Mac OS X Leopard delayed but iPhone on time

Stephen Withers
Friday, 13 April 2007 04:59

IT Industry - Market

Apple has delayed the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard until October, citing "tradeoffs" between its development and that of the iPhone.

The Mac and iPod maker has long insisted Leopard would ship this northern spring, although more recently that has been stretched to its limit with an anticipated June release.

Some commentators have been suggesting Apple was unlikely to meet even that target, as the developer builds of the new system software have so far contained no hint about the 'top secret' features that CEO Steve Jobs told users to expect when he previewed Mac OS X 10.5. The theory was that the company would not release Leopard without giving developers a chance to test their software against a complete or near-complete version of the new OS.

Even before Apple's statement, the build released to developers this week still contained dozens of known bugs (in areas such as printing, QuickTime, syncing, Microsoft Office compatibility, iChat and VoiceOver) raising doubts about a June release.

Instead of launching Leopard at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco this June, Apple will instead deliver to attendees "a near final version" of Mac OS X 10.5, so we can expect a preview of the complete feature set at that time.

But the iPhone is still on track. "iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned," said Apple officials.

"iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price. Life often presents tradeoffs and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."

So engineering resources have presumably been diverted from Leopard to the iPhone, suggesting Apple thinks this new market holds real promise, despite its expectation of modest sales in the first year. The Mac faithful will just have to wait.

Are there signs that delays are becoming a habit at Apple? Initial shipments of the Apple TV were delayed from February to March this year for reasons that Apple did not specify.