The Cupertino, California-based company had planned to release Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in June. Now, only a beta version of Leopard will be available in early June at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Rumors of a Leopard delay have been circulating since at least last month.

Apple's highly anticipated iPhone still is on track for release in late June, the company said, projecting sales at 10 million units next year.

While Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's features will be complete by the Developers Conference, Apple said in a statement, "we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us." Apple now plans to show its developers a near-final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October.

"Life often presents tradeoffs," the statement concluded philosophically, "and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."

Apple Bets on Consumer Products

Samir Bhavnani, research director at technology research firm Current Analysis, pointed out that Microsoft delayed its new OS, Vista, and now Apple is following suit. Apple is showing that it is placing a bigger bet on its consumer products than on its computer side, he said.

Ironically, Apple had publicly tweaked Microsoft when delays to Windows Vista were announced. Vista was finally released for consumers in January after five years of development.

"The delay could hurt [Apple] a bit," Bhavnani noted, "because they'll be missing the back-to-school sales. But what technology company hits a deadline these days?" The key to this delay, he added, "is that it doesn't indicate a problem with the overall company."

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and iPhone

Apple is promising several new features in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It will contain Time Machine, an automated system that regularly backs everything up, allowing users to look for earlier file versions as well as worrying less than they already do about backing up. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard also will offer enhanced multimedia and sharing functionalities through iChat, additional ways to organize different projects or groups of files, enhancements to Spotlight searching, and other features.

Mac OS X 10.5 also will integrate Boot Camp, which allows Windows XP or Windows Vista to run on Intel -based Macs. The Boot Camp software burns a CD with all the needed drivers so Windows can run natively on the hardware.

In January, Apple announced the iPhone, which integrates iPod media-player functionality with smartphone capabilities. "iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device," Apple proclaimed. The device has attracted huge attention, and has already, even before its release, sent waves through the mobile phone industry, spawning several look-alike products.