Apple's Leopard delayed to October, iPhone blamed
By Paul Miller 
posted April 12th 2007 5:19PM
posted April 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]
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!