Leopard Delayed Until October (1 Viewer)

[Michael_K_Sr]

Based on the latest builds, I can't say the news was a total shock...

Apple Statement

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 12

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, 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, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.

 

[KeithAP]

I think the iPhone excuse is just the least damaging smoke screen they could put up. Leopard is just too buggy to make their original release schedule.

In the end it probably isn't that big of deal as long as it doesn't affect any hardware (computer) releases.

-Keith

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

On the bright side, this is my opportunity to buy additional Apple stock after it takes the proverbial nosedive tomorrow.

 

[DaveF]

I'm disappointed to learn this. I've been planning on buying a new Mac once the expected hardware refreshes roll out and Leopard is released. I was really excited about the new Leopard features, Time Machine in particular.

This throws a monkey wrench in my plans. But it also gives me concern about hoped-for hardware updates. If iPhone is sucking the oxygen from Apple, could it not just delay software (OX 10.5) but also hardware refreshes (new MacBook Pro?).

But, despite this six month delay, it's not like Microsoft is doing any better. With Vista delayed for years and all the really exciting features stripped away, making it XP warmed over.
But if But it also makes me concer

So, very disappointed. And if there's no hardware refreshes by end of SpPring, it may be back to Windows for me. Otherwise, new Mac and wait 'til October to upgrade to 10.5.

 

[ErichH]

Interesting is the confirmed June date by Apple in the last 2 weeks and again 2 days ago. Now this.

I'm trying to remember when Apple missed by a full quarter on an OS. Guess the June conference will be all iPhone, just like January. Hmmm?

E

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I don't think very many developers are going to be interested in hearing about the iPhone for two hours straight again. After all, Jobs has already said it will be a closed system.

 

[Craig S]

Nah, the June conference is WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), iPhone wouldn't make any sense. Plus, part of the announcement today was that WWDC attendees would get an up-to-date feature-complete Leopard build. I think that means that Jobs will introduce the "secret" features he hinted about at the Leopard intro last year.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

glad I didn't wait until June to buy my mac mini. I probably wouldn't have purchased Leopard right away anyway, but I was hoping for a mac mini hardware refresh to go along with Leopard.

CJ

 

[Andrew Pratt]

While I'm dissapointed that I hav to wait its better then buying a buggy OS in June. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about the 'hidden' features of Leopard at the conference in June.

 

[ErichH]

Also possible, but it would be leopard preview 2. Strange, but I guess they can spin it.
If the phone release day is keynote day, you can bet Steve will make a presentation.

E