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Analyst: Snow Leopard a reponse to Windows 7

updated 04:55 pm EDT, Mon August 24, 2009

Piper on Snow Leopard

This week's release of Snow Leopard is more intended to undermine Windows 7 than to advance Mac OS X, argues Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Snow Leopard is shipping less than two months before Windows 7, and Munster notes that the former is only a "minor upgrade," a revision of Mac OS X "without many significant new features." In marketing, Apple has highlighted multi-core enhancements and support for OpenCL processing.

The OS is also expected to provide only a minor bump to Apple's bottom line, as a result of a predicted ASP (average selling price) of just $22, taking into account the heavily-discounted $29 upgrade package and the $10 Up-to-Date program for recent MacBook Pro buyers. Assuming a 60 percent gross margin and 5 million units, Apple may earn just $66 million from September sales. The product may similarly generate a low 5 cents in extra EPS, something already accounted for in Street Q4 consensus.

In reality, Munster suggests, Snow Leopard should be seen as an attempt to keep Mac OS X current, offering a choice other than Windows 7 for owners of XP and Vista. The Mac OS is now being sold in terms offering "newer technology, more frequently, for less money," according to the analyst. Apple has traditionally updated Mac OS X more rapidly than Microsoft has updated Windows; between the releases of XP and Vista, Apple shipped three key upgrades.

by MacNN Staff

(47)

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Investor, Windows, Mac OS X, Windows 7, Snow Leopard, Apple

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sigzero
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2006

+24

08/24, 05:22pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Really?

I don't think it has anything to do with Windows 7 at all.

slider
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

+20

08/24, 05:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
That's a Stretch

I kinda find that difficult to believe. It's not like Apple just developed it overnight, it's been in the works for a while.

Boy, is August a slow tech month or what. Saving up for September I guess.

Eldernorm
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2007

+9

08/24, 05:28pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
A windows sighted fool?

"Assuming a 60 percent gross margin and 5 million units, Apple may earn just $66 million from September sales. "

Anyone who only sees things in terms of cash... NOW... is missing what Apple is about. Sure they want to make money. But rather than JUST focusing on cash, Apple focuses on how to make "insanely great" products..... and people just rush to buy them.

Sorry, another analysts that cannot see the forest cause all those trees are in the way.

Just a thought.
en

FastAMX79
Junior Member

Joined: Sep 2000

-3

08/24, 05:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
so is the one being...

shipped 10A432?

From what I've been reading it is still buggy. Makes you wonder if they are pushing this out the door, at the same time developing 10.6.1 to release shortly after...

Arty50
Mac Elite

Joined: May 2000

+29

08/24, 05:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
What?

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read. Snow Leopard has been in the works for a while now. In fact, one could argue it's been delayed a little. If I recall correctly, it was even announced before Windows 7.

If anything Windows 7 was pushed up to try to compete with Snow Leopard.

Also, claiming this is a minor update is just ignorant. There are some very major changes under the hood. Dropping PPC support is huge. Grand Central is another big under the hood enhancement.

Gene should stick to making cheese.

skipwiley
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Joined: Oct 2000

+12

08/24, 05:44pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
the real genius of this..

The point behind Snow Leopard is maintenance, Apple is basically selling a cleaned up version of Leopard, this is something we always hope for with software but rarely actually gets done. A complete revamping and cleanup of the codebase and I am sure some much needed prep for the future.

Remember that if Apple had cheated and scrapped the CPU abstraction in favor of dedicating their efforts towards PowerPC, we wouldn't have iPhone and Intel Macs right now. Apple is constantly prepping themselves for any scenario, tv OS, phone OS, maybe even a strange OEM version for the generic PC market, who knows...but it seems that if Apple continues to keep their codebase clean and follows very strict abstraction practices, we will continue to see Apple dominate the OS and software markets.

rytc
Senior User

Joined: Jan 2001

+3

08/24, 06:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
10A432

Appears no more buggy than Leopard 10.5.8 is, so I wouldn't call it rushed.

Feathers
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 1999

-2

08/24, 06:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
clean codebase?

The virtue of a clean codebase for the os itself is limited given that what really matters is the quality of the applications that run within that environment. It is widely agreed amongst professionals that Final Cut Pro and particularly Compressor need a ground up rewrite which they amazingly haven't received in FCS 3.0. It is also of limited virtue to own an 8-Core machine when so many applications are so appalling poorly threaded and core-bound. iCal is arguably the worst written piece of Apple code as it genuinely feels like a bad port of a Windows application. It is clear from browsing Geekbench's results that Snow Leopard is seriously slick but I'd prefer to see some of the commercial applications given similar treatment. Perhaps the award for "most improved application" should go to Motion?

Salty
Professional Poster

Joined: Jul 2005

+3

08/24, 06:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
iCal

What is wrong with iCal? Granted I think my favourite version is still the first or second versions (This silly getting rid of the info window or drawer in favour of that silly pop up thing.) Honestly I've always found iCal to be very helpful.

jarod
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Joined: Apr 2005

+2

08/24, 07:05pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
No need to compete

Mac OS X is so far ahead of that s*** called Windoze, I don't even know why people bother to compare and rate the two. Heck, I can probably write something better than those idiots at Microshit, and my speciality is cooking :-)

macentric
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Joined: Sep 2005

+4

08/24, 07:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Substantial Release

This is one of the most substantial releases from an under the hood perspective that Apple has released since 10.0. 64-bit is finally usable commercial application developers that cater to consumers as opposed to command line UNIX applications. They are no longer supporting codebases for two platforms. Hint, this OS is "finished" because they aren't developing and debugging for two hardware platforms at the same time. The finder doesn't beachball every time I open my Applications folder or a finder window of my Desktop. I do have 400 items on my desktop right now.

Overall I agree with one of the above posters, that they consumer apps deserve the love as well. But to be honest with you, I believe this means iLife just as much as Final Cut Studio. That said, they won't make iMovie or iDVD as fast the Studio as it might cut out sales for the more prosumer projects.

All said, Snow Leopard looks solid, and I haven't found an application that is completely broken, this is a rarity with major Apple updates and seems not be a problem this time around.

zhemgang@gmail.com
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08/24, 07:37pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Why the Myopia?

Why are people so myopic? Of course this release has everything to do with Windows 7 especially going into the school buying year. No doubt, Microsoft and its hardware partners are hoping to sell new computers this fall with the "latest" operating system. Apple doesn't want to be portrayed as having last year's system on it's systems. After all, it's the software experience that sells Macs. Apple doesn't need to go after MS in regards to technology as Tiger is probable still better that Windows 7. It's marketing, pure and simple.

zhemgang@gmail.com
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Joined: Jan 2006

-7

08/24, 07:38pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Why the Myopia?

Why are people so myopic? Of course this release has everything to do with Windows 7 especially going into the school buying year. No doubt, Microsoft and its hardware partners are hoping to sell new computers this fall with the "latest" operating system. Apple doesn't want to be portrayed as having last year's system on it's systems. After all, it's the software experience that sells Macs. Apple doesn't need to go after MS in regards to technology as Tiger is probable still better that Windows 7. It's marketing, pure and simple.

manleycreative
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08/24, 07:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oh sure...

Yes, I'm sure Apple plans their product releases around what MS is doing. lolz.Apple better get busy with that next release of iMovie. I hear the next Moviemaker or whatever the h*** it is MS uses is about to be released.And damn Apple better be on their toes to compete with that touch sensitive keyboard.

Mr. Strat
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+6

08/24, 07:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
And Windows 7 is...

a "minor upgrade" to the bundle of festering pus known as Vista.

drnkn_stylz
Senior User

Joined: Dec 2002

+7

08/24, 08:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
Moron

I understand the point of this being on MacNN, but this 'analyst' does not know what he is talking about. "No new features" well, yeah that's the point. Apple said it isn't about new features, but taking the already great OS, and making it more stable, faster, more efficent, better multi core support etc. So basically it is a better version of Leopard (hence the name), and it only costs $30 to upgrade! That sounds pretty damn good to me! Sometimes new features aren't what people need. If there are problems, or area to improve, adding new stuff will not fix that.

medelegant
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08/24, 09:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Minor update? I think not

Snow Leopard is a significant upgrade from a number of angles. When has any OS vendor provided an update that was both faster and trimmed down as far as bloat is concerned.
Better support for Exchange (as much as I HATE Exchange) will be significant for me in my working day on the corporate network.

The other part of the Snow Leopard family that is being overlooked is the Server product. The new Wiki and iCal Servers and the insanely reduced CAL licensing tax will, I think, or at least can, greatly upset the SharePoint Server market. I have to put up with SharePoint on a daily basis.

I don't understand how anyone could be hoodwinked by such an inferior product as SharePoint.

clem75
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+2

08/24, 11:17pm | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
apple's bottom line

Did the analyst realise that Snow Leopard will not run on PPC macs? ie. Anyone with a PPC wanting to run the latest apple os (or even the latest version of final cut studio or logic studio) will have to spend a lot more than $29 to do so.

chefpastry
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Nov 2005

-2

08/24, 11:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Gene Munster

Normally, Gene Munster is pretty decent, but he's completely off on this one.

Athens
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Jan 2003

+4

08/25, 12:54am | report spam | close Reply |
my take

Apple already knew how to do this better or learned form Microsoft's mistake with Vista.

10.6 Code base cleanup, some new features, mostly under the hood changes.

10.7 will follow on that code base with new features and more tweaks to under the hood of whats in 10.6.

10.6 year and a half development
10.7 year and a half development

Vista was both a attempt to clean up the code base, building a foundation and adding lots of features which in the end kept delaying it and many got dropped. Windows 7 is Microsoft's Snow Leopard, a clean up of Vista no real new features. One difference is price, Windows 7 is a full price Snow Leopard while Apple priced it right as a stop gap cleanup and I bet 10.7 will be a full price many new feature OS.

I think I like Apples approach. If Vista had been just a code base change, cleanup with nothing that different it could have been released years sooner and last year Windows 7 could have been released. They tried to do both and failed. Apple is doing it the smart way.

b9robot
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Joined: Feb 2009

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08/25, 01:58am | report spam | close Reply |
OSX Leopard miles ahead!

First of all OSX Leopard is miles ahead of Windows 7, Snow leopard just extends its lead that much further giving polish to an already great operating system.
And what is Windows 7? It is Vista with a new name and with very few features added as well at a much higher price.
Who are you trying to kid Munster?

b9robot
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08/25, 02:09am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
10 new features in Snow

Here are 10 new features in Snow Leopard just to start with.

1. Annotations in Preview
2. Restore deleted items to original locations
3. Sortable search results
4. Nearby printers.
5. Automatic update for printer drivers.
6. AirPort menu signal strength.
7. HFS read in Boot Camp.
8. Improved 64-bit support
9. Cisco VPN support
10. Exchange support.

JulesLt
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Joined: Jul 2005

-3

08/25, 07:31am | report spam | close Reply |
vs Leopard

Personally, there seems as much new stuff in there as there was in Leopard (where they had to seriously stretch the marketing) - and certainly way more significant under the hood.

But I do have a worry they've rushed the release to beat Win 7, just as Leopard was rushed. (A critical point being the back-to-school PC sales period).

Constable Odo
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Joined: Aug 2007

-1

08/25, 08:03am | report spam | close Reply |
What does Snow Leopard

have to do with Windows 7 that will be released into a Windows user base of about 400 million. If Microsoft moves Windows to just 25% of the users MS will be rolling in dough. Meanwhile, Apple is getting next to nothing for selling 5 million copies and it won't even help share price.

Hardly anyone is going to give up Windows PCs to go to Macs. Most people are just too poor or cheap. Apple is only going to get a maximum 10-15% of market share and that's about all that can ever be hoped for. Most people in the world don't even know what a Mac or OSX is.

blidd
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08/25, 08:21am | report spam | close Reply |
Final Cut is a very large

program originally written in Carbon. it takes a long time to rewrite a program of that size in Cocoa. Do not know how far they have come in that process but look at Adobe Photoshop is also written in Carbon. Regarding Snow Leopard compared to Windows 7. I am just glad that I do not have to pay full price for something that only increases the speed of my hardware.

ibugv4
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08/25, 09:27am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
you're joking me...

"Apple focuses on how to make "insanely great" products..... and people just rush to buy them. "

No. They don't. They're a company. Companies exist to make money. If Apple was about insanely great stuff, why does iPhone still lack MMS? Why did it take 2 full versions of the OS to include copy/paste -- something 10 year old mobile phones from Nokia can do? Apple's about glitz, glam, and a high profit margin for low production cost goods. End of story.

VinitaBoy
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08/25, 10:14am | report spam | close Reply |
@Constable Odo

" If Microsoft moves Windows to just 25% of the users MS will be rolling in dough. Meanwhile, Apple is getting next to nothing for selling 5 million copies and it won't even help share price. "

Clearly, sir or madam, you know absolutely NOTHING--ZILCH--about market dynamics or the relative growth potential of MSFT and AAPL.

Have you LOOKED at these two equities over the past eight years since XP and OS X began to mature? For the love of all things monetary . . . MSFT is a dead duck in the financial arena. DEAD! How long has this equity rolled around in the low to mid 20s? Damned near FOREVER! Want to see your money languish and rot in your portfolio? Then invest in MSFT. It has absolutely NO growth potential; the only way for it to move at this point is DOWN, DOWN, DOWN as inflation and lack of innovation eat it up. (As a very wealthy friend of mine is wont to say, MSFT can't possibly grow in value until the company starts making something NEW, like toasters and boats . . . and then he'll stop eating bread and going near the water.)

Wise up, Constable, and shine up your badge a bit. Steve Jobs and AAPL have nowhere to go but UP, and THAT they most certainly will. My money's where my mouth is; is YOURS?

johncarync
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Joined: Oct 2002

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08/25, 11:04am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple vs. MS Road Rally

If Apple and Microsoft were in a road rally, then Microsoft skidded off the road and hit a tree with Vista. Apple, seeing Microsoft disappearing in its rearview mirror, pulled over, changed tires, added a turbo charger and a spoiler, and is getting back on the track better than ever on August 28th. Meanwhile, Microsoft had to change a bent rim and is still banging out a badly dented fender. They will be back on the track two months later with Windows 7. Apple is just extending their lead with Snow Leopard.

Swift
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08/25, 11:55am | report spam | close Reply |
Dubious

I'm very curious about Munster, who seems to have the power of reading minds and seeing inside a very secretive company. I think he's making stuff up a lot of the time. The relatively tame update -- but with a lot of crucial upgrading of the Finder, Quicktime, overall speed -- has been in process for what, two years? Maybe 7 got the price down to $29.95. Maybe they worked to get this out just before 7. But they didn't plan this "in response" to 7. Apple has its own internal reasons to upgrade in this way.

And I can't wait.

LouZer
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08/25, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Final Cut

Final Cut is a very large program originally written in Carbon. it takes a long time to rewrite a program of that size in Cocoa.

Gee, and when Adobe took forever to migrate to Cocoa from Carbon, they were blasted by the mac faithful for being stupid, as everyone knew Carbon was dead and Cocoa was the only future that mattered.

Yet we can't get on Apple's case because they're in the same boat?

kerryb
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08/25, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
They have to say somethin

Analysts are compelled to comment on every move made by companies such as Apple, M$, Google... Snow Leopard is important to Mac users as in it's will only run on Intel, Apple has eliminated a ton of PPC code and has set in place the groundwork to take advantage the power of recent and future processors and GPUs, not to mention another refinement to the already best GUI. Windows 7 will sell like it or not with most new PCs and will be a jarring change for XP users. I'm not sure if Win 7 will be seen as mea culpa to the disaster of Vista or if it will actually make using a clone more efficient, fun and secure. So far M$ has shown that it is not able to learn from Apple despite its constant attempts at copying. The upgrade path diagram could give Steven Hawkins much to ponder never mind the typical PC user. One thing that never changes though is comparing to two OS's is still like comparing apples to oranges.

LouZer
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08/25, 01:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Substantial Release

This is one of the most substantial releases from an under the hood perspective that Apple has released since 10.0. 64-bit is finally usable commercial application developers that cater to consumers as opposed to command line UNIX applications.

Um, it was not only available to Unix applications on the command line. Any developer could very easily fire off a process to perform 64-bit actions within their OS X programs. If developers couldn't figure that out, you probably would get no gain from 64-bit anyway (which most people won't).

vintagegeek
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0

08/25, 02:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
No Comparison Needed

OS X delivered on Macs is a strong all in one bundle while Windows delivers a desktop where you have to guess how and what applications you'll have and be able to actually run. OS X with Photo Mgt, Music, Mgt, Video Mgt, Real Web Video Chat etc. My niece just got her first MacBook and is ecstatic. She says everything just works. No more guessing like on her family's windows computer. Let's all run SNOW for a while and see what really gets improved.

vintagegeek
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08/25, 02:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
No Comparison Needed

OS X delivered on Macs is a strong all in one bundle while Windows delivers a desktop where you have to guess how and what applications you'll have and be able to actually run. OS X with Photo Mgt, Music, Mgt, Video Mgt, Real Web Video Chat etc. My niece just got her first MacBook and is ecstatic. She says everything just works. No more guessing like on her family's windows computer. Let's all run SNOW for a while and see what really gets improved.

DeezNutts
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08/25, 02:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Both 7 and snow

Both OSes are likely to be great. I say this being a dual platform user who is already running Windows 7, and eagerly awaiting Snow Leopard.

Win7 is a massive cleanup of Vista and I've found it to be quite stable and easy to use.

I've very much enjoyed leopard and if Snow Leopard is a better version of what I already have I don't see how it can be bad.

I think both operating systems are going to be strong releases from each respective company.

mjtomlin
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08/25, 06:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
whatever

Uh, I believe Windows 7 was an answer to XP on netbooks due to the fact that running Vista on a netbook was a nearly impossible task. And Windows 7 will only run on higher end, newer generation netbooks coming out this fall. The whole Windows 7 story was just FUD on Microsoft's part. The hardware Windows 7 will require, is the same requirements Vista needed a year ago.

Snow Leopard was designed to update the foundation and core of OS X for modern and future hardware. 10 years ago we all thought we'd be running 10 GHz machines, the reality of that never saw the light of day. About mid-decade the move towards multi-core CPU's and sharing processing with the other processors on board was being made. OS X is being made into an extremely scalable and efficient operating system, able to run on a single core device that fits in your pocket to a 16 core server in the back room.

testudo
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08/26, 12:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: whatever

Uh, I believe Windows 7 was an answer to XP on netbooks due to the fact that running Vista on a netbook was a nearly impossible task.

I don't think so. Windows 7 was an answer to Vista in general, not Vista on netbooks. It has little to do with netbooks.

And Windows 7 will only run on higher end, newer generation netbooks coming out this fall.

It will work with many an existing netbook, not just the 'newer' ones. Windows 7 is partly about unbloating it, which would make it run better on various hardware.

The whole Windows 7 story was just FUD on Microsoft's part. The hardware Windows 7 will require, is the same requirements Vista needed a year ago.

OK, and the point is? Snow Leopard needs the same hardware, actually more, than what Leopard needs. Leopard needed more than tiger.

testudo
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08/26, 12:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: whatever

Snow Leopard was designed to update the foundation and core of OS X for modern and future hardware.

And Windows 7 is for modern and future hardware. Again, what's the point?

And people's complaints about Windows Vista is it didn't run well on low-end systems. Of course leopard will have better support for older hardware, since Apple doesn't do low-end. Windows Vista/7 should run fine on higher-end hardware.

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Analyst: Snow Leopard a reponse to Windows 7

updated 04:55 pm EDT, Mon August 24, 2009

Piper on Snow Leopard

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