Tiger Unleashed - Already


xlr8yourmac reports that Tiger is already shipping, and that retail copies ordered have already ended up in users' hands.

Readers have reported that some dealers, having already received stock, have mistakenly shipped copies. At least one dealer asked the buyer to return the copy.

Interestingly, a dealer rep stated that Apple would not offer support for copies which were 'unauthorized'. As xlr8yourmac notes, one wonders how Apple would be able to distinguish between 'authorized' and 'unauthorized' ones.

Early reports suggest that, anecdotally, on an iMac G5 at least, Tiger shows significant performance gains over Panther, at least running benchmark apps, rather than real-world apps.

Analysis: Sounds as if Apple is expecting a deluge of orders and retail sales, so they sent out a pile of stock early. The fact that Tiger has fallen into some users' hands early was almost bound to happen as a consequence. In any case, all it will do is pique interest, as people like to be the first on their block to be running the latest OS.

Let's hope the performance gains are real world, and that the G4s benefit as well as the G5s.