$29 (and an alligator purse?)
Sorry, Tom Waits fans. This post is not about his immortal down-and-out classic, “$29.00,” in which the protagonist is bereft in L.A. with only “twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse.” Rather, we’re remarking on today’s arrival of an altogether different animal, likewise associated with 29 bucks.
As most of our brethren in the ad game know, Apple’s newest operating system for the Mac hit store shelves this morning. Numerically speaking, this is version 10.6, but in keeping with Apple’s big-cat naming scheme of the past several years, “Snow Leopard” is the moniker on everyone’s tongue. And its cost is just $29.
As suggested by the only slightly modified animal classification—the previous version was called simply “Leopard”—this new OS is more of a fine tuning than a dramatic evolution. In fact, Apple’s own advertising blurb says, “The world’s most advanced operating system. Finely tuned.” Still, it boasts some not insignificant improvements. Like faster performance system-wide, especially in regard to backups, wake-ups, and shutdowns. It also offers a big leap forward in its QuickTime media technology, making many formerly “Pro” features available free. There’s a faster and more powerful version of Apple’s web browser, Safari, too. Actually, the list goes on and on. But, again, the improvements are mostly tweaks and enhancements. Cumulatively, they’re expected to make a big difference, but there’s not much in the way of superstar, must-have new features, with the possible exception of support for Microsoft Exchange, implemented for the first time and a big deal for business users.
So, then, what makes this cat blog-worthy? Well, let me say again, the upgrade costs a mere $29. Which is nearly unheard of. To get the kind of performance and ease-of-use boosts that come with Snow Leopard, it’s an unprecedented bargain. Cynics might say that 29 bucks is all the market will bear, given the lack of dramatic changes. But since when has Apple worried about what the public will pay? Their whole M.O. is built around doing things right and then getting high margins.
Besides, I don’t really think the price is the biggest positive, nor the most newsworthy aspect of the upgrade. What is distinctive, and welcome, is Apple’s focus on refinement, rather than revolution. Feature-creep is one of the banes of consumer technology, the habit that manufacturers have of adding more and more instead of making what’s already there work as it should. In other words, who says an upgrade has to offer something new? Why can’t it simply make something better?