For users that still need to run applications in Snow Leopard, it is possible to run it under virtualization on newer Macs with Parallels. As support for Rosetta was dropped in Mac OS X Lion, Snow Leopard is also the last version that is able to run PowerPC-only applications. Snow Leopard is the last release of Mac OS X to support the 32-bit Intel Core Solo and Duo CPUs. Since then, Apple has continued to sell Snow Leopard from its online store for the benefit of users that require Snow Leopard in order to upgrade to later versions of OS X, which have all been distributed through the Mac App Store introduced in the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update. Snow Leopard was succeeded by Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) on July 20, 2011.

Snow Leopard was also made available as part of a Mac Box Set that included iLife and iWork. The release of Snow Leopard came nearly two years after the introduction of Mac OS X Leopard, the second longest time span between successive Mac OS X releases (the time span between Tiger and Leopard was the longest). As a result of the low price, initial sales of Snow Leopard were significantly higher than that of its predecessors. On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and its retail stores at the price of US$29 for a single-user license. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8 at the 2009 Worldwide Developers Conference.

This is also the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.1 that does not support Macs using PowerPC processors, as Apple now intends to focus on its current line of Intel-based products. New programming frameworks, such as OpenCL, were created, allowing software developers to use graphics cards in their applications. Much of the software in Mac OS X was extensively rewritten for this release in order to take advantage fully of modern Macintosh hardware.

Addition of new end-user features was not a primary consideration: its name was intended to signify its goal to be a refinement of its predecessor, Mac OS X Leopard. Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, the goals of Snow Leopard were improved performance, greater efficiency and the reduction of its overall memory footprint.

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