Atlanta (IP-192.com): Amazon.com has a new best-seller: Apple's upcoming Snow Leopard operating system topped the list Monday; just days after the online retailer put the Mac OS X 10.6 on its site.
Amazon accepts pre-orders $29 for a single license, and $49 for the Family Pack that covers up to five Macs.
Apple won't release the new operating system until September. Although Windows 7, also expected to be released in October, had grabbed the lead spot on Amazon's software bestseller list when two editions were heavily discounted during a two-week sale. Microsoft's new OS is absent from the chart now.
Apple announced Snow Leopard's pricing nearly two months ago at its annual developers conference, when it said it would sell the OS for just $29, rather than the $129 it has charged in the past. "Leopard was $129 but we want all Leopard users to upgrade to Snow Leopard, so we're pricing it at $29," said Craig Federighi, the vice president of Mac OS engineering, at the time.
While the upcoming release does not have major new features, Apple touts it as a performance and stability update.
The Snow Leopard upgrade requires an Intel-based Mac and Mac OS X 10.5; users running Mac OS X 10.4, known as Tiger, must instead purchase the more expensive "Mac Box Set," which Amazon is also selling as a pre-order. A single-license box set is priced at $169, and includes Snow Leopard, iLife and iWork. A five-license box set retails for $229.
Microsoft last week announced it would sell a three-license family pack of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $149.99, starting Oct. 22. The least-expensive version of a single-license for Windows 7 is the $119.99 for Home Premium Upgrade.
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