Mac OS X users have always been accustomed to using third party clients in order to use the AIM service. News of that changing was announced a few months ago, when AOL decided to begin developing and later release a beta of AIM 1.0 for Mac OS X. Now, it has exited beta, and the company has officially released AIM 1.0 for Mac OS X.
The article is critical of AOL's official AIM client and its alleged feature-richness, noting that existing third party applications on OS X have a huge advantage over this new "Real AIM" client. Granted, this is AOL's first release - and I'm sure they will seek to expand upon it quickly. All the same, if you want to give the client a try it is ready for download.