“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.]