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Apple Delays Leopard Release
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Excellent Post! Delay A Strategic Decision vs VISTA?
Originally Posted by disco (on another Apple Forum)
So, I've been a member of AI for quite a long time. In the past 2 years or so I really haven't visited much, as my interest in rumors is slowly decreasing. I'm a professional grapic designer who sees a computer as just another tool, like a pencil or marker. My infatuation with the latest and greatest has waned, as I see a lot of it now as gimmickey and just another reason to get users to upgrade. Now, after all of these years of not really caring or having any inside information, I finally heard some news from a very reliable source. I don't know anything more than what I'll state below, so I won't be able to answer any more follow up questions, or quite frankly, have any more access to additional info. It was a one-time spilling of the beans by someone who should have kept their mouth shut I'm guessing. Choose to believe me or not, but as you can see from my posting history, I'm not much of a speculator these days. I'm posting this because for once, I actually know a little somthing. It's not ground-breaking, but it may shed a little light on the situation.
Here goes:
-The iPhone is indeed a huge drain on Apple right now. Engineering efforts are intense around the new product due to various reasons.
- The iPhone was originally was designed with a plastic LCD screen - it has been switched to glass at the last minute. I am not certain of the reason behind the switch, but engineering is struggling to implement the last-minute change.
-There are worries within engineering about the durability of the new glass screens.
-Projections for the phone are huge. Over 1 million units a month.
-The interface of the iPhone is really shaking up Leopard. Many of the new interface paradigms are being folded into the OS.
-Touch-everything. A massive rethinking about how people interact with hardware will be introduced.
-There is a huge amount of R&D regarding multi-touch. It's resulting in some amazing new interface opportunities.
That's all I really know as being factual. Some of it is rather obvious, but the impact that the phone is having on Apple is perhaps the most interesting nugget. If one were to speculate, it seems Apple is telling a half-truth about the Leopard delay. yes, the phone is a drain on Apple, but the delay is most-likely related to rolling new interface features into Leopard and developing the hardware to drive it. Needless to say, it will interesting to see what Apple unveils in October.
Excellent Post! Thanks for the info and insights!
I too was thinking that today's annoucement was probably a half truth--here's why?
- I think Apple/Jobs have been quite surprised by the emptiness and issues with Vista.
- I believe as a couple of months passed, more and more reviewers were saying Vista needed huge memory and had many security vs. practical usability drawbacks.
- Finally, Vista has not been selling that well...
- On the other hand, despite Vista, Mac sales since Vista launch has not been hurt and the Intel Macs and Boot Camp/Parallels have been getting greater traction due to Vista's weaknesses.
If you are a corporate strategy guy and you see this competitive opening then you could very well rethink, reconsider, look at the Intel Chips, sense greater Microsoft vulnerability and say to yourself: " Well, lets do even better than we planned with Leopard, not just Apple TV and Iphone integration but Vista BootCamp integration, leverage latest Intel Chips and take an additional 4 months and go for the knockout Punch!
So, I think that this could very well be the latest thinking....lets take a little more it, beef it up even more, make Vista look ancient by fall of '07 and go for the Microsoft/Vista knockout punch and let the Iphone and Apple TV all then work in synergy to really make a quantum jump in the consumer mindset and create a huge powerball effect.
Maybe I thinking this too much but something tells me the above thoughts may have some reasonable probability of being reasonably on target.
In the process, Mac sales may come roaring back once Adobe PS3 ships......and Apple will actually optimize by making this strategic timing change.
Originally Posted by disco (on another Apple Forum)
So, I've been a member of AI for quite a long time. In the past 2 years or so I really haven't visited much, as my interest in rumors is slowly decreasing. I'm a professional grapic designer who sees a computer as just another tool, like a pencil or marker. My infatuation with the latest and greatest has waned, as I see a lot of it now as gimmickey and just another reason to get users to upgrade. Now, after all of these years of not really caring or having any inside information, I finally heard some news from a very reliable source. I don't know anything more than what I'll state below, so I won't be able to answer any more follow up questions, or quite frankly, have any more access to additional info. It was a one-time spilling of the beans by someone who should have kept their mouth shut I'm guessing. Choose to believe me or not, but as you can see from my posting history, I'm not much of a speculator these days. I'm posting this because for once, I actually know a little somthing. It's not ground-breaking, but it may shed a little light on the situation.
Here goes:
-The iPhone is indeed a huge drain on Apple right now. Engineering efforts are intense around the new product due to various reasons.
- The iPhone was originally was designed with a plastic LCD screen - it has been switched to glass at the last minute. I am not certain of the reason behind the switch, but engineering is struggling to implement the last-minute change.
-There are worries within engineering about the durability of the new glass screens.
-Projections for the phone are huge. Over 1 million units a month.
-The interface of the iPhone is really shaking up Leopard. Many of the new interface paradigms are being folded into the OS.
-Touch-everything. A massive rethinking about how people interact with hardware will be introduced.
-There is a huge amount of R&D regarding multi-touch. It's resulting in some amazing new interface opportunities.
That's all I really know as being factual. Some of it is rather obvious, but the impact that the phone is having on Apple is perhaps the most interesting nugget. If one were to speculate, it seems Apple is telling a half-truth about the Leopard delay. yes, the phone is a drain on Apple, but the delay is most-likely related to rolling new interface features into Leopard and developing the hardware to drive it. Needless to say, it will interesting to see what Apple unveils in October.
Excellent Post! Thanks for the info and insights!
I too was thinking that today's annoucement was probably a half truth--here's why?
- I think Apple/Jobs have been quite surprised by the emptiness and issues with Vista.
- I believe as a couple of months passed, more and more reviewers were saying Vista needed huge memory and had many security vs. practical usability drawbacks.
- Finally, Vista has not been selling that well...
- On the other hand, despite Vista, Mac sales since Vista launch has not been hurt and the Intel Macs and Boot Camp/Parallels have been getting greater traction due to Vista's weaknesses.
If you are a corporate strategy guy and you see this competitive opening then you could very well rethink, reconsider, look at the Intel Chips, sense greater Microsoft vulnerability and say to yourself: " Well, lets do even better than we planned with Leopard, not just Apple TV and Iphone integration but Vista BootCamp integration, leverage latest Intel Chips and take an additional 4 months and go for the knockout Punch!
So, I think that this could very well be the latest thinking....lets take a little more it, beef it up even more, make Vista look ancient by fall of '07 and go for the Microsoft/Vista knockout punch and let the Iphone and Apple TV all then work in synergy to really make a quantum jump in the consumer mindset and create a huge powerball effect.
Maybe I thinking this too much but something tells me the above thoughts may have some reasonable probability of being reasonably on target.
In the process, Mac sales may come roaring back once Adobe PS3 ships......and Apple will actually optimize by making this strategic timing change.
Not when it has 4% of the market. It's akin to the Dalai Lama's flight being delayed to Tibet, less than 3% (Buddhists) of the world will care.
Come on now. Could you tell us in what way you think Vista is better than Tiger?
Call me an ****** but I kinda hope your ibook dies.I mean really. Even under Rosetta Photoshop has been able to kick an iBook's butt since its introduction. Esp since the Core2's came out. Your justification isn't just sketchy, its outright stick figurish. What next? Oh well they are coming out with new displays in Jan '08 so I'll wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
Rot.
My old iBook runs just fine, thank you. Even if it was purchased in Dec. 2001.
Basically, I keep hoping there will be a laptop that justifies me upgrading. But, there never has been a machine/software combo that has yet tempted me.
OTOH, it is a tribute to Apple that a machine over five years old runs the latest OS and the latest software wonderfully. Certainly, there are faster machines, but this old G3 is still fast enough to run Photoshop CS3, audio apps and even some video programs.
So, maybe in the fall there will finally be a reason. I'm willing to be persuaded, Apple, Inc. of 2007, that you have something better than Apple Computer of 2001.
Way back when, it was originally slated for Fall '06 before being pushed back to Spring '07, so you could say it's a year late.
I looked through the Xcode 2.0 docs for Mach threads and pthreads; I couldn't find anything like it. Do you know what the function name is?
I feel like I could say what I want to right now and in 10 minutes no one will even know or care about it. I guess maybe I could try doing what some other member does by putting some cRazY FoNt. This thread is growing extremely large. I would be interested to see if its some sort of record. I would think it has to be a record on the negatives votes.
Oh yeah, in case I didn't mention it. This is horrible news. I just figured I would make the same remarks as 90% of the other posts.
Oh yeah, in case I didn't mention it. This is horrible news. I just figured I would make the same remarks as 90% of the other posts.
How about April Fool's ?
Any chance of that
Maybe Steve is trying to be like Bill and make there clients / customers suffer and wait.
Apple NEVER said that! Don't assign misguided rumors to a statement by Apple.
Exactly. Because Tiger is also here and now. And stable. And great.
Here is a couple of ways of putting it:
Tiger > Vista
Leopard > Tiger
or
Tiger = Vista 1.5
Leopard = Vista 2.0
Do Not Buy Mac Now!!
All the more reason that to NOT BUY A MAC until Leopard and hardware are released. You will have an old interface which will not be 100% functional on your existing hardware.
All the more reason that to NOT BUY A MAC until Leopard and hardware are released. You will have an old interface which will not be 100% functional on your existing hardware.
I agree, and that is the frustrating point (I think why this thread is so active). Apple has a history of dropping the ball at the wrong moment. Right when they have a chance to knock Vista by offering a new release and stealing Vista's hype, they choose to make a telephone.
Agreed. They're been working on a telephone for years, whats another few months. Or more importantly, why did they ever bother to pre-annouce the iPhone anyway?
With Vista, they had the perfect opportunity to switch users. Folks think consumers will wait. They won't. This frees them to get the Vista PC because Macs not ready.
Actually, Apple said Fall or Spring, sometime around there, sometime around when Vista is released. They weren't too clear. Then they said Spring.
Then there was iPhone.
Now it is October/Fall
This annoys me...a lot
This is annoying for me. I was planning on getting a new laptop in August for the new school year... but i wanted Leopard on it. As i will be giving this one to my sister when she starts Uni i guess I will have to do with my desktop until Leopard comes installed on the laptops by default.
Quite disappointed that it is going to take this long.
This is annoying for me. I was planning on getting a new laptop in August for the new school year... but i wanted Leopard on it. As i will be giving this one to my sister when she starts Uni i guess I will have to do with my desktop until Leopard comes installed on the laptops by default.
Quite disappointed that it is going to take this long.
Having only skimmed the posts here (there are way too many to try to read them all), I wanted to point something out to the folks who are questioning the recent denial of a delay.
It is possible that they had a couple of different game plans. Plan #1: launch in spring no matter what. Plan on releasing any features that need to be cut to make the spring launch as updates later on. Plan #2: Make Leopard feature complete, and completely debugged, but launch late. If that was the case, they would not publicize the fact. They would stand by a spring launch, so long as it was a possibility. Maybe, over the course of the last week, there was a meeting in which they were reviewing what would need to be cut to make the June launch, and SJ decided at that point that it was too much. So, plan #1 was dropped and then they had to go with plan #2. And, if knowledge of plan #2 leaked, it would become a rumor that plan #2 was the real schedule, hence the rumors we've heard.
Now, I'm not saying this is nice. I'm not saying I'm happy about this. What I am saying is that everyone who is assuming that Apple intentionally and maliciously lied must have a very dim view of this company that they're buying products from. Personally, I'd rather give them some level of benefit of the doubt. So long as a plausible explanation exists, whether Apple offers it or not, my inclination will be toward offering benefit of the doubt.
Just my 2 cents... (or less).
It is possible that they had a couple of different game plans. Plan #1: launch in spring no matter what. Plan on releasing any features that need to be cut to make the spring launch as updates later on. Plan #2: Make Leopard feature complete, and completely debugged, but launch late. If that was the case, they would not publicize the fact. They would stand by a spring launch, so long as it was a possibility. Maybe, over the course of the last week, there was a meeting in which they were reviewing what would need to be cut to make the June launch, and SJ decided at that point that it was too much. So, plan #1 was dropped and then they had to go with plan #2. And, if knowledge of plan #2 leaked, it would become a rumor that plan #2 was the real schedule, hence the rumors we've heard.
Now, I'm not saying this is nice. I'm not saying I'm happy about this. What I am saying is that everyone who is assuming that Apple intentionally and maliciously lied must have a very dim view of this company that they're buying products from. Personally, I'd rather give them some level of benefit of the doubt. So long as a plausible explanation exists, whether Apple offers it or not, my inclination will be toward offering benefit of the doubt.
Just my 2 cents... (or less).
man, i can't believe this!......and i thought June was going to be a great month
i'm very disappointed
June was going to be a great month? How about the hype Apple posted on it's website at the beginning of 2007? Something to the effect of "The first 30 years were just the beginning..."
Apple promised to deliver a big year, so far all we've seen is an overpriced iPhone with not nearly enough memory and no 3G. Then they couldn't deliver Apple TV. Now they can't deliver Leopard.
I with the others that are beginning to lose faith in Apple's ability to execute. I am waiting for Leopard to buy a new iMac, now I have to wait another 6 months. Unbelievable.
I bet Stevie J. is FUMING.
Another way of putting it is:
Leopard has been delayed cos of a phone.
That is pretty pathetic. It better be one great phone. (It looks like it probably will be, but I can't be sure.)
Actually, wouldn't downloading the source for Darwin be a bit better of an idea?
At WWDC 06 (I was in the audience) they said Spring 07. When Apple says something like that it almost always means the last month of the range if not the last week. The only correct assumption is the last day of that range.
So this delay is on the order of another quarter to 4 months.