Apple's Leopard delayed to October, iPhone blamed
By Paul Miller 
posted Apr 12th 2007 5:19PM
posted Apr 12th 2007 5:19PM
Sad news, kids: Apple is pushing back its Mac OS X Leopard release date from WWDC in June (now they tell us!) to October. Apple is blaming it all on the iPhone, saying that "iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team." Apple will still be showing up at WWDC with a beta version to hand out to developers, since apparently the OS will be feature-complete by then, just not bug-free. We suppose we should be grateful to Apple for being cautious and avoiding the various and often severe quality assurance issues that has plagued it recently, but this whole passing the buck thing is little lame. "Life often presents tradeoffs," says Apple, "and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones." Thanks for that little nugget of wisdom, now get back to work![Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
"I can imagine it must really be taking a lot of hard work to finish Leopard .. and no doubt the delays are understandable.. because you know the killer new features like having pictures with a mirror effect in iChat and the cleverly named "Time Machine" feature(aka System Restore that windows has had since 2001) are just going to make Leopard the MUST-HAVE upgrade for all Crapple fanboys..."
Dear iDon'tKnowWhatI'mTalkingAboutButYetIFeelTheNeedToSayIt,
Time Machine != System Restore (it doesn't back up your system files, it backs up everything you want).
Mirror effect in iChat: that's already in Tiger, it's not a new feature of Leopard. Screen & app sharing over iChat is the new addition (yes, with 3D/reflections/etc, but those aren't new either - they are classic Core Image/Video FX and are also available in Tiger applications)
When will Apple for once take the blame? The answer - never. They will continue to blame others and not take responsibility themselves, which is kind of sad, since they make some good stuff.
You do realize that Apple makes the iPhone right? So they ARE blaming themselves. Is that too hard to understand?
@ michael (first poster)
[COUGH*jack@ss*COUGH]
Are you like retarded or something?
A longer wait does less damage in the public eye than an inferior product.
I'd rather have a Leopard that's ready than one that's rushed.
YES!!!! SOrry but, I recently just switched to mac (macbook) and was not aware Apple was about to release Leopard. ANd i was pissed that i could of simply waited 2 months to get it on a updated macbook (rumor). So this IS 100% good news for me. AND PLUS, if Apple were to push back iphone for LEopard for 4 MONTHS! i would of been PISSESD. Apple do what you got to do, so i can get my iphone in JUNE! THANKS
Common boys, it's not like Tiger is broke in the first place. It outshines Vista anyday. We are not thaaaaat much in need of Leopard right now.
But yeah, I hope they release iWork and iLife
Hey derek, I see you have copy-pasted your comment from digg'...
Well the Mac site still says spring 2007. Is this another rumor
no rumor. its on apple's news headlines page.
Nuts. Probably no point in jumping to 8 cores any time before then either eh? So how long do you think before they just stop making computers altogether?
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
DAMN YOU APPLE!!!
I wanted to buy a MBP after the WWDC, with leopard installed, and not have to upgrade.
I just hope that we get new MBPs at the WWDC, Leopard or not, cause I need one for the summer holidays!
Well, I'll be living in the US from September anyway, and $130 is only about £70, so it won't be that annoying.
Better have MBPs at WWDC or before, or else... lol
I agree with you Grandmaster.... I bought a mac mini to "hold me over" until the new macbook pro's came out (recently switched from pc). I just hope they didn't borrow the hardware team too. Hire more people with that ipod money!
Bummer 'bout the delay, but I'd rather have the iPhone on time and wait a bit for a new OS. Speaking of the "iPhone effect"...
Will there be long lines wrapped around Cingular stores a week before the iPhone comes out?
Will there be murder, mischief and mayhem in the Cingular stores parking lots like there was for the PS3?
Will the first few iPhones be on ebay for $10,000.00 each?
my store i already taking preorders...i'm number 3 on the list.
I love how when Microsoft does this they're idiots, but when Apple does it it's ok.
Hypocrites.
Surely 4 months is a lot less than 4 years?
And Apple have a better excuse than MS did, its quite clear that Apple used members of the OS X team for the iPhone.
Slightly hippocritical maybe, but this delay is nothing compared to XP to Vista
Because this is clearly the same as MS when they has to take out features and rewrite the whole dang thing once or twice and still come out with a mediocre product (Sarc)
Tiger is great and MAC OS upgrades are $129.00 (only one version mind you). I don't have to tell you what Vista cost, I'm sure you know.
So where are all the mac boys who were giving microsoft crap about delaying vista?
Pushing this one under the rug as per usual and buying into the "delayed because of iPhone" propaganda.
And of course, since we're not buying it, these comments will be low ranked.
When Apple's delays of an OS reach into years, then you can compare...
I would be less bothered if they weren't delaying it due to iPhone. If they had simply said "some features will not be ready by spring and bringing them to perfection will take extra time" I wouldn't mind as much...
Apple's use of double negatives annoys me.
I bet His Steveness fired a whole bunch of asses over this. Who knew it took 2000 software developers to deliver a phone. Lamest. Excuse. Ever.
Ha ha ha, but who to blame this time... oh yeah Apple.
Now that they actually have to do their own coding for their OS it is not so simple anymore. Before it was much easier to take BSD and place a pretty interface on it but now that they have to add real world functionality...
Remember the macheads all said that Vista and Leopard would be basically released at the same time, this was one of the main reasons that Vista was to suck. It is not a matter of which is better but which you prefer. I hope when then release it (next year) it will be worth the wait.
If you buy a computer before a new OS comes out, when does apple start offering free upgrade coupons? Only 30 days? I'll be getting a new laptop in august, so I figure I'm out of luck...
They're still probably haven't figure out how to add more stars in the Time Machine UI...
Applebots, to your battle stations!!!
@Paul
The answer is simple. When Microsoft does it, the end product sucks anyway.
When apple does it the end product is nice and polished.
Just look at longhorn (errr) vista, it's release was pushed back and yet everyone is still complaining.
I love Apple, I use a Mac everday at both school and home.
But this kinda pisses me off. Apple-fans decried the delay of Windows Vista but we saw a delay on appleTV and now one on Leapord, its just kinda ironic.
I've been a major mac enthusiast for over a decade but I'm still pissed at this news. I'm glad Apple is doing the iPhone and I'm even more glad they released the iPod, but the second those things start getting in the way of what Apple is supposed to be, then I start getting pissed.
I'd rather wait a few months and have a more stable operating system, sure, but blaming these other things is not acceptable. Bad, Apple.
Fishes,
narco.
idk about you but this is absurd. when a company doesn't focus on the product that got them this far to work on another piece of hardware that gets me angry. i don't need a phone, i have one, Work on the phone, but don't take rescources away from other projects (primarily your OPERATING SYSTEM) that you promised to come at a certain point. To shame apple. I need a new notebook this summer, i don't want to buy one for class just to have it become obsolete in a few months :(
Um, you do realize that an operating system is upgradable, don't you? "Obselete" is a word usually reserved for technology that is no longer able to perform modern duties. Buy your laptop this summer, get the best [currently] available OS (OS X.4), then upgrade it in the fall. Mac OS upgrades are cheap, relatively. No big deal buddy.
FFS, learn to spell! "Hypocritical." Say it. "Hypocritical."
This reason is lame at best, and I'm not going to give it enough gratification to even call it an excuse. Retail stores hire extra help during heavy seasons. Couldn't Apple have hired on a few contractors to work on either the iPhone or OSX Leopard while they were trying to get both out around the same time?
SG
"Why couldn't they have hired a few contractors?"
Because that's how you make crappy products. I know a lot of people who have contracted to Microsoft, and believe me, you want your people invested in the company for the long term, not just for the 6 months of your contract.
Seriously, it's only 4 months. And there's nothing wrong with Tiger. It's a solid OS.
I'm a IT Contractor by trade...are you saying that, by definition, my work is inferior to the employees that work at the company I work at?
SG
I have no idea how good your particular work product is. I can tell you that, in general, contractors don't give two shakes of a lilly about the long term health of the company they happen to be doing work for, but instead just want to get their bit of the pie while they can. That's not how I like to run my business.
you guys are getting so caught up in "apple needs to stick to its core business over new ventures" whininess that you're forgetting what an extraordinary position apple is in right now: the iphone is its most buzz-generating product ever (that's saying a lot), and having set a date 6 months in advance, if anything goes even a little wrong with its rollout and launch, then the entire popular press, industry, and anyone with an internet connection is going to come crashing down on them.
leopard is important, but apple's popular reputation is arguably more closely tied to iphone than anything else for the moment.
yes.
Truly amazing how little you know in general.
SG
Apple is delaying 10.5 for four months to ADD FEATURES.
MS delays Vista for four YEARS and REMOVES FEATURES.
Big difference!!!
"Apple is delaying 10.5 for four months to ADD FEATURES.
MS delays Vista for four YEARS and REMOVES FEATURES.
Big difference!!!"
Pure gold!
Since 2002 Microsoft has released 1 new OS versions - Vista.
Since 2002 Apple has released 4 new OS versions - 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4
This is also a "Big difference!!!" I'm sitting confortably at 10.4 (Tiger) now, and I'm looking forward to Leopard.
Although if I could click my fingers now and have a finished bug-free copy of Leopard in my hands I would - but things just don't work like that, so everyone and I are going to have to wait, it's just that simple. I'm well aware of the current buggy state of Loepard, so in a sense I'm kind of releaved Apple is going to polish Leopard up more than they did with Tiger a release a virtually bug-free brand spanking OS near the end of this year.
If it turns out this means Leopard will be fully ZFS, then that alone will be worth the wait.
This is just so we are more supprised when they release it at WWDC
@Service_Games
Using stereotypes, yes, the work of a contractor will be inferior to that of an employee. Is this always true? No. Is it sometimes true? Yes. In the eyes of managers and higher ups, they will prefer the work of an employee over that of a contractor.
The company I've worked for has employed many contractors, and I've seen some of their work over the last 3 years. Some of it is on par with other employees, while others is way below what one could expect from an employee. But I've seen more bad contractors than I have bad employees....
I would like to point out a logical fallacy in this post.
While people were shot in line for a PS3, there is no evidence that they went for 10K on ebay. In fact my friend and I tried to get one at launch, he got one, i didnt. I was pissed. He posted his on ebay 2 times, and it didnt sell. He returned it and took the loss on tax and ebay. I was then glad I didnt get one.
Also, PS3's are for "Nappy Headed Hos" iphone is for the white collar citizen. The kind that eat at Jack in the box. Not mcdonalds.
I wouldn't be suprised if they fell behind on Leopard and are using this as an excuse... but also saw a great opportunity to make a big statement about their new consumer electronics device by saying...
"iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team."
Haha... yeeeaaaahhhh riiiiight... talk about fluff... but it's not a bad tactic for apple at this juncture... fell behind on a project, shift the blame to a newer project of yours and hype it at the same time... that way Apple fans don't care.
Another Logical Fallacy
Delayed 4 months != Delayed 2 years
Im an IT pro and Apple Fanboy. We are running Server 2k3, exchange 2k3 and 50 workstations with xp pro and office 2k3. I would not upgrade anyone to vista and when new machines arrive, i put XP Pro on them. However, I will upgrade all 8 of the Macs to leopard within 6 months of its release. Several of the clients will be updated at launch.
You do realize that the ipod is pretty much single-handedly responsible for a overwhelming amount of apple's revenue. Both directly and indirectly.
Indirectly example:
"I like the ipod, it works, it doesnt crash. I think i would like an apple computer."
Later that year...
"Hey I love my apple computer, you should get one too. Oh yeah, get an ipod too."
...gah! I'm getting a new computer in May for graduation, and I really wanted Leopard out-and-about by then. I really don't want to be stuck with a non-upgradeable iMac, so I guess I have no choice but to get a MacPro and wait for more upgrades...right?
SG, we're talking about professional software engineers here. Not IT grease monkeys.
Now go fix my printer. My internet's not working.
It's kind of understandable - no one needs Leopard, really, esp. in the light of the non-competition from Vista.
Apple doesn't just hire an army of engineers either because that's not how software development works. Adding more people doesn't necessarily make things go faster, especially in teams that are already large.
They could hire an army of QA people though...
for the record, it took microsoft 4 years to come out with vista and it still didnt offer anything that superior to XP... tiger hasnt even been out that long but apple is already about to come out with a newer improved OSX. Enjoy vista guys cus you wont be seeing another windows till 2011 (if your lucky).
Wow, good thing, I was almost about to consider buying a Mac for school next year!
Apple delays their OS and the fanboys attack Vista.
Talk about grasping at straws.
I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (in other words, I am a professional software engineer), and I don't work on the Help Desk or any form of Deskside Support.
SG
Mac newbies, listen up, because you obviously don't understand yet.
Leopard is really not that important. You can buy your Mac now and it will still be useable when Leopard is released. Leopard is not XP to Vista, where you could potentially get really screwed over. Leopard is not even classic to OS X. Leopard adds features, that's it. There is not a big reason to even switch to Leopard except to get the new features like Time Machine, Spaces, and upgraded apps. It's really not that great actually, so I don't understand why you're all flipping out about it. You WILL be able to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard! In fact, people with much much older computers will be able to upgrade to Leopard. Apple does not drop support on their computers for many many years. By the time you get a newer Apple after you buy your new Apple about 4-5 years down the road or whatever floats your boat, your older Apple will still be able to upgrade to the new OS. That's just how it works. Really, it's not a big deal, not at all. The fact of the matter is that OS X has changed very little since 10.2 aside from extra features. 10.0 was a crappy beta, 10.1 was the real release of X, and 10.2 basically fixed a lot of the problems OS X had. 10.3 added a new look. 10.4... didn't do much. 10.5? More of the same. Oh well, you'll get used to it.
Confront the bias in your souls:
Is delaying a new operating system worth it to make it more stabile and add more features?
If you hated on MS for being crappy coders and delaying Vista, then the same applies to Apple. If you give kudos to Apple for not releasing software that wasn't ready, then give it to MS too. Use this to recognize- on one side or the other, there are too many blind fanboys.
I use both platforms and I couldn't care less about the latest OS'es. What a bunch of hype on both sides of the fence. I didn't use XP for a while until it was stabile. Nor will I use Vista, nor do I see any big deal with needing Leopard; this delay is a great ironic similarity exposing fanboys around the world. I agree that OSX is more seamless and stabile, but it is easier when you have only one brand of computers to deal with.
I think OS have gotten to the point where you can do what you need to, sure new features are 'neat' but not 'must-have'. Hell, if MS supported it, I would still run Win2000 on some machines, now that was a stabile and relatively bloat free OS.
Look, could you just fix my printer? I really don't need your lip right now.
Sigh I was really hoping to get a MBP before august.
Problem is, of course I COULD upgrade later.. no problems there. It is just that Apple will probably delay any kind of HW upgrade (to the MBP at least) until Leopard releases. That said, if Apple releases the new line of Macs with upgraded HW (Santa Rosa, etc) then there would be absolutely no problem. But from past experience Apple is not as fast at adopting new hardware. It would not really affect their sales much.
But who knows, maybe they will update their hardware as the technology comes out. Now that they're using Intel, anything can happen.
It's a ploy to delay new LAPTOP's not ready for release all shiny with Leopard to entice upgrading.
Probably hard drives Leopard needs the SSD hybrid buffer to run all the fluff. Or LED screens or whatever Apple will claim to have specially designed only by them and all the PC's rush to "copy" their superior innovation.
Hey, it's not late... they always said "Spring 2007" and October *is* Spring... on this side of the globe at least ;-)
Now seriously, 3rd party developers have yet to see all those "secret features" Jobs alluded to, and hopefully (and according to Apple's own words) they will at WWDC in June, so even though the OS will be late, by the time it comes out many apps will also be ready and taking advantage of those new features/APIs/whatever is missing from the current builds.
If I had known then what I know now, I would've bought iWork '06 back in Sept. when I got my MacBook.
"iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever"
That is just PR speak. Apple is still working on removing the bugs from the iPhone before it is released.
gah. in truth, launching a new product category is more important than an OS X upgrade which is .. lets be honest.. already amazing. I would have rather heard "we hired 10,000 more engineers to get Leopard out the door"
I hope we get iWork and iLife still... I'm hurting for an upgrade to Pages, I love it already and wanna see what's next. Keynote, of course, is amazing.
I have to say I'm pretty annoyed to see its being delayed that long. I'm dying to get my first mac and decided I would wait for Leopard to come out before pulling the trigger (sorta hoping for some hardware upgrades to coincide with the launch too). I've been without a laptop for about 6 months now since my Toshiba M45-S331 mobo died. It's killing me to wait it out when there's so many cheap PC lappies out there, though I just won't do it.
But what really burns me is the excuse that the freakin' iPhone is to blame! Well guess what? I'm in VT where there is no Cingulerrrr...AT/T service, so I can't even get the stupid thing (not that I want it) and I can't get Leopard because of it. Now I'm sure Leopard will be stellar, so I'm not arguing what others have said. I'm just not sure if I can hold out that long and I just don't want to have buyers remorse when they come out with new MB/MBP's with a built in palm dock for the new touchscreen iPod (or iPhone) to work with Leopard's new SideShow-esque functionality...
"severe quality assurance issues that has plagued it recently"
am i the only one who thinks this link-less, reference-less statement is kind of strange?
did i miss something?
The iPhone better be fully functional and stable if Apple pulled developers off of Leopard to help out. I hope that Apple was enable to sneak in 3G via UTMS or HSPDA for the release. I would hate to spend top dollar only to have the European 3G version released in early 2008. The Cingular folks at my local stop in Surprise Arizona was either pulling my leg or giving me there schedule news that they don't expect the iPhone to be available until September or October.
I don't know, it seems to me that this is somewhat of a slap in the face to all the macfanfolks. In a way they're saying that the iPhone is more important than the OS. It's also quite ironic that they made fun of Vista's delays and now they're delaying this themselves.
Tiger is a great OS, don't get me wrong I love it dearly, but I'm not feeling really good vibes about Leopard. Apple seems too "distracted" these days.
BTw - I'm not a fan of the current Mac ads with Mac and PC chatting. As a former commercial copy writer, I thought it was better to point out your positives instead of harping on your competition's negatives.
wow. bummer. I have always been a mac user, and leapord looked like good Vista-killing stuff. Letting windows vista sell for so long without releasing an OS that slams it in every (tiger already does in most) respect will damage apple's claim to the most advanced OS, period. Great sadness.
I agree. That is a very sad thing...poor, poor judgment of them, very poor prioritization.
bullshit. I KNOW this is not the case. It's shipping late because they ran into problems integrating a key feature that hasn't been released.
hi hi hi
I'm in the same boat as martin. I know that it's possible to buy now, & upgrade later... but I just don't want to. I was expecting this to come out around July. Which would have been perfect. I would have had a new computer preloaded with leopard. I'm pretty sad right about now... although, I have been using crappy Microsoft all my life. So anything is better than that. I just can't wait to get my first Mac. I'm on a Windows computer right now & it's hard to type. The thought of this virus infested disgusting computer makes me want to vomit.
Oh well... hopefully Mac will be the answer to my problems
& everyone who is comparing windows and apple is hilarious.
There's no comparison. Period.
Windows suck ass.
My computer isn't old at all.
I have no 3rd party software. No p2p filesharing. NO online porno. Nothing that would give me viruses, except; windows.
it's really quite sad that no one is even aware of how amazing macs are
they do exactly what you want, when you want.
My brother has one & it drives me crazy with jealousy.
;ALSKDJF
anyways
cheerio!