The last post was about real stuff. Now, let's start speculating wildly about what is really going on.
Late Leopard. Some are already saying, now Apple can find out what Vista will have in it by letting Vista come out first. The only problems with that are (1) Vista may take a long time to come out - longer than Spring and (2) Apple can't wait until Spring before they develop whatever is going into Leopard that is supposed to be so cool and top secret.
Lame Leopard. It's not earthshaking is all I'm sayin'. It feels like a bunch of features slapped on top of the OS. Spotlight was supposed to be revolutionary with its meta-data. What's this, Spotlight 2? Now you can search the network. And you can get quick glances but are the problems like the ever-refreshing list of hits going to go away? Or get worse searching further away on distant boxes? Dashboard 2? And now you can program without really programming? Again. First Applescript. Then Automator and iWeb. Now we got Dashcode. And the big feature is easy backup?
Are Mac and Leopard Getting Enough Attention? I like some of it, but I'm not impressed. I'm wondering if Apple has taken its eye off the OS X ball. Remember how many of Apple's top technologists quit in Spring? What was that about? I wonder if it had to do with Apple's lack of aggressive commitment to the Mac and OS X. That would be a reason for someone like Avie Tevanian to leave. Or I could be all wrong and the top secret stuff could be awesome. I hope I'm wrong on this.
Mac Pro on Xeon for $2500. That's a high price and the Xeon is more of a server architecture. Quad Core. It's way up there. Doesn't that leave room underneath for a nice Mac Mini-tower for the rest of us who don't want another 17" or 20" monitor in an iMac? Also, positioning the Mac Pro as such a high-end Pro model is perfect to match up against the Audio/Video Segment and some scientists here and there. This feels like marginalizing. Going for the niche. It seems to be following the idea of taking a stand, doing what you are best at. Going extreme. Not being wishy, washy. Also, saving money perhaps by keeping the design the same on the outside. One thing Steve prides himself on is saying no to things. The height of the Mac Pro feels like it says no to a lot of other uses and users.
Maybe Steve Decided to Take it On the Chin Now. This options investigation is getting hot. Maybe Apple felt, putting too much out there right now would be a waste of goodies. Better to save some of the good stuff until the current storm blows over and you have people's attention back.
Was the Options Thing a Big Distraction? Let's see. The options thing started in June, officially. Could a few months of options scandals that could cause the loss of key executives (hopefully, hopefully not Steve) be enough distraction to screw up the WWDC deliverables?
Maybe WWDC isn't as important to Apple this Year? Maybe they thought they would still be knee deep in the struggle to get Universal apps out there, but realized that people are buying Intel Macs in droves. Almost all the apps that matter have gone Universal except for a few giant-sized apps like Photoshop and Microsoft Office which will go Universal no matter what at this point. I actually don't think I believe this, but I worry sometimes.
Think Positive Thoughts. All right. I'll try to stay cool. OS X rocks already. I'm greedy. The transition to the Intel Macs has been remarkably successful. The doubling of notebook sales since January is quite something. I want Apple to continue to blow me a way. I want that technology high I've gotten used to.