Apple announced on Monday that its next-generation Snow Leopard operating system tailored for the California company's Macintosh computers will be unleashed on the market on Friday.

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

Apple unveiled Snow Leopard at a gathering of software developers in June and estimated that it would be released in September.

Macintosh users will be able to upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard to Snow Leopard for $29, according to Apple.

"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," Serlet said.

Snow Leopard has built in support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 software as well as for Macintosh email, address book, and calendar programs.

AFP

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