Apple quietly let slip the news late last week that Leopard - the next version of its OS X operating system - is to be delayed almost half a year although claiming that the iPhone combined phone and media player will ship on schedule in the USA in late June.
Leopard OS X is now promised for October. The plan had been to ship in early June to coincide with the company's Worldwide Developers Conference but Apple said it had to "borrow some key software engineering and QA resources" from its Mac OS X team to ensure that the iPhone - a product for which it clearly expects big sales - did go out the door on time.
In a statement made on Thursday (April 12), the company said,
iPhone has already passed several
of its required
certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned.
We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers)
on it
and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is.
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. While
Leopard's features will be complete by then, 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. 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.
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. While
Leopard's features will be complete by then, 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. 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.
Thoughts on the delay of the OS and on the promised on-time (if US-only) introduction of iPhone? Share them with us in the HEXUS.community.
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External.links
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