Mac OS X 10.1 is a triumph that could spark a hardware upgrade cycle among Mac-heads, said Charles Haddad. Haddad’s comments come in his latest “Byte of the Apple” column for Business Week Online .
As “the first true commercial release of its new operating system,” Haddad recommended 10.1 to all Mac users — “the writers, artists, small-businesspeople, animators, students, and teachers who use Macs for everything from gaming to Web browsing.” When the operating system takes off, Haddad said “it will become a bonanza for Apple, one that propels the company out of its current downslide in sales and earnings.”
That will come through increased hardware sales, he said. While some current Mac users will simply need to add RAM to their current systems, others will have to buy new systems to take full advantage of Mac OS X. But Haddad expected hardware sales to come in as a steady stream, not a monsoon.
The terrorists attacks on the United States have people “hunkering down, unwilling to try new things.” Plus, there are still important programs that haven’t been released in Mac OS X native versions yet, such as Microsoft Office. Still Mac users can “bank on OS X powering the Mac far into the future,” the columnist opined.