Interesting — same sort of problem that MS ran into. Delay to Vista meant delay to Office update. Seems like this will have some serious ripple effects in Apple’s revenue stream, albeit only for four months. I wonder if it will affect any pro app updates.

I suppose it’s possible for Apple to surprise us and release the iApp updates in June, but I doubt it. Seems like the Leopard tie-in is almost inevitable.

OSX and Macs are absolutely central to Apple’s strategy. Without both, they couldn’t have iPods, iPhones, AppleTVs, or any of the gadgets which you are so insistently hyperventilating about.

If you want to argue that the delay due to the iPhone is proof of Apple’s supposed change in priorities, you’ll also have to argue that since I spend one week a year hunting with my buddies, I no longer love my wife and kids. This delay is proof of nothing more than the fact that Apple does not have unlimited human resources. Shocking.

Seriously: step back from the brink. If “management” is going to think you’re an idiot, it will be for other reasons than Apple.

An October release means there’s no hope of sneaking the upgrade into the 07 budget or getting it installed for student labs for the fall. The upgrade will have to wait until the 08-09 school year for most edu buyers. (Ironically, when most are planning to be forced into a Vista move on the Windows side.)

Brad Smith of Microsoft has apparently said that Apple’s trying to persuade the record labels to drop DRM is all a fiendish plot. Apparently, dropping DRM will result in more downloads, which will be good for iPod sales.

You don’t say! Quite true, Smith. And this is just why the claims of various people that Jobs didn’t mean what he said about dropping DRM were so patently absurd.

However, Smith implies that this will somehow be a bad thing for the labels.

“In a curious twist to the fight between Microsoft and Apple in the digital device market, Microsoft general counsel and executive vice president Brad Smith told reporters that Apple shouldn’t blame the record labels, suggesting that Apple’s push to get the labels to drop their desire for DRM restrictions on digital downloads is really an effort to gain more market share for iPod. The implication being that said effort would be coming at the labels’ expense.”

http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/31069

This is at odds with previous Microsoft claims:

“The EMI announcement is not exclusive to Apple,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “Consumers have made it clear that unprotected music is something they want. We plan on offering it to them as soon as our label partners are comfortable with it.”

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95736/95736.html?Ad=1

The truth is quite plain. Microsoft doesn’t want DRM-free music and sees DRM-free music as a way in which wicked Apple, and other stores not associated with Microsoft, can tempt the labels to release people from being tied in to subscription services from Microsoft’s “partners” that use Microsoft DRM.

In other words, never mind what “consumers have made clear”. They really *ought* to be forced to take what would be good for Microsoft.

Steve Jobs may not be an angel, but he does listen to customers - what Microsoft just referred to as “consumers” (and that was when they were being smarmy) - and doesn’t seem to wish only to screw them. Even better, there’s a good fit between Apple’s interests and the interests of end users.

It’s not being delayed for a phone. It’s being delayed due to the development needs of the version of Mac OS X that runs on the phone.

The equation is not:

iPhone > Mac OS X

But rather:

Completely new version of OS X > Replacing existing, stable, working version of OS X

From my perspective, that’s not really a problem.

iWork/iLife updates: I can’t wait. And where’s my Excel killer?

Sad, Apple, At least give us some inkling about the status of iWork/iLife.

Like I said before — I’d start worrying if Apple delayed it more than once. (You know, like Microsoft always does…. )

Then why work on Leopard at all? Why not just say “Mac OS X is functionally complete, so from now on we’re just going to focus on app updates and bug fixes.”?

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Apple is two companies. One makes iPods. The other makes Macs.”

Wouldn’t the fact that they’re able and willing to move developers from one project to the other suggest that they’re *not* “two companies”?

A three month Leopard delay annoys a few people, and is a moderately undesirable PR move. A three month iPhone delay is an utter disaster. Do we really need to cook up conspiracy theories to explain why Apple chose the former?