iPhone Delays the Release of the Next OS X Version

[Ed Hardy]

The iPhone is still on schedule to be released in June, but Apple now says that work on its upcoming combination phone and iPod is delaying the introduction of the next version of its operating system for desktops and laptops.

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Apple's first smartphone is apparently turning out to be complicated that the company originally thought, and in order for the iPhone to meet its June deadline Apple had to move some of the software developers off the next version of OS X -- code-named Leopard -- and put them to work on its phone project.

According to a statement from the company, "While Leopard's features will be complete by then [June], we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us."

Leopard is now scheduled for release in October, but developers who attend Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June will be given a beta of it.

The company finished its statement on the delay of Leopard with, "Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."

An Overview of the Apple iPhone

The iPhone will support the iTunes music service, and it will sport either 4 GB or 8 GB of built-in storage. It will support both music and video, which will be playable on its 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel, 160 ppi display.

In addition, this will be a quad-band GSM/GPRS phone. It will include EDGE, but not UMTS/HSDPA. It will, however, have Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

The iPhone will run what Apple says is a version of OS X, the same operating system this company's desktop and laptop computers run. It will be able to run some -- but not all -- specially selected OS X applications, including the Safari web browser.

It will have a touchscreen, but not include a stylus. Instead, users will be expected to control it with their fingertips.

This smartphone is expected to sell for $500 (4 GB) or $600 (8 GB).

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[Antoine Wright]

While having to add some more developers to a project seems to be the norm now, it's interesting that Apple is doing so. Granted, they cannot afford a iPod 1 kind of deal here where things don't work. However, to pull enough key developers off of your main OS to work on a new product does bring to remberance the statement that Ed Colligan made about OS guys not coming in and doing things so easily. To some extent, this seems to be the case; and on the other hand, everything not named the LG Prada is trying to catch up to the mystique of the iPhone.

[jont]

It just goes to show you that the iPhone is more important than the OS for their computers. More and more Apple is looking more like a consumer electonics company than a computer company.

[Alpha1220]

Another (and, in my opinion, salient) point of view:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Appl...uth/1176414722

Summary: Apple is using the iPhone as a cover for internal difficulties with OS development push, in a desperate attempt to avoid paralleling Big Bad Microsoft style delays.

Is the article perfectly argued / evidenced? Hardly. But it has an interesting take and one that I feel deserves more consideration than simply 'buying the company line'

After all, if we don't buy it from anyone else, why should we for Jobs & Co???

[tmedvick]

I just envision an ad in which Apple Kid and PC Guy hang out sharing a bottle of Scotch. They complain about the endless delays in getting new OS out for each of them, then comment that at least the Scotch gets better with each delay.

[jont]

Another (and, in my opinion, salient) point of view:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Appl...uth/1176414722

Summary: Apple is using the iPhone as a cover for internal difficulties with OS development push, in a desperate attempt to avoid paralleling Big Bad Microsoft style delays.

Is the article perfectly argued / evidenced? Hardly. But it has an interesting take and one that I feel deserves more consideration than simply 'buying the company line'

After all, if we don't buy it from anyone else, why should we for Jobs & Co???

I heard a few podcast expressing the same idea
.

[jont]

I just envision an ad in which Apple Kid and PC Guy hang out sharing a bottle of Scotch. They complain about the endless delays in getting new OS out for each of them, then comment that at least the Scotch gets better with each delay.

I like this, I can see it now - a YouTube video of the PC and Apple guy getting ripped.

[Alpha1220]

I just envision an ad in which Apple Kid and PC Guy hang out sharing a bottle of Scotch. They complain about the endless delays in getting new OS out for each of them, then comment that at least the Scotch gets better with each delay.

This is an EXTREMELY good (and amusing) idea. You have literally just woven a skit from which internet phenoms are born.

Now, the question is: can you (or anyone) capitalize on it? Come on innovators ...

[RobbM]

Last I heard, the 10.5 developer seeds are fairly buggy and opinion seems to be that if Apple wanted to release it "on time" then there weren't enough hours in the day to make it right.

So yeah, it probably is drawing attention away from an OS that's not quite ready.

On the other hand, I read another post that suggests that, albeit convenient for the OS developers, the delay is good for the iPhone AND the OS. Harken ye back to MacWorld, which was ALL ABOUT THE iPHONE. No mention of Leopard or iLife or iWork. June is ALL ABOUT THE iPHONE. Not Leopard or any other software, just iPhone. The electronics/computer world will know nothing else.

Then October will come around and Leopard (& presumably iLife and iWork) will be released and it will be absolutely rockin' and so twice in one year Apple will own the electronics & computer press.

Patience is a strategy, my friends....

[Bob]

I can see it both ways, but I lean more in the direction of Apple needing so much help getting its first phone out that every thing else went on the back burner.

A phone isn't a small Mac. Its some thing else entirely. Apple might not have realized this for a really long time, so it could be way behind playing catch up.