Apple’s Leopard delay: general pre-schooler whining ensues
Reactionary pieces to Apple’s delay of Leopard are the “it” thing to do right now; I’d hate to not jump on that bandwagon while the opportunity is present. Simply put, although Apple’s fly-by-night delay of Leopard is saddening and shady, they are still far ahead of Vista’s release schedule; they just have some restitution to deliver.
Apple has the somewhat uncomfortable position of being on top of their game all the time. You see, when everything you do (iPod, OS X, iPhone) is touted as the latest and greatest, everyone is eager to pick at that polished image.
So, when Apple announced the delay of Leopard earlier this week, there were generally two reactions:
1. Apple fans were upset – I say upset, not outraged as referenced by my colleague James Cornelius over at TECH.BLORGE.com, because the general reaction was disapointment that Leopard was being pushed back, and it was reactionary to the fashion Apple chose to announce this. When we have a Vista-superior OS X Tiger running our day to day lives, it is really hard to complain about not having an awesome operating system.
Now, if we as Apple users were say, waiting for a replacement operating system to Windows ME, or perhaps the “revolutionary” Vista from the virus nest of XP, we might have room to be genuinely outraged.
Apple’s method of notification was really the only thing that was disturbing about the delay of Leopard; though many people feel that Leopard shouldn’t be delayed in light of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone release, most realize that as much as we value Leopard, the broad public will be more drawn to the iPhone. That being said, Apple has to put more eggs in that basket…many dejected Apple fans have realized this.
If Apple had held a full-scale press conference, or even if Steve Jobs had released some small interview in which he notified the community to Leopard’s delay, the collateral damage would have been lessened. You see, members of the Apple community are used to feeling connected to the corporate side of Apple in Steve Jobs; unlike Microsoft users who mull around, surfing the internet for Microsoft news, Apple users are used to being treated like real people, who are valuable to Apple.
A slightly more personal response wouldn’t have left the nasty taste in Apple users’ collective mouths.
2. The second reaction was the scavenger animal-like group of Apple haters. Although Apple is still vastly ahead of Vista’s entire design and implementation life, any delay is like candy to the vultures.
Admittedly, Apple users have been forced to insert their collective “foots” into their mouths; after all the poking and prodding we did to Vista enthusiasts when delays reoccured, we deserve a little back.
However, Leopard is still promised to be a revolutionary OS, far superior to any on the market currenty (excluding perhaps Tiger) with the first strong implementation of 64 bit processor technology. Furthermore, this is the first negative announcement regarding the Apple’s new OS…hiccups and delays are to be expected in the consumer market, and Apple is still far ahead of the competition.
OK. Now onto the meat and potatoes: how is Apple going to rectify this situation? Though they truly don’t have anything really to apologize for, perhaps besides a shady announcement, they need to bring their image back up to their previous 125%.
How can they do that, you might ask?
1. Release Leopard at a discounted rate to Tiger users. This would be a fairly simple appeasement plan, but those tend to be affective.
2. Release Leopard with a free iWork package.
3. Release Leopard at a discounted rate with a free iWork package; don’t count on seeing this one, but we can dream.
4. Release Leopard as originally discussed sometime in June. Who’s to say it couldn’t happen?
Well Apple, there you have it; make us love you like we once knew (which was really only say 4 days ago). Honestly though, we’re really not that upset, but we’re used to being treated like kings and queens…degradation to prince or princess levels makes us scared and confused.
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April 15th, 2007
[...] Full article here: Source [...]
April 15th, 2007
It should be noted that Vista was delayed for years, and when it came out it still wasn’t as solid as OSX 10.2.
April 15th, 2007
And let us not forget that in order for Microsoft to finally deliver Vista years late, they had to jettison virtually every new or interesting feature they ever announced for it.
As far as all the iTantrums being thrown by by more juvenile Mac users, these people appear to be too busy emitting high-pitched squeals to notice that the iPhone also runs OS X and that all OS X users will almost certainly benefit in the long run from the work made possible by the slight delay in delivery of Leopard.
And for all the “analysts” and self-ordained tech experts in the media, be careful who you diss. Schadenfreude’s a bitch when the wind changes and blows it back in your face!
April 15th, 2007
great commentary; I think the best thing to take away from this is that as Tiger (or even Panther) users, we have life better than every other computer user in the world currently; it can only go up from here. Lets keep that high-pitched whining to a minimum.
April 16th, 2007
[...] This is going to hurt Mac sales for a few months as people are just going to hold off until Leopard is released. My friend Triston pointed out a few things Apple could do to alleviate those concerns but there is one thing I would like to add to it. Institute an Express Upgrade program like Microsoft did only without all the problems. [...]