Job’s Leopard Pounces on Tokyo

The man is a total self-involved power-loving control freak and (obviously) we have no love for him, but we've got to hand it to him....

The update to Apple's Mac OS X operating system, called Leopard, went on sale at the Apple Store in Tokyo on Friday evening, part of a global launch that will unfold around the world over the next 24 hours.

Apple is putting the software on sale at 6 p.m. local time at stores worldwide. That means customers in Australia and New Zealand got a head start on the rest of the world, although Tokyo marks the first launch of the OS, also called Mac OS X 10.5, at an official Apple Store.

About 200 people queued in light rain in Tokyo's Ginza district for the start of sales, looking on as Apple staff prepared themselves for the event with cheers, countdowns and high-fives. The Apple store had been closed since 4 p.m. to allow for the launch preparations.

At 6 p.m. the first customers entered the store, already clutching T-shirts and a copy of the OS that Apple staff were handing out as they entered. Then it was off to the counter to pay.

Leopard is the fifth major upgrade that Apple has made to its OS, and its first in two and a half years. The software will be installed on all new Apple computers, or priced in the US at $129 for an upgrade. Apple has said the vast majority of Macs sold over the past four years will be able to run Leopard, as well as some older machines depending on their configuration.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138977-c,macos/article.html