Why We'll See Leopard Before WWDC '07

Okay, there are a lot of people out in the blogosphere/podosphere who are speculating that we won't see Leopard before the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. They say that it would coincide well and that Apple can take advantage of all the hype surrounding WWDC to get good sales after the Steve leaves the stage announcing that "It's available today."

But I feel much differently than these pundits. My belief is that we will see Leopard released before that time. I'm not going to give a date because that is just plain stupid on the part of anyone that doesn't know. And I happen to not know. But I do know what Steve told us during his Keynote at WWDC last August. He said "Spring 2007." Today is March 24. Three days into Spring 2007. But the summer starts on June 21. I know, WWDC is on June 11. But think about it. WWDC is a place for developers to come and ask questions about the operating system and get help with software development problems from the people who created the operating system. Apple is going to want to, or should want to, give the developers a little more time with the finished product before they come to WWDC. Otherwise, if they get the new operating system while they are their, there'll be no reason for any of them to go to the help workshops. They won't have had a chance to play with the new release before the conference.

Anyway, that's my two-cents about the Leopard release time-frame. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Apple doesn't always hit launch dates. The Apple TV was delayed for whatever reason. And it's possible that they'll release the new OS after or at WWDC in June. But my gut, and my desire, tell me that we'll see 10.5 sooner rather than later.