Posted by
Hemos
on from the moving-along-at-a-respectable-pace dept.
Warlock7 writes "CNET has an article that discusses the 'early' release of Mac OS X 10.2, codename Jaguar. The article says that Jaguar should be ready for release in August, more than a month earlier than the analysts expected."
Analysis Paralysis
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
From the article...
"But IDC analyst Roger Kay was unenthusiastic about the Jaguar release, contending that Apple's OS updates come too frequently. The company launched Mac OS X 10.0 in March 2001, followed by version 10.1 in September.
"OS X 10.1 didn't get its full shot at maturity before the release of the new system," Kay said. "From a tactical point of view, they're truncating one revenue stream to bring on another one. They didn't even fully extract the revenue from the first product."
What absolute rubbish! This is why I despise analysts and MBAs with no revenue responsibility. This person would delay 10.2 because it would cannibalize 10.1 sales?
OSX 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2 are not different products each with unique life cycles. It's all THE Apple OS, their unique competitive differentiator in the market place.
Well done Apple. The only way to survive is to put your best effort in front of the customer all the time.
"Officially" 10.2?
by
Soulfader
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The new version, code-named Jaguar and officially known as Mac OS X 10.2, is now expected to ship in early August...
A quick perusal of Apple's Jaguar site fails to unearth an official designation of any kind. Same for the news headlines section.
I could have missed it, of course, but it sure doesn't look like there's an official version number determined; witness the "OSXI" jokes posted above.
It's a small thing, but it undermines the article's credibility just a wee bit.
XServe - this was in effect part of WWDC, not during it, but the events were definitely linked. This is the only of the mentioned products that would really be considered a major launch and was specifically targeted to be launched at a non-consumer level event. eMac - Launch as a consumer machine was not in line with any of the larger events, launch as an education machine for that sector is again not something that would be considered a Keynote event. iPod - Was launched at MacExpo 2001, a UK event, good enough for a product launch, but obviously not good enough for Steve himself;) iBook - the redisigne was merely a product tweak, the same happened with the TiPb. Although many people including myself saw these revisions I cannot see a major PR event being based around Steve saying "Hey, there's a slightly faster processor and better GPU". Okay, so I'm being a bit nit-picky and am second-guessing Apple's thoughts and moves to a degree, but I don't believe Apple saw the above things as good PR opportunities and certainly not as Keynote material. On the other hand they do see Jaguar as this and have already made this view clear. Purely the fact that they were talking about it and publicly calling it by it's development name shows the hype they are creating, they'll want to release it with a bang. The sooner Apple get a better version of OS X out the door the better, but I believe a few more weeks of tweaking along with the chance for Steve to run around on stage at an event the world (at least the Mac world) will be focused on is something that Apple will not miss.
Re:nickels and dimes
by
mikeloader
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
"Well holy fuck, Roger. Apple actually gives a shit..."
Roger's unenthusiasm for the Jaguar schedule means only that he thinks the majority of customers who have upgraded to OS X have done so too recently to want to pay for another upgrade so soon, not that he thinks Apple should delay the release of Jaguar. From a financial point of view, he's correct. Since 10.1 was the first mainstream 10.x release and therefore when normal people started upgrading, it is too soon to charge for an upgrade given the time between 10.1 and Jaguar.
On the other hand, Roger is one cold-hearted analyst.
I hope Apple gives Jaguar free to a lot of recent upgraders and only charges those of us who've been using 10.x for a while.
Slashdot Mirror
From the article...
"But IDC analyst Roger Kay was unenthusiastic about the Jaguar release, contending that Apple's OS updates come too frequently. The company launched Mac OS X 10.0 in March 2001, followed by version 10.1 in September.
"OS X 10.1 didn't get its full shot at maturity before the release of the new system," Kay said. "From a tactical point of view, they're truncating one revenue stream to bring on another one. They didn't even fully extract the revenue from the first product."
What absolute rubbish! This is why I despise analysts and MBAs with no revenue responsibility. This person would delay 10.2 because it would cannibalize 10.1 sales?
OSX 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2 are not different products each with unique life cycles. It's all THE Apple OS, their unique competitive differentiator in the market place.
Well done Apple. The only way to survive is to put your best effort in front of the customer all the time.
I could have missed it, of course, but it sure doesn't look like there's an official version number determined; witness the "OSXI" jokes posted above.
It's a small thing, but it undermines the article's credibility just a wee bit.
XServe - this was in effect part of WWDC, not during it, but the events were definitely linked. This is the only of the mentioned products that would really be considered a major launch and was specifically targeted to be launched at a non-consumer level event. ;)
eMac - Launch as a consumer machine was not in line with any of the larger events, launch as an education machine for that sector is again not something that would be considered a Keynote event.
iPod - Was launched at MacExpo 2001, a UK event, good enough for a product launch, but obviously not good enough for Steve himself
iBook - the redisigne was merely a product tweak, the same happened with the TiPb. Although many people including myself saw these revisions I cannot see a major PR event being based around Steve saying "Hey, there's a slightly faster processor and better GPU".
Okay, so I'm being a bit nit-picky and am second-guessing Apple's thoughts and moves to a degree, but I don't believe Apple saw the above things as good PR opportunities and certainly not as Keynote material. On the other hand they do see Jaguar as this and have already made this view clear. Purely the fact that they were talking about it and publicly calling it by it's development name shows the hype they are creating, they'll want to release it with a bang. The sooner Apple get a better version of OS X out the door the better, but I believe a few more weeks of tweaking along with the chance for Steve to run around on stage at an event the world (at least the Mac world) will be focused on is something that Apple will not miss.
Roger's unenthusiasm for the Jaguar schedule means only that he thinks the majority of customers who have upgraded to OS X have done so too recently to want to pay for another upgrade so soon, not that he thinks Apple should delay the release of Jaguar. From a financial point of view, he's correct. Since 10.1 was the first mainstream 10.x release and therefore when normal people started upgrading, it is too soon to charge for an upgrade given the time between 10.1 and Jaguar.
On the other hand, Roger is one cold-hearted analyst.
I hope Apple gives Jaguar free to a lot of recent upgraders and only charges those of us who've been using 10.x for a while.