Apple's Focus on iPhone OS 4 Diverting Resources From Mac OS X 10.7?
A few months ago, I heard suggestions that Apple had tentative plans to release a developer beta of Mac OS X 10.7 at WWDC this June. That is no longer the case. Mac OS X 10.7 development continues, but with a reduced team and an unknown schedule. It's my educated guess that there will be no 10.7 news at WWDC this year, and probably none until WWDC 2011.
Evidence of Apple's work on Mac OS X 10.7 surfaced last November. By January when Gruber reported that he was hearing of a possible developer release for Mac OS X 10.7 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2010, usage of the next-generation operating system already seemed to be on the rise within Apple's campus.The time between major Mac OS X releases has been increasing as the operating system matures, with a nearly 30-month gap between Tiger and Leopard being followed by a 22-month wait for Snow Leopard, which Apple positioned primarily as a refinement of Leopard. With Mac OS X Snow Leopard having been released less than eight months ago, it would not be surprising to see Mac OS X 10.7 not make its public debut until late 2011 or beyond, even without iPhone OS 4 putting pressure on development.
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24 months ago
meh id rather have iphone OS 4, this isn't really that big of a deal, unless 10.7 had like mind reading capabilities .... otherwise im pretty sure i can wait till 2011
24 months ago
I guess they need more people.But I'd rather they grow carefully and deliberately and do it right,even if I have to wait a few extra months.
24 months ago
Cue the moaners that want to claim Apple is no longer a computer company.
As MacRumors notes, a May 2011 timeframe would be fairly typical. Nothing unusual here, and Snow Leopard is a great OS.
As MacRumors notes, a May 2011 timeframe would be fairly typical. Nothing unusual here, and Snow Leopard is a great OS.
24 months ago
Keep making Snow Leopard more and more stable and I'll be fine with a delay to 10.7.
24 months ago
Looks like they are rushing to finish up OS4. Maybe a new feature or two that has yet to be announced.
24 months ago
If the OS isn't released to developers until mid 2011, it's possible that Apple releases it at the same time - I wouldn't put it past Apple to do that to developers.
At the same time, if Apple delays it too much, it will allow Microsoft to get Windows 8 out of the door before Apple can get 10.7 out, potentially letting MS once again out-shine* Apple in their OS release.
*I simply mean that the work that MS did to Windows far more noticeable than any work that Apple did to Snow Leopard - This is not a comparison of OS's, but a comparison of which matured as compared to their respective prior release.
/Flamesuit
At the same time, if Apple delays it too much, it will allow Microsoft to get Windows 8 out of the door before Apple can get 10.7 out, potentially letting MS once again out-shine* Apple in their OS release.
*I simply mean that the work that MS did to Windows far more noticeable than any work that Apple did to Snow Leopard - This is not a comparison of OS's, but a comparison of which matured as compared to their respective prior release.
/Flamesuit
24 months ago
I figured this might happen. Knowing what I know about Apple's development teams, they are incredibly flexible, and individual members can be switched from one product to another as needs arise. Also, there were, prior to the iPhone introduction, 3 development teams: One handling fixes to the current generation of Mac OS, one developing the next Mac OS, and one handling all the other things that run on Mac OS that Apple sells (Final Cut, iTunes, etc. - since all these products rarely get updated all at once, one team handles them all). With the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, 6 new teams were introduced: 2 per device. These 6 teams collaborate frequently to make sure a baseline feature set is maintained for each device-specific OS release.
Anyway, that said... Apple obviously wishes to focus on iPhone OS 4, and since their 9-team system is so flexible they can take developers away from other teams to help the iPhone teams out.
Anyway, that said... Apple obviously wishes to focus on iPhone OS 4, and since their 9-team system is so flexible they can take developers away from other teams to help the iPhone teams out.
24 months ago
Right now, making Snow Leopard more stable and faster is more important than adding new user-level features. I hope, though, that once OS 4 is released they will shift resources back to OS X.
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