“When is Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard arriving? The rumor mill has lately consumed itself with reporting a flurry of dates,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted. “Most recently, it has invented the absurd idea the Leopard is hung up on Vista compatibility. Why make crazy stuff up when the truth is so much simpler?”
“The first time Apple made any significant comment about Leopard was at last year’s WWDC, when it was stated Leopard would ship in the middle of 2007,” Eran writes. “It has been nearly nine months since Apple released the Leopard preview at WWDC, and the company is still targeting “spring 2007″ as its release date on its Leopard web site.”
Eran writes, “Vista sales have been a big disappointment. Throughout 2006, market analysts stated that PC sales were being ‘held back’ because consumers were waiting on Vista, but that turned out to be wrong… Given the absolute lack of any interest in Vista, this latest meme to jump off the web is patently absurd. Apple’s Leopard is being held up, they claim, because Apple is scrambling to support Vista in Boot Camp.”
“Apple didn’t exactly scramble to get iTunes working on Vista, and iTunes is an important part of Apple’s business. That being the case, will Apple hold up the release of Leopard for months in order to support Vista in Boot Camp, a product that Apple makes no money in providing? The story is so absurd on so many levels that it’s hard to find a place to start pointing out why its so stupid,” Eran writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bev M” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple to delay Leopard? Digitimes.com’s poor Apple rumor accuracy – March 23, 2007
Apple to postpone Mac OS X Leopard until October in order to support Windows Vista? – March 23, 2007
correct
Agreed, waiting for Vista makes no sense. The hope is that Leopard prevents someone from buying a new PC with Vista on it. They can probably use their existing Windows XP cds to install XP on their new mac (via Bootcamp or Parallels)
Once someone buys Vista its pretty much a lost opportunity for Apple. Unless the user has some really bad buyer’s remorse.
Ahhhhhh . . . I loves me some turnin’ of the tide in the morning.
WWDC 2007 is the logical place to release The Leopard.
That is a fact.
Or unleash the Leopard to kill the Longhorn…
Let’s show the world that Macs are growing in installed base. Currently, a small percentage of distributed computing is done by Macs – somewhere on the order of 2.6%. I know the market share of Macs is higher than that, so let’s show them that we are not as stingy as we currently appear to be.
Register, download, install and run it at:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do
I have setup a team here called “Mac Daily News.”
You can join multiple projects at a time. Donate your spare CPU cycles and show the world the power of the Mac. Currently, we are looking very meager, which makes us look smug to the rest of the world. Show the world that we aren’t.
Uh…Vista already does work in Boot Camp. There are some minor driver issues, but I found Vista running better on my MacBook Pro than any PC I tried upgrading. Even if full support for Vista was necessary (and it isn’t) Apple could provide driver updates in very little time.
Quevar,
What does that tell you in regards to unused CPU cycles being more dominate on the PC side than market share or installed based figures would indicate?
As I type this, my MacBook is encoding a list of videos, and I’m listening to iTunes.
Somewhere, there are a dozen PCs to match my Mac use, but they’re just generate heat.
The reason there is no interest in Vista and the new forced hardware upgrade required to run it, is because the chief US market is headed for a post real estate bubble recession.
Apple is delaying the release of Lepoard until the market is favorable again, thus not to appear as to have unfavorable sales like Vista has.
The AppleTV had to be released because the hardware was backing up in channels.
Software doesn’t suffer the same problems due to it’s small size.
Let’s face it, Lepoard will be like the other updates. It won’t have all that much advancement over the previous versions of OS X.
Apple could release it and then two weeks later we will be expecting the next version.
Eran sures loves to read his own writing. Is there any question he can answer in fewer than six screen of text? Eran has either no day job, or no personal life.
Oh God, the actual article has a photo of Rob “Intelligent Design? I don’t think so!” Enderle.
What is it with Rob and his quarter-assed opinions that drives me so nuts? Why do I want hunt him and his doubtless equally stupid wife down with a crossbow and a mallet?
How can one man be such an asshat and not fall down more?
Answers at 11.
I hope nobody really believed this rumor. It was rediculous from the get-go.
@Wiseguy said: “Apple is delaying the release of Lepoard until the market is favorable again…”
First, it’s not appropriate to say that “Apple is delaying the release of Leopard” until Apple delays the release of Leopard. Apple said it would be released in the Spring of 2007. Spring won’t be over until June 2007. Apple has denied that it will be released late. There have been no sources for the rumors that Apple will release late – just blogges citing other bloggers.
Second, your argument that “Apple is delaying the release of Leopard until the market is favoable” – well, I don’t know how to say this politely. A recession is defined as: “a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters”.
http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/depressions.htm
“The average recession during the past fifty years lasted eleven months…”
http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/Recessions.html
Since a recession hasn’t officially started yet are you suggesting that Apple is going to delay the release of Leopard for 14 months – until August 2008?
<conspiracy theory>
Apple is placing these reports to get some viral marketing. Any publicity is good publicity.
</conspiracy theory>
MDN MW:alone as I wouldn’t be alone in thinking this now, would I?
WWDC people. why do you think its 2 months earlier this year than it was last year? WWDC will see both leopard and the iphone finally announced for shipping.
“Vista sales have been a big disappointment. Throughout 2006, market analysts stated that PC sales were being ‘held back’ because consumers were waiting on Vista, but that turned out to be wrong.”
I think that’s the most beautiful sentence I’ve read all day. =)
{dodges flying chair}
-c
The picture of Rob should be saved, as he rarely pulls his head out of his ass long enough to be photographed.
@Falkirk
Good point, touché
@ Quevar
Sorry, because of our still rather small market share, most Mac users contribute to Folding at Home for Stanford University to help cure serious diseases.
In fact Team Mac OS X #1971 is currently #10 in the world. Google them, good people.
“Let’s face it, Lepoard will be like the other updates. It won’t have all that much advancement over the previous versions of OS X” -wiseguy
omg that statement is dumb.
Leopard be a major change, will come out on time and ship along with revolutionary new hardware.
30th anniversary. Remember the splash page?
This is the year it all comes together for the Mac.
Apple said Spring 2007 release for Leopard …that gives them until June…funny, isn’t June when iPhone is supposed to ship? Could it be that there’ll be a few new Apple products in June???
Sheesh, how simple is it? Delayed because of Vista compatibility…truly absurd
@Quevar
Thanks for the link, i signed up a few weeks back. I just checked and i have 676.62 units of work done now, mostly overnight i guess.
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THIS rumor is the FIRST Macintosh virus!
It’s a good thing we don’t need MacAfee or Symantec to deal with it!
Some Microsoft shill obviously made this one up.
Actually, Vista is delayed until the release of the REAL Vista… that is, the Vista that was promised 5 years ago, but 80% of which ended in the trash heap.
I think I just gave myself a headache…
I don’t care whether or not the rumor is true… rumors are rumors – who knows unless it comes from a reliable source.
But as far as this quote from the article goes, “That being the case, will Apple hold up the release of Leopard for months in order to support Vista in Boot Camp, a product that Apple makes no money in providing?”
Apple definitely makes money off of this tool – even if its indirectly. It may be difficult to put a monetary value on it because it is included with the rest of the suite of software included with the OS… but think about how many people may purchase their first MAC because it has the ability to run both Vista (XP or whatever your flavor of choice is) & Mac OS.
Just because the software itself is free doesn’t mean they don’t make money from it.
Apple delays Leopard because of Vista – In Microsoft’s dreams.
Apple ain’t late…who started that lie? If it was so important to run Vista on their hardware, then why even develop Leopard?? Doh! I think there is some tie-in with Leopard and the iPhone and/or telephony iChat stuff. Being late would hurt Apple as the media darling at the moment, and I don’t think Jobs is gonna be late.
Somebody got paid quite a bit to write that tripe about Vista support.
I realize that it worries some people about the length of time it is taking to finalize Leopard for release. let’s not forget that Apple wants to get it as close to perfect as they can.