Apple's iPhone delays Leopard until October
updated 04:40 pm EDT, Thu April 12, 2007
Leopard delayed until Oct.
Apple today confirmed that the much-anticipated iPhone is on-track to ship in "late June," but said that the development of the consumer device has delayed Mac OS X Leopard until October because the company has devoted more of its resources toward iPhone development. Conceding that it will be unable to meet its original "Spring" timeframe, the Cupertino-based company today released a statement saying that its consumer-oriented mobile phone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in "late June", but that the company would not be able to ship its next-generation operating system by June as originally planned.
"We can't wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is," the company said. "However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned."
The company said that while it plans to have all Leopard features completed by early June, quality control would add a few more months to the development cycle.
"We cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October," the company said on Thursday in an unusual terse statement.
"We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."












Shucks
04/12, 04:49pm reply
Well, shucks.
Not a huge deal though. Tiger works pretty darn well. Now the question is weather to upgrade hardware now or wait until October...
jameshays
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2003
S***.
04/12, 04:51pm reply
Well, that sucks. I was looking forward to buying a newly redesigned iMac pre-loaded with Leopard! Well, hopefully, they will release the new iMac anyway, so I can finally upgrade to Intel processors.
I hope they'll show off all the goodies (the new Finder and the other "secrets")
Zkatz007
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 1999
Jinx!
04/12, 04:54pm reply
@ jameshays, you and I seem to be on the same page about this announcement!
Zkatz007
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 1999
october surprise
04/12, 04:54pm reply
this is just great...rumors, promises, hype, blame it on Vista, and now blame it on the horse's mouth; hundreds of apologists' rationalizations to follow as proof that Microsoft lies more. we all love the Pied Piper and will do anything to degrade everyone else.
makesense
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2007
Ha!
04/12, 04:55pm reply
There sure was a rumor about this several weeks ago that got the fanbois up in ARMS!
Sorry, but to me this is more evidence to my contention that apple is all about pods and phones and Macs are very much third class citizens. Now maybe the fact they made a big deal of eliminating "computer" from their name may resonate more with the fall of the "computer" fortunes at apple.
BTW, this is also HUGE bad news from a marketing perspective to those thinking of buying Macs.
paulc
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Public Beta
04/12, 05:04pm reply
They should make a Public Beta available to the general public like they did with 10.0. We've all been anxious to get 10.5, this would be a way to appease the masses.
rvhernandez
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
boo!
04/12, 05:09pm reply
thats really bad news. from every perspective (developer, user and investor). with delaying leopard apple is nothing better than microsoft virtually delaying vista forever... but now finally they did it.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
aoweibnaslkgh
04/12, 05:11pm reply
I give in to all Apple haters... this just sucks so much more than I could have imagined. IF they do not come out with new designs and at least core 2 duos in minis I'm going to have to reconsider how much I love apple. AbeoinargilhjsdfkjasdADS
jtrwallace
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2006
something fishy!
04/12, 05:13pm reply
Apple repeatedly state that they "...do not comment on unreleased products". This is doubly odd given that it comments on both Leopard and iPhone. I'm thinking somebody's going to be clearing out their office real soon. A disgruntled employee at Infinite Loop? Nah! Not possible working for sweetie Steve!
Feathers
Forum Regular
Joined: Oct 1999
Vista Here I Come
04/12, 05:16pm reply
Well Apple obviously has lost touch with reality and is utterly unable to complete Leopard. I've been saying all along that Leopard is vaporware and the whole project should be scrapped and started over again with Vista at it's core.
Smell you later Apple FanBoi's
jasong
Mac Elite
Joined: Mar 2000