Pas is the rest of their computers with the exception of the Air and the Mac Pro. Apple tends to neglect their computers in
You actually said Mac Pro? It is universally agreed that the update to that particular range took a very very long time...
And the Air is a new product - so does not count.
Apple are in the business of making commodity product with a long inventory tail running into their stores (and resellers). Thus they do not update as regularly as - say - Dell (who don't have the above issues). Also, fewer upgrades mean fewer machine types to keep a track of - which makes their support and repair operations easier to manage. People may not like it - but there are solid business reasons why Apple don't update their range every five minutes.
It now looks like Apple may be sitting out updates to the MBP until the news chipset that was designed to work with the latest processors becomes available - around June I believe. They hung on until the new chipset and processors were available for the Mac Pro, so I don't see Apple having any problems doing so with the MBP now. The longer wait may also indicate that Apple will give the MBP a much needed redesign and incorporate the keyboard and mag latch from the MBA (it is only a matter of time before these show up on the MBP - if not this update, then the next).
On the main topic of the SDK, Apple is playing catchup. They rushed the iPhone out the door. They hurried the Touch out shortly after. They got something that worked (but had a few curious omissions), but in the rush they had given no thought to an SDK at all. With another year of work some of those holes are being filled - and they are about ready to roll with the SDK. Essentially Apple launched the iPhone a year early (doubly true if word about low power G3 chips being available in quantity in June/July is correct). But what choice did they really have? iPod sales are flattening out, so Apple needs to expand into new markets and the entrenched competition would have had another year to raise their game a little had Apple sat on the iPhone.
As it is, Apple are poised to unleash a whole new range of touch devices. Whether by chance or design you have to wonder. Where all the tablet PCs and PDAs have failed to deliver, Apple are pulling together the hardware and software to make the concept really work because their two major strengths are design and interfaces. That is what made the iPod the success it is. Not innovation (Apple did not invent the digital music player), but their ability to create an end-to-end system that the average person can use. Now they are doing the same to portable information/communications devices. When the user directly interacts with the data, then the interface is
everything.
So - we have speculation that the SDK will be late. I would have been surprised if such a story had
not emerged as the end of the month approaches. However, I'm going to wait and see what happens at the start of next week. Either Apple will announce an event or they issue a press release on the subject of a delay (preferably before the end of the month).
Personally - I'd just punt out the SDK as a beta version. Sure some would whine about issues, but even the final release is realistically going to have some. A beta allows the kinks to be worked out more thoroughly. Bootcamp worked out quite well after all.