Mac OS 8 sales have been "phenomenal" during the first week in stores, Apple says. So phenomenal it's creating problems that could haunt Cupertino: Back orders are piling up in some areas, recalling Apple's inability to meet demand for the PowerBook. And Apple is reportedly resisting licensing the new operating system to clone makers.
"All the Mac heads came out of the woodwork," Stephen Hart, retail manager at CompuTown in downtown San Francisco, said Friday, adding that "it was good to see them." His store sold out of its first OS 8 shipment within hours of last Saturday's release, and has run through two more shipments since. "The demand has been a lot more than I anticipated," he said. All told the store has only sold about 100 copies and now the software is back-ordered.
Apple could provide no figures on sales or shipments to date, but spokesman Russell Brady said that "sales have been phenomenal." And yes, OS 8 is already back-ordered in some places. Failure to adequately forecast demand has plagued the company and hurt its bottom line in recent years, although Brady said Apple believes it has a sufficient supply of the new operating system.
The US$99 software has received good reviews, and apparently a bit of support from Mac users. MacIntouch, a site dedicated to keeping the Mac world up-to-date, hosted a discussion of pirating in which most posts championed the notion of paying for the new OS, rather than pinching it.
"I decided not to buy my copy from anyone but Claris," posted one Mac fan, who noted how easy it would be to simply "steal" a copy from the office. Encouraging others not even to let retailers get a cut of the precious income, the post continued: "Apple needs every penny, every sale they can cobble together right now."
Apple apparently thinks so too and has not yet licensed OS 8 to Mac-clone makers. There has even been talk of the company discontinuing its licensing practices, The New York Times reports. Some clone makers are up in arms at the possibility.
"If Apple is entertaining reversing its position on licensing the Mac OS 8 it would be disastrous," said Mike Rosenfelt, spokesman for Power Computing. "A return to the old school of a closed Mac platform could spell the death of Apple," he said. Power Computing will ship OS 8 on all of its machines, based on a previous licensing agreement that Rosenfelt said covers the new OS.
However, it's not clear if other clone makers will be able to follow suit without fresh licensing agreements. Apple says it's negotiating with them, but some have told analysts they've been seeing resistance. "Without the OS 8, clone makers can't ship their innovative new products," said James Staten, an analyst at Dataquest, "and that will speed up the death of a quickly dwindling market."
For a company that still depends heavily on the loyalty of its users - and that has managed to retain market share specifically through the products and promotions of clone makers - it would seem foolish to abandon licensing.
"The result could be a protracted legal action that becomes the final blow to Apple's reputation with customers and investors, a reputation bruised for several years because of constant seesawing on licensing and constant management changes," wrote Galen Gruman, in an opinion piece for MacWorld magazine's online edition.
