Mac users in Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland were treated to a worldwide exclusive Wednesday when their periodic Apple eNews e-mail arrived showing what appears to be a re-designed logo for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. The release appears to have been an accident, as the logo was pulled from other versions of the newsletter within hours, according to TMO readers.
The logo, seen below, is a more bolder, platinum-colored “X” with a slightly off-center spotlight affect. The new design is similiar to the Tiger CD design Apple has been displaying on its Web site now for over a month.
According to TMO readers in Great Britain, the new box design arrived mid-day Wednesday in a periodic Apple electronic newsletter, but that it disappeared in later versions of the marketing piece.
“I noticed it immediately,” said Simon Bird, a Mac user in Bristol, UK. “But later in the day another version of that same newsletter sent to a different e-mail account of mine showed a different design. I’m assuming someone (at Apple) screwed up and will catch hell for it later.”
In the last few weeks, Apple Computer has been stepping up its marketing efforts to entice Mac users to upgrade to the US$129 operating system. Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears on the current cover of Fortune magazine holding up icons from the new OS, and those receiving electronic marketing pieces from Apple have been receiving promotions for Tiger periodically over the past four weeks.
Mr. Jobs told attendees at Mac Expo-San Francisco that the update would be released “during the first half of 2005,” leading some to speculate it could be released in final form at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled for June 6-10, 2005 in San Francisco.