Pre-release Snow Leopard tops Amazon 'Software' sales charts

Scant days since the operating system was made available for pre-order on Amazon US, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard has shot to the top two slots on the online retailer’s Software sales chart.

Amazon UK last night opened  an email announcement list for UK Mac users who’d like to be told when Snow Leopard is made available for sale there, though UK pricing hasn’t yet been announced.

The single user version of Snow Leopard, ($29), is top of the charts with the second place taken by the five-user family version ($49). Both prices are aggressive when you consider the OS has traditionally cost in the region of $129 for each release.

Apple is also selling a Box Set (Snow Leopard including iWork and iLife):$169
for $169 or $229 for five users. The server edition of Snow Leopard, called Mac OS X Server version 10.6, costs $499.

Some key caveats: the OS will only be available for Intel-based Macs as it requires this hardware because it’s the first Apple OS to be truly 64-bit. Mac users still on a PowerPC Mac may be motivated to purchase an Intel Mac, though, as Snow Leopard promises hugely significant performance gains.

The OS is expected to ship next month.