“Apple on Thursday pushed back the release of Leopard, the next major upgrade of its Macintosh operating system, until October, saying it had to divert too much of its resources to getting the iPhone out on time,” Antone Gonsalves reports for InformationWeek.
Gonsalves reports, “Because of the delay, the second for Leopard this year, consumers ready to buy a Mac, particularly during the important back-to-school season, are expected to delay purchases until the OS’s release. Leopard had originally been scheduled to debut in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yesterday’s announcement was not Apple’s “second delay for Leopard this year.” Apple never said that Leopard would debut in June at WWDC. This year, until yesterday, Apple had consistently stated that Mac OS X Leopard would ship in “spring 2007.” By the way, just a reminder, Apple already has the best operating system on the market by far with their current Mac OS X Tiger.
MacDailyNews Note: [3:45pm EDT. Well, that was quick. InformationWeek has edited the original article (pictured below) to remove the incorrect line, “the second for Leopard this year.”
Gonsalves continues, “Nevertheless, the delays are uncommon with Apple, which seldom stumbles in getting out OS upgrades. ‘It’s an unusual turn of events for Apple, which is really good at hitting deadlines with upgrades to its OS, compared with Microsoft,’ Toni Duboise, analyst for Current Analysis, said.”
“John Lynch, financial analyst for Needham & Co., agreed that Apple would see sales tip toward the latter part of the year.’I suspect that it’s just going to be a time shift in their OS upgrade revenues,’ he said. ‘In addition to that, some customers may delay purchases of the Mac as well, but my suspicion is that won’t be a particularly powerful phenomenon.’ Apple, for example, could choose to hand out coupons similar to what Microsoft and computer makers did during the holiday shopping season. The coupons gave people upgrades to Vista at no additional cost when the OS was released in January. While many people waited anyway to buy new PCs, Lynch felt Apple would be more successful. ‘It’s a lot less painful to upgrade the Mac OS than Windows,'” Gonsalves reports.
MacDailyNews Take: We thoroughly agree with Lynch’s asssessment.
Gonsalves continues, “Apple had originally been slated to launch Leopard in April, but decided to push it back to June to ensure that Macs running Leopard are also capable of running Vista.”
MacDailyNews Take: There is simply no basis in fact for that statement whatsoever. Have ye any proof, Mr. Gonsalves or do you just like making things up based on half-wrong reports via DigiTimes (they got the month right, but not the cause) and reporting them as fact? Mac OS X Tiger Macs are already capable of running Vista via Boot Camp. What the heck is going on over at the used-to-be-pretty-reliable InformationWeek lately? If this keeps up they ought to change the name to “InformationWeak.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Steve” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray: Use Apple’s Leopard delay as buying opportunity – April 13, 2007
Analysts unconcerned over Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard delay – April 13, 2007
Apple shares drop nearly 3%, dip below $90 on Mac OS X Leopard delay – April 12, 2007
Apple delays Mac OS X Leopard until October 2007, blames iPhone – April 12, 2007
InformationWeek blows it again: accuses Apple and EMI of ‘price gouging’ on DRM-free tunes – April 04, 2007
InformationWeek blows it: calls AAC Apple’s closed format – April 04, 2007
Apple to postpone Mac OS X Leopard until October in order to support Windows Vista? – March 23, 2007
… Dis-InformationWeek
Tinfoil hat aside, somehow I think there’s more going on here than average mortals know.
Mis-information week
Apple are going to wear some pain over this. It would be far worse if Vista hadn’t been 5 years in the making and delayed so many times…
It must be an ambitious release!
I’d rather have it right than have it soon. It’s not like I’m behind in innovation right now with my OS.
If Apple is worried about the back-to-school crowd, they can always give a voucher for a free/reduced price copy of Leopard to anyone who purchases after some date.
Of course, Tiger still gores the Longhorn.
Correction again:
“Apple had originally been slated to launch Leopard in April, but decided to push it back to June to ensure that Macs running Leopard are also capable of running Vista applications.“
I actually believe the delay is because AACS was so soundfully cracked wide open that they need to go back to the drawing board.
Apple can’t release Lepaord without the embeded DRM and thus can’t release BlueRay OEM DVD playable drives.
What a bunch of numbnuts. At least they corrected it.
MW = “numbnuts”
Why anyone would hold off on a computer purchase for the sake of having a new OS is nuts! Leopard will cost about .05% of a MacBookPro. If you need a new computer just go out an buy the darn thing. If you can’t afford $129.00 after shelling out $2500. for a MBP then buy a piece of junk from Dull!
Why anyone would hold off on a computer purchase for the sake of having a new OS is nuts! Leopard will cost about .05% of a MacBookPro. If you need a new computer just go out an buy the darn thing. If you can’t afford $129.00 after shelling out $2500. for a MBP then buy a piece of junk from Dull!
And what about those that are considering a Mac Mini? Or, hell, even a MacBook? At $1099, $129 to upgrade the OS is definately not “.05%”.
There are obviously way too many technology news journals. The journalistic talent pool is far too thin now. Let’s drop 90% of them, send the lazy, inept yellow-dogs down to some backwater, community college paper, farm teams to finish out their “careers”.
The point and click, adsense Internet is making it way too easy for these people to “earn” a living.
I do wish people would learn math before trying to be clever with it. The price of Leopard in proportion to the cost of a MacBook Pro is 0.05, or 5%. But not .05%
Either way, if someone offered you a 5% discount on your MBP if you waited until September, would you take it?
Hey! MDN stole their “InformationWeak” line from Twisted Mac Freak.
It’s o.k., Cubert. I have a subscription service.
Leopard will come out before October. My bet is August.
So who’s paying this fool? ASnd what is this guy on?
Cause he not worth it!
I don’t know about the rest of you folks but I hate being bullshited – it really turmns me off…
As for “Information Week” – I’m starting to think their rag isn’t worth the efford!
M$ must be really spreading the cash around in the last few hours…
It’s just funny that they would announce the delay on the very day that they released a far more solid dev build. 9a410 is behaving wonderfully compared to 377. Safari’s new page search is a joy to behold.
SecretSquirrel,
Please keep the insider info on Leopard coming! I’ve read a few of your posts over the last 2 days. Thanks.
■
as long as Leopard can keep up with Beryl I’d be happy. However, after watching the latest build of Beryl in action, I do have my doubts.
Beryl has nice eye candy.. question is usability..
Eye candy does not automagically translate into usability.
Usability > Eye Candy