Iljitsch van Beijnum, an avid fan of Apple products, wrote an opinion piece for Infinite Loop journal on Ars Technica which delved into why the next major OS X release's delay shouldn't be taken so lightly. Just last week, the official word on OS X 10.5, codenamed "Leopard," was to be delayed all the way until October 2007.

 

Despite Apple's consistent drive for a "spring release," Leopard won't make an appearance until fall of 2007. This proves that the speculation of the Mac OS revelation at the 2007 WWDC does signify that it's already in its polishing stages.

But Beijnum's concern isn't about its delay - he is far more concerned about the detrimental effects of the delay could do in relation to what Leopard could offer and what the current marketing strategy that accompanies the product. For the most part, the OS - as he says - comes with a feature set much needed by the Mac user community. iLife and iWork are claimed to be coming in Leopard-only versions.

Apple used to be the secretive product shipper: always being able to keep everything safely tucked in their closet until the big release date. This has always allowed Apple to slap giants like Sony and Microsoft with their new product releases. That character has been struggling to retain itself recently, with information leaks left and right before a product could even be put to production.

Unfortunately, the Mac community isn't such a forgiving crowd. There are those that don't even see a need for Leopard, and could care less about the release delays for 10.5. Tiger, according to them, is a safer bet to stay with instead of having to stave off months from purchasing a new Macbook.

It is possible that Leopard could be a disappointment to many once it releases, due to lack of HD support and hardware resolution independent support. Who, after all, is to say otherwise? Demonstrations are only slated for WWDC attendee eyes and most screenshots have either been debunked or unsatisfactorily rumored to many OS X users. So is the delay of Leopard really much of a big deal? Feel free to discuss.