mac.column.ted: Leopard's delay is no big deal; or is it?

[Published Monday, April 30th]

Ted Landau
May 2007

As you no doubt know by now, Apple has postponed the release of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) from its originally announced Spring arrival until October. No big deal. I can wait.

Sure, I am disappointed. Once I knew the specifics of the many changes and improvements coming to the new Mac OS, such as Time Machine and Spaces, I wanted them to arrive as soon as possible. Instead, the release date has been pushed back to more than a year from when initial details of Leopard were first announced at the 2006 WWDC. That's a long time, especially for Apple, which prides itself on meeting its deadlines. The delay is an even bigger disappointment for those who have deferred hardware purchases, with the expectation of getting a new Mac with Leopard pre-installed sometime soon. Now they have to decide whether to give up the wait or delay their purchase yet another five months or more.

I also have some concern regarding Apple's stated reason for the delay: the higher priority of making sure that the iPhone is delivered on time in June. This raises the still-bubbling-beneath-the-surface issue of Apple's commitment to the Mac. In particular, the only major product announcements from Apple over the past year have been the AirPort Extreme, Apple TV and the iPhone, all cross-platform hardware. In fact, if you eliminate the conversion of Macs to Intel processors (which is admittedly a big thing to overlook), there has been nothing truly new in Mac hardware (beyond speed bumps) in years. For example, on my desk right now is a 1.25 GHz 15" PowerBook G4 (introduced in September 2003) and a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro (the current model, introduced in October 2006). From a visual inspection and casual use of both machines, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which one is which. It makes me wonder when we will finally see a major overhaul to at least some of the current crop of Macs.

Perhaps the lull in hardware redesign simply reflects an "if if ain't broke, don't fix it," attitude on Apple's part. Still, Apple has traditionally overhauled its models, especially the iMac and the iBook, on a fairly regular basis. A reasonable interpretation here is that Apple sees the Mac as significantly less critical to its future than was the case just a few years ago. Or, at a minimum, it believes it can afford to let the Mac coast along for awhile longer. However, don't take this to mean that Apple is giving up on the Mac. Apple's ubiquitous "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads would certainly argue to the contrary. Plus, Apple's latest financial results show a very healthy 36% growth in Mac sales. I am reasonably confident that there will be some major upgrades to Mac hardware before the end of the year. In any case, I am straying too far from the main topic.

For now, I still contend that the delay in Leopard is no big deal. For starters, Tiger has been and continues to be a great version of Mac OS X. It's not as if there are huge holes in Tiger, preventing users from accomplishing key tasks. In that regard, I fully expect that, when Leopard does finally see the light of day, it will be adopted at the slowest pace of any Mac OS X upgrade thus far?precisely because many users will fail to find immediately compelling reasons to upgrade. One possible exception involves all the "under the hood" modifications included in Leopard (such as Core Animation). While not as flashy as new features such as Time Machine, they can mean that third party software that is upgraded for Leopard may no longer work in Tiger (TextMate is one program already on record here). This, in turn, may force users to upgrade to Leopard so as to keep pace with the latest versions of other key software that they use.

I am also glad that Apple decided it was more prudent to delay Leopard's release rather than put it on sale before it was "fully cooked"?just to avoid some potential embarrassment. I'd rather have Leopard late and right than on time and wrong.

Finally, I am certain that within 6 months of the release of Leopard (probably even sooner), no one will care and only a few will even recall that there was ever any hubbub over the delay. If I was remodeling my house, and I had to move out temporarily and store my furniture offsite, to make way for the construction...and the contractor then told me that there would be an unexpected 6 month delay before he could start...that would be a big deal. In comparison, a 6 month wait for Leopard is trivial.

While we're talking about the release date of Apple's next OS upgrade, let me address a related topic: the supposed as-yet-unannounced top-secret features that Steve Jobs hinted (at last year's WWDC keynote) would be coming in Leopard. I remain extremely skeptical that such features exist, at least not of the magnitude that most users expect.

I am an Apple Developer. As such, I am legally prohibited from commenting on the specifics of the current beta builds of Leopard. However, I can tell you that virtually every significant feature in the OS is either already mentioned on Apple's Web site or has been exposed on rumor sites such as Think Secret (which offers an archive of screenshots revealing the latest happenings with Leopard). If any big secret features remain, they are being kept hidden from the majority of developers and have similarly managed to stay below the radar of the rumor sites. I am skeptical that this could be the case.

The same press release that announced the delay in Leopard also stated: "Leopard's features will be complete by...early June," in time for the WWDC. I take this to mean that any "secret" features, should they exist at all, will be revealed by then. That would give any new features at least a minimum of time for beta testing by developers. And that's good.

While Apple occasionally bypasses widespread beta testing, especially for software associated with new hardware (such as Apple TV), it is not a great idea to do so with the Mac OS itself. Why? Because the OS is the most critical component of the Mac and the one that gets adopted faster and by a larger number of users than any other component. Any major bugs would be a major headache. Even with developer-wide beta testing, significant bugs remain in any OS update?which is why each 10.x.0 release has been quickly followed by a 10.x.1 version. You don't want to make things worse by having virtually no beta testing at all. In fact, I can't recall Apple ever releasing a major upgrade to the Mac OS that contained features that were not included in several prior beta builds sent to developers months in advance. I doubt that Leopard will be an exception.

Still, I would not entirely rule out an "October surprise"?although I expect that rumor sites will be revealing any such new features by the end of the WWDC in June. One candidate is an "active desktop" feature, a technology for which Apple has applied for a patent.

Regardless, I am more than willing to just kick back and wait...and happily continue to use my Mac just the way it is right now. And when October rolls around, I will be there to greet Leopard. Either way, it's a great time to own a Mac.

To send comments regarding this column directly to Ted, click here. To get Ted's latest book, Mac OS X Help Line, click here.

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