Apple Snow Leopard release date and upgrade price
Filed under: News | By: Alan Ng
Posted on: June 8, 2009 | 18 Comments
Apple have finally announced a release period for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Latest news from WWDC 09 have revealed that the software will release in September and will be available for $29 for customers wishing to upgrade.
As Engadget reports, new features in Snow Leopard will include OpenCL and GrandCentral, while it’s good to point out that the Snow Leopard will benefit from a 45% faster installation time. Further features include faster email interface, crash resistance for the Safari 4 browser and Youtube and MobileMe enhancements for Quicktime X.
You’ll find more details on Snow Leopard in the link above. Are you pleased with the September release date?
CLICK HERE to keep updated with the latest news, share a comment or problems with products and services. Follow us on twitter or read more WWDC 2009 news.
No, not really. I am glad that it is being released relatively soon, and while it looks like it will include some nice refinements, it’s a very incremental release. I was hoping for … more. Particularly after they spent so much time making fun of Windows 7 for also being an incremental release. Some of the new improvements look like they will be very nice, but many others simply bring the Leopard back-end to feature parity with Windows. Pervasive 64 bit as a major feature? Sorry, but Windows has had pervasive 64 bit for a very long time. A newly revamped finder and mail program? Yay, maybe it won’t be so unstable! Though I will say that exchange support through Active Sync will be nice. Has anyone heard if task and note sync are going to work correctly?
As you said, SnowLeopard is an incremental release. Windows 7 is, though it is based on the Vista kernel, by all standards a new operating system. The price tag will reflect as such. For what is essentially a major update to Leopard, you are paying $29. If you are considering a comparable version of Windows to SnowLeopard, you would be looking at the Windows 7 Ultimate version, which will run you at $219.99. Was I being harsh? Let’s compare SnowLeopard’s price to the lowest standard of Windows 7 Microsoft has to offer (AFTER a 58% price cut): $49.99. Still nearly twice the price (for the same update).
As for 64 bit support, I thought you were right until I looked at the Windows 7 features page on the Microsoft website:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features
I believe Windows was sold in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions in the past. Now, like SnowLeopard, Windows is making 64 bit a standard.
I think it’s a good, solid release. Sure, some things can be viewed as “keep up” with Windows, but I’d bet a paycheck that the implementation and usability of these refinements are going to be a lot better than what’s come out of Redmond. Also, Apple has never touted this as a “bells and whistles” release — the main purpose of it has been to improve speed and stability. It sounds to me like they’ve hit that right on the target, and added some eye candy as well. I look forward to getting my hands on it…
A longer wait than I’d like but if the European price is close to the US one I’m happy. See Microsot selling Vista upgrades for £20???
your a dork Gulfie. Vista is a full, major upgrade from XP. You cannot compare Snow Leopard minor upgrade and its pricing with Vista and its full upgrade price. You should be comparing Windows 7,minor upgrade (vista but works) pricing to Snow Leopard. Of course the Apple pricing will still be better, but it will be more comparable. A leak from Best Buy states that upgrades from Vista to 7 could be as cheap as $49.95.
uhhhh no worn in the apple your pretty dumb actually, vista is basically a skin pack with some extra productivity features that are far from necessary, it bogs down the ram even if you cut back the visual effects, and it includes directx 10, yawn. for the price tag screw vistas bull shi* and stick with osx.
Wow Jake how long did it take you to make that up? Have you used the Win 7 RC? Doesnt seem like it. I don’t understand why “Mac People” only feel self worth when they are try to convince other how bad windows is? I would like to thank you for making it easy to tell your post would be worthless from the first line. Any time a person resorts to name calling online it is a fair assesment they are very sad people in life.
Is it just me or have the Microsoft social media marketing team arrived? Some of these comments sound like they originate in Redmond and don’t come from typical Windows users. For example, knowing the ins and outs of Windows upgrades is really not typical. And the 64-bit/Mail/Finder comments as well have a nice PR slant.
In any event, Windows has turned pretty rancid and is only getting slower with age. Win7 build 7000 was great, but 7100 (the freaking RC) was shitty. And the UI “enhancements” actually don’t wear too well over time. RTM bits might be better, but waiting for Service Pack 1 might be sound advice. That said, even Vista with SP1 was pathetic and a real frustration. I wasted countless hours trying to make it work before going back to WinXP.
I was kinda hoping that the release was late July since I’ll be traveling from Mexico to Boston on early August. I only hope that the release for foreign Apple Stores to be close or the same date that’s announced for the US Store.
About the features, have to say that I expected nothing more than what Apple have promised over the last year. I’m exited because of native Exchange support, specially because I love the Time Machine integration; and keep my fingers crossed so other elements than mail would sync nicely.
Grand Central and OpenCL are very important updates since open the door for new capabilities to current programmers.
The price is excelent for an upgrade, but I think I’d rather wait to see if a Box Set with iWork and iLife (09 editions) and Snow Leopard are released together and upgrade both, system & apps.
See ya!
Well, the way I figure it, this release is only a couple of months late.
I’m an “anything other than mac” guy, but we have some of these and it would be nice if they worked natively with Exchange. Or functioned properly in an Active Directory environment.
Entourage is garbage - maybe snow leopard will save me from that fate.
Too bad Finder is such garbage.
Kluge upon workaround just to access smb shares, when that functionality is native to it’s bsd underpinnings.
I really really hope they address that, but they break smb browsing every other release.
Actually, I hope it’s either a really fine release that fixes a lot of os x thorns in my side, or that it blows stuff up so badly that I never have to put another one on the network.
Either way is a win for me.
Robert,
I think both Exchange AND Entourage are complete garbage. I do agree with your “Finder vs. SMB” comment though.
Well if they actually start supporting Microsoft DFS + samba from this release, we will be alot happier all round here, had enough of the workarounds.
Well I dont care what any of you say but windows sucks. Windows Xp $150. Try to upgrade and not buy the full install. You end up with a crippled os that has no working network and all the drivers were screwed up. Windows 98 $89 windows se $89 windows vista $399 windows me $89 all crap. You change a video card and get a message that your licence is invalid and cant boot in. You got to reinstall and lost all your stuff. Microdick has no right to do that. They are hitler and comunist. How would you like the police to burn down your house when they suspect you of shop lifting. Same thing. Microsoft are moter-phackers. I hope google comes out with a fast chrome os and kills windows. Apple is the best os I used. No more corrupt files slug unresponsive os and bad crashes or virus worries. Still works like out of the box 1 year ago and I have so much crap on there. I use windows vista just for my mt4 platform thats it nothing else. It has grown with all the patches and restore point to 69 gigs. Thats insane. My os has all my downloads pictures and browser history and its only 140 gigs with 5 os image files for parallels. and vista is half the size just with my meta trader 4 platform. I dont even use it to brows the net. Insane in the membrane. I installed ubantu and mt 4 and its a total of 5 gig. Also I didnt mention in ubuntu I installed all the software I could possible in the packages and its still 5 gigs. So no more bloated windows for me. Bill and Imbalmer can shove their crapware all the way up there. 2 fag boys.
hear hear!
gay bashing Rob has some valid points but they are lost in a sea of bad linguistics. I hope English is not his first language.
Windows 7 is pretty tight I have been using it for a long time on my laptop. But it seems to be copying OS X not the other way around. Basically all Windows 7 is is a streamlined version of Vista. What Vista should have been in the first place.
As convert from Windows to OS X I have to say I prefer OS X it just seems easier to use and more stable. It has a much more polished feel .
Apple never promised Snow Leopard was going to be anything other than what it is. Tweaking of an already rockin OS.
Judging from my experiences so far I dont have any doubt the upgrade will go smoothly and Snow Leopard will work flawlessly .
Interesting comments. I have been a Mac users since the 1980s (that’s not just another century, it’s another millenium), but always ran some version of Windows on my Mac and had a PC tower and laptop. Some of those who commented are obviously not Mac users. Every version of Windows has been problematic (simply because it is PC software). Macs don’s freeze, they don’t get viruses and will run Windows faster than a PC. OS X revolutionized Apple’s machines. If you are wasting your time touting Windows software and PC hardware, you just don’t get it. Borrow a Mac and use it exclusively for one month, you’ll never go back!
I have used macs for 3 years, I have a recording studio. They have been the best move in the studio I have ever made. However I do use some third party hardware and that can cause some issues when apple release updates. so I don’t update if everything works. Xp ran ok but is so OLD! Osx is so advanced by comparison. I have convinced many to turn to macs and they rarely have problems. It would be nice to see blu ray support in snow leopard. I have a blu-ray writer which can’t play films! All in all there have been hardly any problems I have not been able to fix on my mac. Btw the best app I think I have found is getdropbox.com one of the best file share and storage solutions I have found to transfer anywhere in the world on any system Win/Linux/MAC.
Daniel
Powermac G5 Dual 2.0ghz, 24″ Imac c2d 2.4, 20″ Imac c2d 2.4, 16gb Iphone 3GS.