Leopard Leaps Out the Gate

Apple sold more than 2 million copies of its latest operating system, called Leopard, during the first weekend of its release, but users have already reported some significant installation problems.

The Cupertino, California-based company did not give specific sales figures, but said that since it was released on Friday sales of the software have far outpaced the first weekend sales of its predecessor Mac OS X Tiger.

“Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, in a statement.

According to a research note from Wall Street analyst firm Piper Jaffray, Apple’s estimated Mac OS X install base is about 23 million users, which would mean about 9% of that base has upgraded to Leopard.

Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, boasted more than 300 new features, most of which were widely viewed as a handy rather than groundbreaking.

However, thousands of users have reported installation problems with Leopard, including the so-called blue screen of death and screen freeze. Over the weekend, Apple posted an online fix for the problem, which moved a user’s existing files to a folder named Previous System. Apple told users they may need to perform an Archive and Install installation of Leopard, and that other applications and plug-ins may then have to be reinstalled.