McCracken ’s First Law of Contrarian Operating System Punditry — which I just made named , but have long believe — State that it ’s effective word when an O is delayed . What noetic computer user , after all , would choose to buy and use a product when even its own developer does n’t intend it ’s quick for prime time ?
I ’ve often expressed that sentiment when Microsoft ’s Windows ship dates have slip - slided aside , so it ’s only reproducible to cut Apple the same drop-off . I ’m a little startled by the company ’s announcement that it ’s delaying Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard until October to wrap up oeuvre on the iPhone . But I ’m all right with the decision — and even though I ’m looking onwards to getting Leopard for my MacBook , I ’ll happily bide my time until Apple thinks the OS is fully baked .
From everything we know about Leopard so far — and it ’s possible , or even likely , that we do n’t have intercourse everything — it front to be a pleasant but reasonably minor update , with one known knockout new feature , the Time Machine uninterrupted - backup system . ( Which , by the bye , I could have used last month — I had a hard - drive smash on my Mac and lost some vacation photos which I had n’t safely keep up anywhere else . )
To me , the big newsworthiness about the Leopard hold is n’t the postponement itself . It ’s the fact that it feels like one more piece of evidence that the Mac , which was Apple ’s flagship production for a couple of X , may be suffer from a lack of full bodied attending in the era of the iPod , iPhone , and Apple TV .
So far , it ’s been the quietest of year for the Mac platform . There have been stack of rumor about cool new Macs , but no actual new organisation ( OK , one minor upgrade : the eight - core Mac Pro ) . The MacBook , MacBook Pro , iMac , and Mac Mini lines , while all cracking in their own ways , are also moderately darn familiar ; Apple ’s a company whose very DNA involves liberate noticeably new and unlike machines moderately oft , and the fourth dimension has certainly hail for a genuinely interesting new Mac or two . But you got ta inquire whether Apple will secrete ’em as Tiger machines , or wait until they can ship with Leopard .
There were also rumors about an upgrade toiLifethat was supposed to show up at Macworld Expo in January ; the iPhone did , but iLife did n’t . And now Leopard wo n’t be a reality until Fall .
Meanwhile , new iPods big and pocket-sized have continued to appear ; the Apple television receiver showed up ; and the iPhone is apparently on agenda for its June introduction . I was already sort of wondering whether Apple had taken its optic off the Mac ball , so to verbalise , to center on other efforts ; with the Leopard announcement , it ’s essentially admitted that it did so .
We may be in the thick of a Macintosh news drought , but it wo n’t , of row , last forever . There will be unexampled Macs , and an iLife rise , and presumably some noteworthy stuff and nonsense that only Steve Jobs and his secretive minion know about just now . And it would be pretty darn surprising if Leopard is the only major Mac item that go far in 2007 .
Like I say , I ’ll cheerfully look until products are really done to get my hands on them … but that is n’t terminate me from wondering what ’s on the direction for Mac fans , and when it ’ll all show up … .
[ Harry McCracken isPC World ’s editor in gaffer . Visit hisTechlog web log . ]
