Aug. 24--Apple announced this morning it is uncaging its latest Macintosh operating system, Snow Leopard, on Friday.

The new software upgrade, offered at $29, is focused more on improving the "plumbing" of the operating system to take advantage of superfast, next-generation Intel chips than packing new whistles and bells. But Snow Leopard is expected to lay the foundation for future innovations tied to new chip development.

The company says the new operating system comes with "hundreds of refinements, new core technologies" and support for Microsoft Exchange.

In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster called Snow Leopard "a minor upgrade," and as much about marketing as new technology.

"Apple is promoting the Mac platform as a superior alternative to Windows in terms of newer technology, more frequently, for less money," he wrote. "The release of Snow Leopard is not about new features; rather, it is about keeping Mac users up to date with the latest technology versus (Microsoft's) Windows XP and Vista users on antiquated technology."

Microsoft said its next-generation operating system, Windows 7, will go on sale Oct. 22. Apple executives had previously said Snow Leopard would be released next month.

"Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever and we're happy to get it to users earlier than expected," Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said in a statement. "For

just $29, Leopard users get a smooth upgrade to the world's most advanced operating system and the only system with built-in Exchange support."

With the upgrade, Apple engineers refined 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects that make up Mac OS X, the company said in a news release. These will include a more responsive Finder feature, e-mail function that loads messages up to twice as fast and its Time Machine backup process that will operate 80 percent faster during the initial backup.

Other features include a redesigned QuickTime video player and a 64-bit version of Apple's Safari 4 browser that is up to 50 percent faster and more resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 7 gigabyte of drive space once installed.

Contact John Boudreau at 408-278-3496.

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