Guess what the buzz word of the day is - Leopard.

Apple's update to their extremely popular and extremely successful  operating system is released today. Stores across North America will begin selling the update at 6:00pm EST, although I suspect a handful of employees working at the Apple Store have already purchased and installed their copy...and who wouldn't? It's a big release, Apple even has a widget on their front page counting down to the release hour.

Oddly, the release in Canada is delayed by 2 hours than it is in the United States - according to the widget on Apple Canada (8pm instead of 6pm). Huh? Why? Who thought of that one. If you live on the border, you can buy one from the US, and have it 2 hours before most other Canadians!

My life revolves around a comptuer all of which have Windows 2000, or XP, or Vista. I love the stability of Windows XP. Yet, after watching promotional video touting all the 300 new features of Leopard, I suddenly want a Mac. Not sure what I would do with one, but it would be nice to have...if not for anything productive, then at least for the 'cool factor'. It's a stunning piece of work.

Windows is getting there with Vista, but with a release every 5 years, it's hard to create a buzz. If Microsoft took on the stratagy that Apple has, they might regain some of their lost customers...maybe.

Here's what needs to be done:

• Release a stable operating system right out of the gates...
• Release updates for it every years - give or take a few months.
• Marketing, Marketing, Marketing... Hype Hype Hype... (Did Microsoft even try to promote Vista...well accept for the cheezy slogan - "The 'WOW' starts now"... come on, seriously??)
• Market the OS some more.. Movies, posters, TV commercials, more movies
• Come up with innovative and useful features that people will actually use.. (How about native support for multiple-desktops, not something as usless as Flip 3D...)
• Cheaper.. a lot cheaper.. (Leopard costs -$130CDN, Vista Home Premium - $299CDN, not to mention Vista Ultimate - $499)

I know, I know... Microsoft is a giant, not as mobile and quick to fix things, but they could at least market their current OS. About a year ago, when Vista was just about be released, I was still seeing XP commercials on TV. Do we see Apple touting it's Old iPod Nano anymore? No, they're showing of their new (ugly, chunky looking) Nano.

To sum up... I want  Mac, but not sure what I would do with one! I'm just jealous of all the cool yet functional features.