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SAN JOSE, California -- With a slew of announcements on Monday, CEO Steve Jobs and other Apple executives exhorted developers here to immediately start eating, sleeping and breathing Mac OS X, Apple's latest operating system.
The completely overhauled OS was released three months ago, but Apple is treating its week-long Worldwide Developer's Conference as a kind of coming-out party for X. It's showing coders the ins-and-outs of the system and explaining why Apple -- and, by extension, people who make software for Macs -- should "bet the future on X."
In that spirit, Jobs announced, to great fanfare, that all new Macs would immediately ship pre-installed with the new operating system, which is two months ahead of the scheduled pre-install date. The company also debuted a server version of X, which it said will act as an "industrial-strength" Internet machine that can host websites and video services. The server will be shipped immediately, starting at a retail price of $500.
Apple is doing all this, Jobs said, because "I realized that I didn't want to use Windows for the rest of my life."
He added that the OS X's first three months have seen a release of about 600 native applications for the new system, but "we have a mountain to climb" in bringing out new software specifically designed for X. "It's a race to the top," he said. "We've got to ship native apps, guys."
To spur developers, Jobs used a few scare tactics. A new survey of Mac users conducted by Macworld Magazine showed that 82 percent will upgrade to OS X-enhanced versions of existing software as soon as those versions are released, he said. Moreover, more than half of Mac users would switch from one application to a competing program if the competitor released an X-version first.
"That's something that should scare you," Jobs told developers. "The impatience for Mac OS X will surpass brand loyalty. The person who gets the native apps out first will win."
Jobs also acknowledged some early criticism of X that came from both developers and consumers, and he said that "all hands are on deck" at Apple to improve the system. A thousand Apple software engineers are working on X, he said, to improve its performance and its advanced audio capabilities.
"We know that OS X is not perfect," he said, "but we think we've had a tremendous start."
But even if X isn't perfect, the Mac-loving audience here was still sufficiently wowed. Many of Jobs's demos -- the majority of which the audience had probably seen before at events just like this -- left the crowd cheering like they were at a sporting event.
In one breathtaking demonstration, for example, Scott Forstall, a senior engineer at Apple, showed how easily developers that use OS X can make an application as seemingly sophisticated as a digital movie editor.
Using X's cool-looking "Cocoa" visual development tools, he slapped together some objects on a screen and -- with just a few lines of custom code and some pointing-and-clicking -- made a fully-functional video editor in about three minutes. To top it off, he edited a snappy video of his family trip to Disneyworld, complete with audio.
"If I can do that with X in 10 minutes," he said, "imagine what you can do in 90 days."
Mac OS X will get a further boost from Apple's newest initiative: its retail stores. Over the weekend, the company opened its first two stores -- in Glendale, California, and McLean, Virginia -- and it plans to open 23 more by the end of this year.
Jobs said that more than 7,700 people visited the two stores on their opening weekend, and that they sold about $600,000 worth of merchandise in two days. Such numbers indicate that people love the stores, Jobs said, and that the retail locations will help Apple show people what Macs are all about. And that will lead to growth, Job said.
Apple's announcements also included a new version of WebObjects, its popular Web publishing tool. The company also said it is discontinuing its last stand-alone CRT monitor and will now feature an all-LCD, flat-panel, line-up of displays.
