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SAN FRANCISCO - The launch of Apple's latest operating system, Leopard, was its best ever, a research group said.
When comparing the first full month of sales of Apple Mac OS 10.5 'Leopard' in November to the first full month of sales for Mac OS 10.4 'Tiger' in May 2005, dollar volume for Leopard was up 32.8 per cent and unit volume up 20.5 per cent, NPD Group Inc said.
Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer, the iPod digital music player and the iPhone smartphone, started selling Leopard on October 25, after a four-month delay due to the company's work on the iPhone.
The new version of Apple's OS X software costs US$129 for a single user and $199 for a "family pack" that can be installed on as many as five computers in a single household.
New features include a file back-up feature called 'Time Machine', improvements to email and instant messaging, and the ability to preview documents or files without starting up a separate program, as well as quick access to other computers on a home or an office network.
While the increases in dollar and unit volume can partially be attributed to going on sale during November - a key month for consumer shopping - and the growth in the number of Apple retail stores, NPD said the figures show that Apple has found the right formula for rolling out new versions of Mac operating systems.
Leopard is the sixth version in as many years, a fact the Cupertino, California-based concern is quick to contrast with Microsoft, which went more than five years between new versions of its Windows operating system.
Microsoft's Windows Vista became broadly available early this year and comes in several versions that cost between $100 and $260, according to the company's website.
- REUTERS
