Leopard release "in the next few weeks" according to Regent Street apple store

[student_trap]

Hey guys,

just a little bit of reporting. I was chatting to a salesman in the regent street apple store two days ago, and he said that all of the staff in the store are expecting leopard within the net few weeks, and that they doubt very much that it will come after this period.

I'm not sure if they could actually know this for certain, and i doubt apple would let this info become common knowledge to applestore staff, but still, i thought it was worthy of sharing!

Does this prediction make sense..is it obvious? Or was the guy way off of the mark?

 

[Multimedia]

Way Off The Mark. Still No Golden Master Candidates To Developers

Hey guys,

just a little bit of reporting. I was chatting to a salesman in the regent street apple store two days ago, and he said that all of the staff in the store are expecting leopard within the net few weeks, and that they doubt very much that it will come after this period.

I'm not sure if they could actually know this for certain, and i doubt apple would let this info become common knowledge to applestore staff, but still, i thought it was worthy of sharing!

Does this prediction make sense..is it obvious? Or was the guy way off of the mark?

As long as we get no word Golden Master Candidates are at developers, ain't gonna happen for about a month after that at the soonest. So your store employees are blowin' smoke big time. Think end of April UNlikely, sometime in May hopefully, first week in June worst case.

My 2¢

 

[lexus]

As long as we get no word Golden Master Candidates are at developers, ain't gonna happen for about a month after that at the soonest. So your store employees are blowin' smoke big time. Think end of April UNlikely, sometime in May hopefully, first week in June worst case.

My 2¢

I think it will be out within a month.

 

[gavd]

The guys in the store aren't going to know when it's coming any more than we do.

Saying it'll be out in a few weeks is a bit of an obvious statement and he's just trying to make out he's knows something when he doesn't.

 

[Father Jack]

I don't know either .......... BUT IT WANT IT NOW !!!

FJ

 

[EricChunky]

Oi m8 I am the Regent Store Guy and I was Joking

 

[student_trap]

Oi m8 I am the Regent Store Guy and I was Joking

hmmm, let me ask you this then...the purchase of what product was my reason for going to the apple store?

 

[Abstract]

I think he was joking about joking about what he said.......

*head implodes*




And Apple store employees don't really find out things any more ahead of us here at MacRumours. If it was coming out in a few weeks, the news would have been reported by more than a few employees from one store. Think about how many Apple stores there are, and how many potential leaks there are. This is why employees aren't told much, either. They find out from new SKUs for products they know they don't sell, and make guesses regarding new products based on these new SKUs, product in stock at Apple, etc.

 

[macfriend1]

So many ppl are gonna buy Leo at once. The problem is that there are not enough leos. haha

 

[djkny]

Hey guys,

just a little bit of reporting. I was chatting to a salesman in the regent street apple store two days ago, and he said that all of the staff in the store are expecting leopard within the net few weeks, and that they doubt very much that it will come after this period.

I'm not sure if they could actually know this for certain, and i doubt apple would let this info become common knowledge to applestore staff, but still, i thought it was worthy of sharing!

Does this prediction make sense..is it obvious? Or was the guy way off of the mark?

I'm sure he did. He's also out of a job, after breaking Apple's non-disclosure agreement. Way to go, guy ...

 

[Naimfan]

I'm with MultiMedia on this one--wih no hint of a GM out, April looks unlikely. May seems like the best bet, and that also allows the iPhone to have June all to itself. Well, OK, the iPhone will have to share June with WWDC, though I wouldn't be surprised if WWDC shows a lot of iPhone integration in terms of hardware and software.

Bob

 

[atari1356]

"few" is one of those words that can mean different things to different people...

I wouldn't get excited, because he probably doesn't really know anything - and his statement of a "few weeks" could mean anywhere from "3 weeks" to "sometime in June".

 

[johnee]

I think he was joking about joking about what he said.......

*head implodes*




And Apple store employees don't really find out things any more ahead of us here at MacRumours. If it was coming out in a few weeks, the news would have been reported by more than a few employees from one store. Think about how many Apple stores there are, and how many potential leaks there are. This is why employees aren't told much, either. They find out from new SKUs for products they know they don't sell, and make guesses regarding new products based on these new SKUs, product in stock at Apple, etc.

while I generally agree with you, there must be some sort of activity the store needs to go through when a major update is about to be released. What I'm thinking is they have already gone through this "upcoming change" cycle with previous major updates, and know from experience that the changes they are seeing NOW are inevitably tied to a new product change. That doesn't mean it's leopard necessarily, it could be a hardware change.

This is just me trying to convince myself your info is right, and I've done a pretty good job of it.

TWO WEEKS!

 

[daveL]

As long as we get no word Golden Master Candidates are at developers, ain't gonna happen for about a month after that at the soonest. So your store employees are blowin' smoke big time. Think end of April UNlikely, sometime in May hopefully, first week in June worst case.

My 2¢

I don't think Apple is seeding Leopard in the same manner as they have in the past with 10.2 - 10.4. That seems really obvious, to me. If they are, then Leopard seeding would lead you to believe it is far from finished and not likely to be released for another 6 months. Hell, the seeds are still "A" series. We haven't even seen the first "B" seed, and normally there would be a long string of those before arriving at the first release candidate. After the constant leaking of Tiger seeds last time around, I think Apple decided to revisit how they test OS X and who gets seeded with development builds. I don't think you'll ever see a Gold Master seeded prior to the actual Leopard release.

Just my take on it.

 

[mrgreen4242]

I don't think Apple is seeding Leopard in the same manner as they have in the past with 10.2 - 10.4. That seems really obvious, to me. If they are, then Leopard seeding would lead you to believe it is far from finished and not likely to be released for another 6 months. Hell, the seeds are still "A" series. We haven't even seen the first "B" seed, and normally there would be a long string of those before arriving at the first release candidate. After the constant leaking of Tiger seeds last time around, I think Apple decided to revisit how they test OS X and who gets seeded with development builds. I don't think you'll ever see a Gold Master seeded prior to the actual Leopard release.

Just my take on it.

I agree. We've seen very minimal reports on Leopard from developers, and if that's as far along as they are then it'll be '08 before it releases. I think there's a smaller group of testers that are under very strict NDA for Leopard and the rest of them won't see significant updates on the Leopard builds until a release date is annouced, and at that point it'll be pretty much a finished product... all the fixes that they create after that point will go into a zero day 10.5.1 patch.

 

[twoodcc]

i just hope that it comes out soon....

 

[cwedl]

and that they doubt very much that it will come after this period.

Lets hope it comes out then within the next few weeks otherwise it will never come out

 

[Vidd]

The difference in behaviour here must have something to do with the vista release. It's probably more important to have a very strong launch and that would be weakened somewhat if we knew too much.
If they revealed everything last WWDC, I bet they would have lost a few sales from people becoming apathetic.

 

[johnee]

I agree. We've seen very minimal reports on Leopard from developers, and if that's as far along as they are then it'll be '08 before it releases. I think there's a smaller group of testers that are under very strict NDA for Leopard and the rest of them won't see significant updates on the Leopard builds until a release date is annouced, and at that point it'll be pretty much a finished product... all the fixes that they create after that point will go into a zero day 10.5.1 patch.

yeah, for all the excluded developers, apple will squeeze their pockets when they have to pay to get into WWDC to learn how to use leopards features

 

[iW00t]

As long as we get no word Golden Master Candidates are at developers, ain't gonna happen for about a month after that at the soonest. So your store employees are blowin' smoke big time. Think end of April UNlikely, sometime in May hopefully, first week in June worst case.

My 2¢

Think different. Apple's development cycle jumps straight from Alpha to Release.

They are that good.

 

[macfriend1]

so when can I buy leo? with iworks? is there a new macbook coming as well?

 

[iW00t]

so when can I buy leo? with iworks? is there a new macbook coming as well?

Yes, Intel's next platform is due out on 6th of May IIRC. New MBs will be out shortly after (unless Apple is really going to buck the trend of shipping current systems )

 

[maxp1]

Think different. Apple's development cycle jumps straight from Alpha to Release.

They are that good.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Oh, you were joking.

In some really warped world I could see something like this happening. Apple decides that their 'Top Secret' features are too top secret to be seen by anyone outside of the infinte loop. They produce a few crippled alpha releases as a distraction to quell the rumors that would happen if no releases were happening at all. They test exclusively internally and then drop the completed system on the world when they're ready.

The thing that takes this out of the world of impossible speculation is that Apple is very good at secrecy. Remember how little clue anyone had that there was an Intel version of OSX? How about the iPhone? It's a remote possibility, but I could see something like this happening to Leopard.

 

[jmsait19]

i'm not gonna claim to know much about developer cycles other than what i see here, but apple is very strongly sticking to a "spring 07" release. and like some of you have said, there would normally be a rapid fire string of seeds, then a gold master seed, then a release announcement, and then about 3 weeks until it hits.

unless they are doing this one differently and keeping things closer to the vest... err, in the vest, in that little pocket on the inside.

all this means stuff *should* start happening very soon either way

I think for fun, i'm going with the "they're doing it differently" theme, and when it comes it will come mighty fast. my guess is we get an announcement for a special event 1 week ahead. the event shows off the new features and we get 2 weeks until release.

 

[jmsait19]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Oh, you were joking.

In some really warped world I could see something like this happening. Apple decides that their 'Top Secret' features are too top secret to be seen by anyone outside of the infinte loop. They produce a few crippled alpha releases as a distraction to quell the rumors that would happen if no releases were happening at all. They test exclusively internally and then drop the completed system on the world when they're ready.

The thing that takes this out of the world of impossible speculation is that Apple is very good at secrecy. Remember how little clue anyone had that there was an Intel version of OSX? How about the iPhone? It's a remote possibility, but I could see something like this happening to Leopard.

I love this kind of stuff... off the wall craziness... just for the sake of excitement i hope it is something like this...