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On August 28th, Apple released its latest operating system Snow Leopard on the masses. The big news with Snow Leopard is that the focus isn’t on whizz-bang features, but on performance and stability improvements.

As such, the price-point, just $29 for a single-user upgrade license (provided you already have Leopard on your Intel Mac) made it a no-brainer for me to immediately upgrade all the Macs in my house.

According to analysts at NPD, I wasn’t alone. Sales for the first two weeks of Mac OS X Snow Leopard have far exceeded those of both Mac OS X Leopard (released in October 2007) and Mac OS X Tiger (released in April 2005). NPD reports that sales for Snow Leopard were more than two times higher than those for Leopard and almost four times higher than those of Tiger.

The initial sales weren’t limited to just the first week (when many members of the Apple Faithful rush out and buy the latest iProduct), NPD reports that second-week sales dropped only 25%. Considering that Leopard saw its sales drop 60% the second-week, the price-point and the low-key marketing campaign seem to be working.

Although the NPD report doesn’t touch on this, I wonder what role social media played in Snow Leopard sales. Because the focus is on performance, not features, Apple has had a relatively quiet ad campaign for its latest OS. Having said that, I know my Twitter stream (which is admittedly full of lots of Mac users) full of conversation and links regarding Mac OS X 10.6.

So Mac users, have your upgraded to Snow Leopard? What have your experiences been so far?

Tags: mac os x, Snow Leopard

This week, Apple released the latest version of their operating system, Snow Leopard. I urge you to go look at Apple’s site and take in their marketing message — even if you don’t own a Mac. You’ll notice it’s all about “refinements.” They’ve basically admitted that Snow Leopard is nothing new; rather, a refined version of Leopard. There are some advantages to the new version: performance, built-in support for Microsoft Exchange and several other minor enhancements. The price tag is reflective of a “refinement” release — only $29. (Hint: This is not necessarily about Snow Leopard. It’s really about how you can beat the recession.)

So, what’s the lesson? Apple simply created a whole new stream of easy revenue for themselves. The economy is probably affecting some people’s ability to justify springing for an entirely new operating system. So, they released some minor tweaks, including a couple that are pretty cool, and they stuck a low price tag on it. Very little effort on their part. Very easy to swallow for the consumer.

Ask yourself, “What products or services do I have that I can ‘refine’ and offer at an affordable price?“ The key here is to follow Apple’s model and offer something that requires little effort out of you, provides decent value to your customer and has a price that’s easy to swallow.

I’d love to hear your stories of what your “Snow Leopard” is and how you used it to produce an extra revenue stream during the downturn in the economy. Post your comments below.

–Tyler

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