Analysts unconcerned over Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard delay

Disappointment over Apple’s 4-month delay of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, “while understandable, may be misplaced, according to tech industry analysts. ‘A delay in an operating system is not much to worry about,’ said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a high-tech consulting firm. ‘If they were a year late, I’d be concerned, but not a few months,'” Jim Dalrymple reports for Macworld.

“Rather, analysts were cheered by the news that the iPhone appears to be on track, and that Apple is committed to delivering that mobile device in June. A phone that also doubles as an iPod and an Internet communications device, the iPhone potentially reaches customers beyond Apple’s core base of Mac users. That, coupled with the fact that AT&T is involved with the iPhone as a service provider, makes it much more critical for Apple to meet the June ship date,” Dalrymple reports.

Dalrymple reports, “‘I think that one issue we may not be aware of are the contract terms between Apple and AT&T,’ said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group. ‘Apple may have committed to delivering the phone at a certain time creating a legal liability if they don’t deliver, which might explain the shifting of resources.'”

“The Leopard delay is the first significant delay in Apple’s operating systems since it replaced OS 9 in 2001. However, it is the second high-profile product delay in 2007 for Apple; the release of Apple TV slipped a few weeks from February to mid-March,” Dalrymple reports.

Dalrymple reports, “Still analysts remain convinced that getting the iPhone on the market makes more sense for the company than pouring its resources into the Leopard. ‘Apple has a lot of good things going on right now,’ Bajarin said.”

More in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Another Irish Dude” for the heads up.]

John Markoff reports for The New York Times, “‘This throws a little bit of water on their parade,’ said David Smith, an analyst who tracks operating systems at Gartner Inc., a market research firm. But he noted that large software projects were frequently late and said that the slip would not prove damaging to Apple over the long run.”

“In the past, Apple under Mr. Jobs’s leadership has executed several earlier technology transitions relatively flawlessly, including the introduction of the conversion of his Next operating system to Macintosh and the shift from Power PC to Intel microprocessors,” Markoff reports.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

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