Why don't more product teams focus on quality? InfoWorld has a great series of articles and blog posts on Apple’s upcoming Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) release, expected Aug. 28. Most readers are probably already familiar with some of the major features, such as Microsoft Exchange support and faster backups. (Galen Gruman has an excellent article on the seven best features of Snow Leopard.)However, what I think is most interesting about this release is the focus on performance and quality. Sure, there are some nice new features and usability improvements. But Apple has also gone back to basics in some areas and declared that quality and performance are also key features.[ Get all the details on the new Mac OS X features in InfoWorld’s “What’s new in Mac OS X Snow Leopard” slideshow trio: new features for all users, new features for office users, and new features for power users. | Follow InfoWorld’s ongoing coverage of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. ] By dropping support for non-Intel systems, Apple has have been able to eliminate a lot of old code and tune things for modern 64-bit, multicore processors. As a result, Snow Leopard takes up 7GB less space than its predecessor. Startup and shutdown times are faster, QuickTime is faster, Safari’s JavaScript execution is faster. Heck, even Apple’s e-mail client is faster. And best of all, Snow Leopard costs only $29.I can understand some folks in marketing might feel queasy about charging for improvement in performance and quality. After all, if you can make your boot time twice as fast as before or application installation more reliable, it implies that you didn’t do a very good job the first time around.As an industry, I think we get a too focused on adding new features. Even in open source projects there’s often a perceived pressure to add new features to expand the market. But I think most users would rather have a vendor focus on making improvements rather than pretend everything is perfect. My guess is that every few years, every product, whether open source or closed, could benefit from a release that focuses on dropping old code and improving performance and reliability. What do you think? Are you willing to trade off features for quality and performance? How will you let your vendor know?You can follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/zurlocker Software DevelopmentTechnology Industry