April 12, 2007 2:53 PM PDT
Apple puts a leash on its Leopard
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The company revealed the scheduling slip in a press release after the close of the stock market Thursday. The iPhone is still on track for a June release--around the time of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference--but engineers and quality assurance staffers working on Leopard needed to switch projects to ensure the iPhone arrives as planned, Apple said.
As a result, Leopard will not be ready this spring, a time frame that Apple had reiterated several times over the past few months. A "near final" version of the operating system--Mac OS X 10.5--will be distributed to developers at WWDC for testing. The final release will be available in October.
"Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones," Apple said in its press release.
An Apple representative declined to provide more details on the delay, beyond what was included in the statement.
Wall Street reacted immediately, sending Apple's stock down a little more than 2 percent in after-hours trading. "They've shaken people's confidence in their ability to execute," said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Apple was also forced to delay its Apple TV product in February, although it didn't specify a reason at the time. Apple TV was released in March.
For once, the rumor mill was right on this delay--though it missed on why that would be. Last month, Digitimes correctly reported that Apple was planning to delay the operating system release until October, but it said the reason was that Apple needed more time to make its Boot Camp software compatible with Windows Vista.
However, analysts downplayed that report, and Apple shortly thereafter released a version of Boot Camp that was compatible with Vista. Boot Camp, which lets users of Intel Macs boot Windows on their systems, will be integrated into Leopard when it ships.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs previewed Leopard at last year's WWDC, showing off several features such as the Time Machine backup software and Core Animation, which lets developers create new types of sophisticated applications.
The company has said all along that Leopard would be a spring 2007 product, but Apple and Apple watchers have been obsessed with the iPhone since Jobs unveiled it in January at Macworld.
Apple's statement announcing the Leopard delay led off by re-emphasizing that the iPhone is expected to ship in late June. Leopard isn't mentioned until halfway through.
"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 (quality assurance) 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," it said.
The delay is unlikely to make a huge impact on Mac shipments, according to Kay. Apple won't see any revenue from Leopard in the third quarter, but revenue from the iPhone should offset that, he said.
But Apple will be missing the back-to-school season, which is the second-most important period of the PC buying year, said Samir Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis. The company might consider offering a coupon for an upgrade to Leopard along with purchases of Macs in August and September--similar to what Windows PC companies did when confronted with Vista's delay past the 2006 holiday shopping season, he said.
It seems that Apple was forced to make a choice between shipping the iPhone on time or releasing Leopard on schedule, Bhavnani said. "The iPhone is the priority over Leopard. They still feel they'll be able to sell the PCs (between now and October), but right now Apple can't sell a phone," he said.
Any delay in the iPhone shipment date would also give competitors more time to launch their own touch-screen smart phones--some of which are already in development, like Samsung's Ultra Smart F700.
Aside from the iPhone, however, there's some evidence that Leopard might have been more buggy than Apple is letting on. AppleInsider reported Thursday that the latest version of Leopard distributed to developers for testing actually had more bugs than the previous version distributed in March. "Critical" bugs were reported with the installer, QuickTime and graphics hardware, the site said.
But the iPhone is looming over everything Apple-related at the moment. Jobs considered the iPhone such an important launch that he used the occasion to also announce that Apple was dropping the "Computer" from its official name; it's now known simply as Apple Inc.
"Apple is a consumer electronics company," Bhavnani said. This isn't necessarily a bad thing--iPods are quite profitable and the iPhone has generated almost unprecedented buzz--but it is a change in Apple's priorities, he said.
The Apple community appeared to be disappointed with the delay, but resigned to the fact that a late Leopard is better than a problematic Leopard. "This is bad news, but I, and most developers I know, have been expecting it, based on the very buggy nature of the current 10.5 seeds," wrote John Gruber on Daring Fireball, his Apple-oriented blog. "Apple's choice was to either push back the release a few months or ship a very, very buggy 10.5.0."
David Chartier of The Unofficial Apple Weblog echoed those sentiments, writing, "I also agree that I would rather have it this way than a craptastic release in June that's full of more holes than Swiss cheese."
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X Vista.
Relax ... just kidding! ;-)
Seriously though, I'm bummed that it's delayed, but I appreciate
Apple was honest about the reason. Mainly I'm bummed because
I want to buy a new Mac once Apple has updated both the
hardware and the OS. That's usually the best time to buy.
I hope they update their hardware before October. If they offered
a free 10.5 upgrade along with a hardware rev, then this delay
would probably be received much better. I think it would also
help if they pre-announced all the "secret features" that are
supposed to be in 10.5
Remember, Apple has simplified their hardware design by involving Intel more and more. On the other hand, software is all Apple.
11, 2007.
applications. Don't think it's not a Mac just because it doesn't have
a mouse. It's probably the most important Mac yet, because it will
show tens of millions of people who wouldn't otherwise see a Mac
just what they're missing.
They're doing the right thing by making sure it's as good as it can
be.
In case the article was too difficult for you to understand- I'll type
very slowly. Do try to follow along, won't you?
MacOSX is being delayed. MacOSX is an operating system. MacOSX
is not a cell phone. MacOSX does not come with a 2 year contract.
Capish?
And then add one new feature to the Tiger while we wait for
leopard. That is just a icing on the cake. The new google desktop
for mac is a fair one but not apple quality.
won't be all that bad, was hoping to get 10.5 with a new Intel Mac
but I guess I can wait. The iPhone's Apple's new baby now.
Hopefully there adding more new features to Leopard. One could
only hope.
except among a few Apple aficionados. OS 10.4.9 is probably 95%
of 10.5, and at least a generation or two ahead of craptastic Vista.
That said, it does send a negative signal about Apple's legendary
ability to execute.
"at least a generation or two ahead of craptastic Vista"
...when basic features like hibernate aren't even fully supported? Basic features like pre-emptive multi-tasking and protected memory have been in Windows since NT 3.0 so by that reasoning Windows is at least two generations ahead of Mac OS X! As for...
"Apple's legendary ability to execute"
...I lost faith in that one when they failed to produce a real upgrade from System 7. It wasn't until MacOS X was cut and paste together from BSD and Mach that they at last produced a substatially better version. 8 was a disapointment compared to what they promised and largly released to enable Jobs to end the clone program and 9 was like the Windows ME of the Apple world...
system.
But it also tells me that Jobs is continually making promises he can't keep. No 3Ghz PPCs, flips to Intel, sues rumor mills, behind on iPod innovations (where are the >16GB Nanos?), flamboyant speechs ("and one more thing"), premature announcements, and only a 1-2% jump in marketshare in 12 months...
Everyone needs a mac. Not everyone should own a PC.
Apple has delayed the OSX update by simply dropping it in favor of a cell phone. A CELL PHONE.
Shows you where Apple's priorities lay- not in their OS, but in consumer electronics instead. Not a good sign at all.
Apple has delayed the OSX update by simply dropping it in favor of a cell phone. A CELL PHONE.
Shows you where Apple's priorities lay- not in their OS, but in consumer electronics instead. Not a good sign at all.
potential weaknesses so they could make changes prior to
launch. Stupid competition didn't know they were trying to hit a
moving target.
Apple apparently hadn't expected a lack of third party apps to
be considered a problem. Now that they know it would be,
they're adding them into the mix.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?
newsid=17735&pagtype=allchandate
You can be sure that if Texas Hold'em will be available for the
iPhone, other 3rd party apps will be available too.
but by looking at what the device can do, as opposed to all the
other phones on the market (even the flash based Prada Phone,
which doesn't even come close to the iPhone's OS X capabilities) its
definitely an open market.
The iPhone has way too much to offer.
My Blackberry is definitely history once this phone comes out.
place. The highly anticipated, seemingly revolutionary product -
that has yet to be released - is "such a mess". Brilliant!
They are saying that Leopard, which was due in the "spring" so lets call that May 31, is going to slip to October because resources are being pulled to work on iPhone which is due in June?
Lets do the math. The Leopard release was 6 weeks away (May 31st). The iPhone release is 11 weeks away (June 30th). So if you add 6 weeks to June 30th, you should have a Leopard release in mid August.
Even if you are an obsessed, iPod wearing, Mac bumper sticker, Apple fanboy with an autographed picture of Steve Jobs in your back pocket, you can reason that October is two months after August.
Apple really expects us to believe that Leopard was going to ship on time but instead of finishing it, they pulled resources to work on a V1.0 iPhone?
What do they take us for?
Are their development and test teams so small that they must have the same people work on the desktop OS as the phone OS? What kind of shop are they running?
And how do you account for the two extra months to deliver Leopard? Those double booked developers and testers will need a long vaction I guess.
Give me a break. Just say that Leopard slipped and do not try to bamboozle me into thinking your new phone is more important than your existing OS.
necessarily involved here (at least in the way you describe).
The iPhone has been a MAJOR undertaking that has probably
stolen some very key OS X engineers off and on for the past
6-12 months. Not weeks, months!
I, personally, am upset their priority on the iPhone is higher than
OS X, but I kind of believe they go hand-in-hand. I believe Apple
has added numerous things into OS X because of iPhone R&D.
Though this has spurred innovation within Apple even further, it
has simultaneously elongated OS X development.
In the end, this will be a very wise decision on Apple's part and
we'll see the benefits of iPhone R&D within OS X AND the iPod!!
Oh, the wonderful world of marketing and spin...
PRECISE information on PRECISELY why Leopard is being delayed? I
love when ignorant consumers think they "know" what's "really"
going on. Three cheers for intelligent thinking.
Apple into the ground for a 4 month delay in the release of 10.5.
They spew and spew about how much Apple sucks. Why? For a 4
month delay??? Are you a Microsoft user by any chance? How
long(horn) was the delay for Vista, a bad, cheap imitation of
10.1? They could delay 10.5 for 2 more years and it'll still be
ahead of Vista!
So tell me, Apple haters, why the hate? I assume you've not tried
a new Mac or OS X. Most of the haters haven't. They'd prefer to
continue to be sheep following the MS flock instead of branching
out and trying something new. Interesting statistic: Most
Windows users have never tried OS X, but most OS X users have
experience on Windows. Shouldn't that tell you something? Yep!
Those that have tried both will make a choice and choose the
better option; those that have never tried an alternative will
continue to follow like the sheep they are.
In what way are Macs better? If Windows was as bad as people like you seem to think it is then the Mac would have a greater market share. But it doesn't. I used to be a Apple fanboy but I became sick of how the buried the Apple II just to make the Mac, even though the Apple II carried the company for years.
Vista was delayed for design issues. Considering its current state, that probably should have been delayed further to get it more polished, but that's in the past so we have to live in reality.
Apple dropped their work on OSX to work on an unrelated CELL PHONE. They intentionally are turning their back on the existing Apple Macintosh marketplace and users to work on a CELL PHONE.
At no time did MS decide to forget about Windows or their other products to work on a Smart Phone or Pocket PC. No, they do development on all their products at once.
So, if you have a choice of either having Apple fulfill their promises of releasing the OS X update on time or forgetting their customers and working on a cell phone instead, which would you choose?
Personally, I'd rather have them honor their promises and work on their OS, not a cell phone.
MUCH improved -- blows my Verizon away.
Dante
shipped to you in 3 months. It's backordered. lol
Isn't this statement going just a tad overboard?
I don't think your point is well made.
I don't think your point is well made.
Macfanbois are so desparate sometimes. /roll
Macfanbois are so desparate sometimes. /roll
There are only two reasons you are ignorant:
1. You only visit CNET (and might be Youtube and some porn sites, but not other news site).
2. You are MacFanBoy.
I would prefer that they take care of their customers, get the new OS release out on time, honor their promises, and THEN work on other projects.
Apple's actions make it look like they care more about getting new customers with the iPhone than their existing primary customer base with the Mac. They are missing the back to school crowd entirely and that's their biggest sales period.
I hope they sell a whole heck of a lot of iPhones to make up for loss of business they are committing themselves to by ignoring their existing customers. We've already seen here in this forum how people are disappointed and were hoping to buy new machines this summer but now will have to wait or may not purchase a new machine at all. Lost sales means lost business.
From a technical standpoint, it's good. Get the OS ready for the market. Sacrificing the most popular product you have in order to focus all your effort on a product without a proven known demand yet- that seems foolish.
I can't say it isn't common though in today's industry. Auto makers do it all the time when they quietly 'forget' about existing models and focus all their attention and resources on the new models coming out. Apple isn't alone in that regard. It's just not a trend I like to see in any company. It shows a disrespect for your existing customers and a greed for profit instead.
Apple made a very public commitment to the iPhone, and while sales may slow on their computer due to the delayed upgrade, a poor release could kill the iPhone forever.
case-in-point: Sony. They didn't have the appropriate quantities on hand for their release, and the ones that were released didn't work.
So it is the right decision to let go of some of the focus so that Apple can put the level of quality into the new phone that is expected of them. Good products don't necessarily sell, but buggy ones almost never do.
I'm not saying these are horrible things, but they are expected as an OS grows in popularity.
There is one item that can be dangerous... As the OS gains more market share (and hopefully it will), we will see more and more attacks directed at the platform. As this happens, Apple die hards will never be able to make fun of other 'insecure' systems.
zetta file system .....
and my link .... http://news.com.com/5208-12_3-0.html?
forumID=1&threadID=26015&messageID=250539&start=-1
to that post
Its a good FS and if Apple incorporates it that will be good. Not
necessarily revolutionary but good. I'm loathe to imagine how
they'll appropriate it though.
Have you read about Lustre FS? Now thats an impressive FS. One
of the people I work with is actually doing some work on it for a
HPC system were putting in. The inner cylinders of the drive will
be Lustre but we're leaving the outer cylinders as raw and using
them for high speed file caching. It turns out the that data
throughput speed delta between the inner and outer cylinders is
enough to make it more than worth doing (if you keep it as a
raw fs).
delaying because of Vista and bootcamp. Now, Apple is blaming it
on the iPhone. I just hope they use this time wisely, like to perhaps
make Safari a wothwhile app. Computing has taken the backseat
at Apple, they'd rather get their next over-rated toy out to the
conspcuous "consumers", as opposed to delivering the next OS to
their loyalists (like me). The iPod is passé, and Apple knows this,
they need the next status personal accoutrement fad to begin.
Computer' to 'Apple' could be interpreted as a warning sign that
Apple no longer sees it future in computers but rather in other
consumer electronic products, especially after the successes of
the IPod and ITunes. What we may be witnessing is the
beginning of the end for Macintosh and OS X as Apple realizes
that capturing a significant share of the computer market is
probably not going to happen. And without that happening,
Macintosh will never be the growth tool and revenue generator
that Apple needs it to be in order for it to remain as its flagship
product.
After all, Apple is not in business to make Macintoshes, but to
make money - as much as it can and as fast as it can - just like
Microsoft, Intel, Dell, IBM, Oracle and most all other businesses.
Macintosh is only a product and tool to enable the goal of
maximizing profits. If Macintosh is not up to the task, then it is
only logical that Apple will seek another product that they
believe will be . That is just basic business economics and
capitalism.
Based on his history, I do not believe for a second that Steve
Jobs has any loyalty or nostalgia to Mac or anything else. His
history and conduct indicates that he is a hardened egocentric
businessman and pragmatist with his only loyalty being to the
bottom line. A highly successful result with Apple TV and IPhone
could be just the ticket for a Macintosh retirement party. I for
one would hate to see that happen but being a realist, it does
not take much vision to conclude that Macintosh will not live
forever.
Hopefully Macintosh won't be retired before something better
comes out with an OS that is more stable and easier to use and
maintain than Windows and will be more widely accepted than
OS X.
I know it won't happen. OS X has been running on PC's for years unofficially and Apple will likely never release a real version, but you can only hope.
I know it won't happen. OS X has been running on PC's for years unofficially and Apple will likely never release a real version, but you can only hope.
Since Windows 95, each OS release has taken longer and longer to release. And the buzz surrounding each subsequent release seems to be declining too. People coundn't wait to get their hands on 95. But Vista has only been getting OK reviews, and it's mainly selling because it's bundled on new computers. Few really care. And lets talk about delays ... measured in years, not months ... delays accompanied by the yanking of features. And meanwhile, both Zune and XBox ship on time ... ahead of Vista.
If Zune and XBox take off, it could be just the ticket for a Windows retirement party. I for one will hate to see that happen, but being a realist, it doesn't take much vision to conclude that Windows can't live forever.
- cautionary
-
by cephalis
April 13, 2007 10:15 AM PDT
- "A scarecrow one day decided being a scarecrow was not sufficiently rewarding and so he was going to become a philosopher. He studied hard about life's difficult moral issues. One morning, to his chagrin, he discovered crows in his hair."
-
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