Jaguar: Boxed and Ready to Roll


ThinkSecret reports from various sources that the international editions of Jaguar (OS X 10.2) have been boxed up and are ready to ship to distributors.

Jaguar is due August 24, and ThinkSecret notes that the shortages of OS X 10.1 CDs in September 2001 is not likely to be repeated this time around. This is especially the case as Apple is charging $129 for a retail box.

The three-disc Jaguar package reportedly contains a developer tools CD, two installer CDs and a short OS X manual.

Purchasers who bought Macs after 17 July qualify for the Jaguar upgrade and will pay $19.99 for a CD.

According to the story, Apple is also encouraging vendors to run Jaguar launch events in-store. SmallDog Electronics is one Mac store running a 'midnight madness' sale to celebrate the release of Jaguar.

Analysis: Apple appears to be running a very tight ship on X.2. Not only is the release somewhat earlier than originally anticipated, but the international editions appear ready to go. While this is to be expected, Apple often released major software packages - if not full OS upgrades - ahead of time in, say, English and Japanese to reap the full benefit of sales to early adopters, with other languages following. But as previous reports have indicated, Jaguar development seemed to move by leaps and bounds. This augurs well for the pace of OS X development - no more months of delay as there was between the OS X public beta and the official 10.0 release.