“Last year, Apple surprised developers and analysts alike by debuting a preview of OS X Mountain Lion, then announcing it was shifting to an annual release schedule for its Mac operating system,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “That was Feb. 16, 2012, a year and three weeks ago.”
“So where is OS X ‘Next,’ or whatever name Apple chooses for its latest operating system?” Keizer wonders. “If Apple is on the same schedule as last year and the year before that — a preview in February, a July ship date — the company is running behind. In 2012, Apple offered registered developers their first look at OS X Mountain Lion on Feb. 16, then 161 days later shipped the upgrade. 2011’s schedule was similar, but with 147 days between OS X Lion’s developer preview and release.”
“Assuming Apple announced a preview of OS X today and stuck to those time lines, the upgrade would be released between Aug. 5 and Aug. 19,” Keizer reports. “That’s later than the last two years, but within the ‘annual’ cadence, according to one analyst. A year ago, Michael Gartenberg of Gartner Research, who was told by Apple that it was putting OS X on an annual pace, said, ‘There may be a month here or a month there,’ of flexibility in the schedule.”
Keizer reports, “Speaking of ‘Next,’ the naming of OS X 10.9, as the upgrade would be numbered, remains a mystery. Although some Apple enthusiast blogs speculated last fall that it could be designated ‘Lynx’ or ‘Cougar’… [but] Apple’s Lynx trademark was designated ‘abandoned’ in Dec. 2007, while Cougar met the same fate in May 2008.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: What’s your OS X name of choice?
Mac OS X versions, names/codenames, and release dates:
• Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: July 25, 2012
• Mac OS X 10.7 Lion : July 20, 2011
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: August 28, 2009
• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: October 26, 2007
• Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: April 29, 2005
• Mac OS X 10.3 Panther: October 24, 2003
• Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar: August 24, 2002
• Mac OS X 10.1 Puma: September 25, 2001
• Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah: March 24, 2001
• Mac OS X Public Beta: September 13, 2000.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Old Tech” for the heads up.]
By annual they could mean once a year, not once every 365 days. If they slip by 1 month a year they’ve still got 5 years or so that will allow them to still meet that.
Lynx methinks… Though it’s a brand of deodorant here in Oz.
Grumpycat
Can they use Cougar when the word has another meaning these days, a meaning that’s completely different and which Apple probably wouldn’t like to be associated with one of the inventions it’s proudest of? 🙂
Cougar, Puma, Panther, Catamount = Mountain Lion. Different name; same cat. Been there; done that.
Panther is another name for Leopard.
…and Jaguar AND Cougar.
Yes panther is the generic name for many big cats.
Well OSX is getting older. Maybe Cougar is just right after all?
😉
..she IS still sexy.
If they add touchscreen and want to keep the cat theme it could be Mac OS 10.9 Landing Strip with Multi-Touch.
‘Mountin’ Cougar on my desktop’ has a nice ring to it…..
More likely, perhaps, to use that combination in its existing formality: Catamount.
methinks you missed the innuendo…
No, I was implying inhercat’oh…..
-Wait!
Not wholly. Without being sure of TTone’s gender, I was leery of suggesting “Catamite”.
Methinks you did, too – in sleiii’s comment.
That will be called MAC OS 11
Agreed.
Or just Mac OS. And there will be no more upgrade fees. Just like iOS, it will upgrade freely up until the understood obsolescence level has been reached.
I highly disagree. New features should be paid for with $.
If something is “free”, then it’s not worth anything. Users are happy to pay for new features; they are correct to expect free updates for security & bug fixes.
The only precedent that iOS set was that “free” apps — i.e., marketing and data-mining apps — would allow consumers to pay for their software via donation of personal information and time wasted clicking through ads rather than direct payment.
If Mac OS ever endorses this model of software funding (desktop advertising) in any way, we will discontinue updating our OS. Our time is way too valuable to put up with adware.
Remember when cable TV was introduced? By paying directly, consumers were promised they wouldn’t have to endure a barrage of ads. You can see how long that lasted. Using the power of regional monopoly, cable carriers doubled their income streams by both gouging customers AND pushing ads.
Now the software giants – ALL of them, Apple included, are trying to pull the same stunt. One would expect this from an evil company like Google. Apple should be ashamed. It used to pride itself in offering the best user experience — and that world should always be ad-free.
The fact that 10.8.3 is soooooooo slow in coming tells me they pulled those coders a while ago to put them on this release. And it’s behind the debut of previous years… Both of these are signs that it’ll be a big deal (IMHO).
I expect it to be announced at WWDC and to debut in Fall with a new iPhone and new (real) aTV. “Lynx” is a great bet, I say.
In other news, Microsoft has jumped on the cat bandwagon by announcing “After 8, we will become Pussy-Whipped….”
Windows 9 will be ‘cat-atonic’
This one goes to 11.
Thundercat!
OS X Tony the Tiger…This OS is Great!
Clouded Leopard, Sunda Clouded Leopard, Sabretooth, Panthera, Bengal, Savannah, Toyger, Chausie, Serengeti, Sokoke, Ocicat, Caracat, Jambi, Punjabi, Safari, Ussuri, Jaguarundi, Bristol, Wildcat, and my favorite – HELLCAT!
What more can they do with this naming metaphor? After all, a lion is king of the jungle. Anything else is going to be anti-climatic. If they don’t move to 11 soon, and new code names, whatever Apple comes up with is going to have to be awfully clever to top Lion and Mountain Lion. Cowardly Lion? Lioness?
Lion-el Richie
Kitten
Aslan? Mufasa? Simba? Scar? Leo? Slap Happy? Richard? Lambert? Lippy? Snagglepuss?
I think Raymond (above) nailed it.
Apple has been on a mission over the years to remove the nerd from tech. And the idea of an operating system version as an identifiable entity is pretty nerdy. The idea of “hey, are you running Lion, or is that still Snow Leopard?’, although cool in its own right, is pretty nerdy. And it is certainly not something that my dad or other most of my friends actually care about or really understand. And like with the iPhone and iPad, updates contain cool new features, but don’t really identify one iDevice as being different from anther.
So, I think this named OS version thing, although totally cool, has run its course.
And the next one will simply be “Mac OS”, or “Mac OS 11”.
Recall that Apple dropped “iPhone iOS” in favor of “iOS”. Similarly, “Mac OS” was replaced by “OS X”.
Therefore I predict it will be “OS XI”, incrementing Roman numeral X—not “OS 11” which might fool some Romans into thinking it’s “OS 2”.
Also, the anti-nerd factor almost demands a secondary identifier, easily visualized like the cat series. Jumping from X to XI should entail a jump to another line of apex predators. I predict winged raptors, such as Hawks, Eagles, or Owls.
I predict the naming convention will follow significant asteroids: 435665, 321121, 889990876
If there is closer integration between IOS and OS X, then adopting the name Lynx ( sounds like links ) would be an excellent fit.
Apple should switch to a new library of names.
However, Microsoft went to mountains, and I think sharks have been used already, by other venders.
Maybe Greek or Roman gods. Have they been used yet?
Pussy cat
Kitty.
Dumbed down even further so ‘Hello Kitty’ maybe?
Given Apples current direction with OS X, I say “Pussy Cat”
Yeah, I’ll join the small chorus here not wanting to see the whole cat thing continue at all, and I love cats. But if they have to continue, how’s about Sabertooth? Yeah, I know it’s extinct, but it was awesome….
How about Lyin’ sack of shit.
Fix the problems with this OS before moving to the next one.
There are always immature clowns who never learned to behave as adults.
correct on the immaturity, but 100% right on the sentiment.
debug for at least one more year.
You wrote up bug reports about what “problems” you’re having now, at bugreport.apple.com, right?
“Garfield” for the last cat,
with permission of course.
Vicious Puma, with a nod to the Smothers Brothers.
Any release under 24 months is normal…
OS X v10.0 – Cheetah – 24 March 2001
OS X v10.1 – Puma – 25 September 2001 (6 months)
OS X v10.2 – Jaguar – 23 August 2002 (11 months)
OS X v10.3 – Panther – 24 October 2003 (14 months)
OS X v10.4 – Tiger – 29 April 2005 (19 months)
OS X v10.5 – Leopard – 26 October 2007 (21 months)
OS X v10.6 – Snow Leopard – 28 August 2009 (22 months)
OS X v10.7 – Lion – 20 July 2011 (23 months)
OS X v10.8 – Mountain Lion – 25 July 2012 (12 months)
Has everyone overlooked the mighty Ocelot?
“Sea Lion” for version 10.9.
Then, continue with cool-sounding ocean creature names going forward (after Sea Lion), along with release of a MAJOR new revision of the Mac OS (“eleven”).
The Leviathan! 😉
Fritz.
With the way the way Microsoft Windows has been slipping in Market share and Apple’s OSX has been gaining, I am smiling, grinning ear-to-ear. So I am looking fondly on OSX Smilodon. . . An early version of the Sabertooth tiger. Of course, OSX Sabertooth would be good, too. . . As we eat Windows lunch!
If there is any delay there could be many factors involved.
One that comes to mind is the recent reshuffling of the top execs. Perhaps Jony Ive is adding his touches to OS X’s user interface and overall design aesthetics. I’m intrigued if the management shakeup will bear notable human interface improvements.
Jony must realize his reputation will be affected (for good or bad) on how Apple’s software looks here on out. I’m betting he and his team are right now moving OS X pixels around and brainstorming. I’m interested to see what he comes up with, given his perspective stemming from hardware product design. Now he can mold OS X’s interface to his liking. I’ll take a guess that any cosmetic changes will be both relatively minor, yet beautiful, near term.
But, of course I don’t know shit since I don’t work there.
In a nutshell, two points:
1) It might be taking a bit of time to transition to and perfect new ideas from a fresh executive in Human Interface
and
2) I don’t know shit, given I don’t work at Apple nor have any contacts from within it. So my bearing on anything is worthless like everyone else here.
‘Ocelot’!