This is the same thing that has happened to countless companies before them. You are successful, so you launch now flanker brands and horizontal products, while you ignore the main products in your lineup.

Studies have shown that it can cost up to 7 times more to attain a new customer than to keep an existing customer (stat is from class. Need time to get the source).

As long as they don't pull a Chinese Democracy...

or a duke nukem forever.

Four months late vs. two years late....I'm not complaining much. (Although I do think that the iPhone is a retarded reason for dropping the ball on Leopard's development.)

Heh. Apple's released, what, three or is it four major revisions of OS X in the time it took Microsoft to come up with Vista, and a four month delay in the release of yet another major revision is supposed to bring embarassing comparisons? C'mon.

I would rather wait a few months and get a finished bug free product that works as it is meant to, not something released in a hurry that is full of bugs etc (*cough*microshaft*cough*)

This is just a sign that they care too much to put out a defective product. Not like Windows who consistently put out shitty products.

I for one am glad they care enough to make it perfect before they release it.

they have to get the top secret features worked out...
or something...

my macbook still runs great with Tiger, keep squashing bugs boys.

I can't tell you how many times I've had friends call me to put Windows XP or 2000 on their computers that have either been "upgraded" to Vista or shipped with Vista. I usually slap Linux on them, let them test drive it for a few days, and then call them back to see how they like it. If they don't like it, I put Windows 2000 or XP on it.

I don't care. I am still running Panther. I refuse to pay $129.00 for an incremental upgrade. This planned obsolesence is bullshit. Apple is great at sucking money out of the customers for crap that should have been included in the first place. Fuck them.

While I think the full price releases have been coming a little more frequently than my budget appreciates, it's worth noting that none of them constitute any less of an upgrade than, say, 2000 to XP and indeed from what I can tell they're actually a great deal more of one.

The Dashboard, for example, while not changing my world forever, has made it a much quicker process to handle any of quite a number of frequently accessed tasks. I can't remember what all went into previous releases, but I assure you each one made a significant impact on my daily computer use. At least one (the introduction of Quartz Extreme) would have made more of an impact if my machine weren't practically creaking with age.

As it is, I think I'm going to swear off Leopard entirely simply because the poor old thing can't take much more.

Yeeeaah..late is a pain, but quality over on-the-spot deliver? Better.

This is not the first time Apple has neglected its core customers. Anyone else remember the shortage of Mac towers back in '99 or so, when Apple retooled its assembly lines to keep up with demand for the then-new iMacs? I know more than a few graphic designers who had to switch to Windows just to get new machines. Some of them never went back.

Apple has always tried to hold on to 100% of its tiny little pie, rather than concentrating on what it does well and letting other people worry about the things they are better at. I thought that would change back in the CHRP days, when PowerComputing was putting out Mac clones that beat the pants off of Apple hardware at a fraction of the price. I hoped Apple would get the message and concentrate on the software, which is where they have always really excelled.

Nope.

Apple has made more than its share of poor business decisions. Oh well.

Apple can't survive on the money from their software. The hardware is what keeps them in business. The software is what they use to get you to shell out for the hardware.