in our checks said Leopard related purchase delays are having a slight negative impact on Macs, while slightly less than half said Leopard is not having any impact on Macs." Munster reiterated findings that many professional users are still awaiting Adobe's release of CS3, slated for next week. Piper Jaffray maintains an 'outperform' rating on Apple shares with a $124 price target.


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  1. rubaiyat

    Dedicated MacNNer

    Joined: Feb 2006

    0
    03/20, 11:22am | report spam | Reply |

    I'm not buying for one!

    I will not be buying a new Mac until Leopard is released and Apple drops its prices to bring it back into line with the rest of the market.

    I will also expect the iWorks and iLife upgrades.

    To buy before is to take a huge financial hit. It will be a riple whammy, paying for Leopard, paying for Software upgrades and paying for last year's models with this years cash.

  1. vasic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005

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    03/20, 12:08pm | report spam | Reply |

    This is very good!

    If it is true that the drop in sales from Q4 '06 is minimal, that means that most Mac sales in Q1 '07 went to newbies/switchers, who don't really know about the impending Leopard, software and hardware refreshes. Once the new cat, as well as iLife/iWork is out, the existing Mac owners ready for new hardware, who have been waiting for this, will definitely juice up Q2. As it stands, Q2 will probably be stellar due to Leopard and other refreshes, as well as AppleTV; Q3 is looking even brighter with the iPhone; and, of course, Q4 will kill for Christmas. Can't see how this year could go bad for Apple (short of Jobs dying...)

  1. Space1999

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2005

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    03/20, 12:11pm | report spam | Reply |

    Riple whammy

    What's a "riple whammy"?

  1. ronboor

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2004

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    03/20, 12:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    What "Huge financial" hit

    What is rubaiyat talking about when he says "To buy before is to take a huge financial hit. It will be a riple whammy, paying for Leopard, paying for Software upgrades and paying for last year's models with this years cash." Apple normally charges $129 for a new OS release. This is Huge? And what Software upgrades is he worrying about paying for? If he buys a Mac now, how is that last years model? And unlike M$ Windoze, Leopard will run on most macs going back 5 years. If you need a new Mac, why wait for Leopard? Yes, the new Mac will have it installed and you will save the $129, but you will have missed out on using the newer Mac during that period. So if $129 is going to have such a huge impact on your life, don't get Leopard or a new Mac.

  1. vasic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005

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    03/20, 12:30pm | report spam | Reply |

    I can understand...

    Unlike HP, Toshiba, Dell, where every two to three months there is a model refresh (and a lifespan of a model is 6 months), Apple tents to take quite some time between refreshes. If you bought iMac Core Duo in August, you would have paid $1700 for a 20" model. A few weeks later, when Core 2 Duo came out, you could (and still can) get Core Duo for $1300.

    Same goes for OS and software. If you buy a Mac now, you'll have to pay:

    $129 for Leopard;

    $99 for iLife

    $79 for iWork

    when they get refreshed, presumably in a few weeks. Is few weeks of waiting worth $307 on a $1600 purchase (assuming it's middle-of-the-road 20" iMac)? I'd definitely wait, since it represents about 20% of my purchase price. 20% on anything is serious enough.

  1. _Rick_V_

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2003

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    03/20, 12:53pm | report spam | Reply |

    I *love* these analysts!

    It's one thing to make market price predictions, but to try and predict when something is going to ship from a company that is notoriously unpredictable in product announcements?! He's just pulling dates out of his @$$. Ridiculous! Maybe he's angling to work at a "rumors" site!

  1. zl9600

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Oct 2003

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    03/20, 12:58pm | report spam | Reply |

    I'd wait.

    Vasic is correct. Buying a Mac now is a bad move. "Missing out" on using a newer mac in a period of about three-eight weeks doesn't trump a significant cost hit by buying now when real, live upgrades are about to hit.

    OTOH, waiting for hardware updates is another argument, as today it's quite hard to tell when Apple is releasing their next hardware upgrade and what machines it will affect.

    That says nothing of the fact that the very second you 'drive your hardware off the lot', it's already old.

  1. Terrin

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

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    03/20, 03:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    Math Incorrect

    Vasic may be correct, but his math is incorrect. New Macs do not come with iWorks. They come with a demo, but that is it. Accordingly, if you want iWorks you will be paying for it no matter when you get it.

    I agree though. I am waiting until Leopard ships to buy a new laptop.

    I'd also like to know what Rubaiyat means when he says he is waiting until, "Apple drops its prices to bring it back into line with the rest of the market."

    Surely, he isn't suggesting that Macs cost more then similarly configured PCs. If so, please provide examples. Do not give me a link to some no name company either.

  1. testudo

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    03/20, 04:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: what huge financial..

    What is rubaiyat talking about...Apple normally charges $129 for a new OS release. This is Huge?

    I guess when you're a mac elitist who thinks macs are not overpriced, and, therefore have all the money in the world, $129 isn't a lot. But to some, its hard enough to scrape by spending $2000 to get a 15" laptop, then having to pay another $130 to get Leopard.

    Although I'm betting Leopard goes for more like $150. Apple has been developing it longer then its past OS's, and will want to get that money back.

    And what Software upgrades is he worrying about paying for? If he buys a Mac now, how is that last years model?

    He's talking about getting iLife, then forking over more money for the next versions people are anticipating at any point in time.

    And you're getting last years model because its the model that was released last year. It costs the exact same now as it did 6+ months ago when it was released, with the same specs. In the tech world, this is called sucking your customer of his money.

    And unlike M$ Windoze, Leopard will run on most macs going back 5 years.

    Well, like Windows, it may run on macs going back 5 years, but it certainly won't perform that well on the older hardware as it does on the newer hardware.

    If you need a new Mac, why wait for Leopard?

    Actually, my question would be, "What in Leopard warrants upgrading to it?" So far from what Apple has announced, it has some OK feature enhancements, but there really isn't anything in there that I would call a killer feature, or even a must-have feature. h***, look at their Leopard page, and most of the highlights are some enhancements to existing apps, and the addition of a couple of new whiz-bang things of questionable usefulness (at least not to everyone).

  1. jasong

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Mar 2000

    0
    03/20, 04:25pm | report spam | Reply |

    iLife is included

    While you may pay for iWorks, iLife is included with all new Macs. So while I myself am waiting for Leopard and iLife '07 to be released before buying (actually I will be waiting longer than that - I want the free iPod deal that Apple gives students around the end of the summer), it's not a horrible idea for someone to buy now.

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