Snow Leopard Sales Outdistance Leopard and Tiger

Market research firm NPD Group reports that sales of Snow Leopard during the first two weeks after its release have far exceeded those of Leopard or Tiger. NPD reports that Snow Leopard has sold at double the rate of the previous OS, Leopard, and four times the rate of Tiger.

Courtesy of Apple

“Even though some considered Snow Leopard to be less feature-focused than the releases of Leopard or Tiger, the ease of upgrading to Snow Leopard and the affordable pricing made it a win-win for Apple computer owners - thus helping to push sales to record numbers” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.

One reason for Snow Leopard’s outstanding sales is its low price, the first-ever upgrade version of OS X. At $29, Snow Leopard is $100 less than its predecessors.

The question that comes to my mind is, Will Apple be able to return to its $129 price structure for subsequent OS X updates? With Snow Leopard, Apple focused on improvements, not new features. Snow Leopard is all about stability, with new underpinnings and new technologies that make OS X one of the more robust and speedy OSes for the Intel architecture. When Apple releases OS X 10.7 Cat of Unknown Name with new features, will Mac users be willing to pay the traditional $129 or will they demand a continuation of the upgrade pricing introduced with Snow Leopard?