When is Apple going to announce a release date for 10.5 (aka "Leopard"), the next version of its operating system? Speaking last year, Steve Jobs said vaguely that "We think we're going to get it out next spring" (which could mean the Australian spring..).
But yesterday Apple released the last - well, it would make sense for it to be the last - update to its current OS version, with the release of 10.4.9 (10.4 is the branch of the operating system; the .9 is the point update, so this is the tenth iteration of 10.4).
There's an air of finality to x.9 releases in the Apple world; for the past two versions of OS X, that release has meant that a formal announcement (or even launch) is imminent. So:
2003
October 3: 10.2.8 released
October 8: release date for 10.3 ("Panther") announced
October 23: 10.3 ("Panther") in the shops
10.3 then chugged along, reaching 10.3.8...
2005
April 12: release date for 10.4 ("Tiger") announced
April 15: 10.3.9 released
April 29: 10.4 in the shops
And now 10.4 has chugged along..
2007
March 13: 10.4.9 released
The question is, where's Leopard? Where's the announcement? Of course, there's a difference now from those other releases: Microsoft is pushing Vista. But with Apple's advertising starting to ramp up generally, one gets the feeling of something around the corner.
Given that in the past the .9 release and the annoucnement of the next version have followed pretty closely, it seems reasonable to expect something - not the product, but the launch date - before the end of this month. That gives us a fortnight to be wrong. Anyone want to start a sweepstake on the precise day of the announcement - and of the release?
