Apple today released a statement regarding iPhone and Mac OS X 10.5 codenamed Leopard.
The “Good” News
iPhone will be released in late June this year.
The BAD News
Leopard will be delayed until October.
According to Apple, the iPhone development has taken its toll on Leopard. Apple has been reallocating Mac OS X engineers to the iPhone project thus Leopard will not be released on WWDC 2007. Apple will reveal all the features of Leopard during WWDC and release the “near final version” of Leopard to the developers.
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. [Apr 12, 2007]
Read more:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
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Editorial: RANTS! (updated)
It is a bad move for Apple to prioritize the iPhone over Leopard. My initial reaction was totally disappointed at Apple and tought that it was a bad move for Apple to prioritize the iPhone over Leopard. There are numbers of Mac users waiting for Leopard and holding off on the purchase of new Macs. I too am holding off from buying new Macs until Leopard is released. June is not too far away, but now Leopard won’t ship until October. Six months away from today, and I don’t think this will bode well for Apple, at least for the time being. (in response to the comment by Jon below)
Is Leopard the new Vista? I hope not, but its delay is somewhat comparable to Vista.
I know that I will get the iPhone, and I have been waiting since its official announcement at MacWorld. So far, I have gone through 3 old phones just waiting for the arrival of the iPhone. I am stoked that June is not too far away and the iPhone is coming. One thing that somewhat ruined my day is to know that Leopard has been delayed.
In a way I have grown impatience waiting for Leopard. OK, actually I need an excuse to buy a new MacBook Pro. I have the first generation Macbook Pro (15-inch with Core Duo) and it has been great. I do believe that it is better to have a solid product at launch rather than a buggy one. Probably Apple believe that the iPhone project can make or break Apple’s future.
I need to renew my Apple Developer subscription really soon so that I won’t miss the “near finish” Leopard to be distributed starting at WWDC 2007.
Once again, I am not happy with Leopard delay. Many others feel the same way I do. The iPhone cannot edit audio and video. One bad Apple move can ruin the whole damn bunch
Can you spot the spots on the Leopard? NOPE! Not until October.
OK, I should end the rant here. One thing for sure I’ll be getting an iPhone, and it will at least distract me from waiting for Leopard for a while. I’ll be writing a lot as soon as I got the iPhone.