by , 8:00 AM EDT, May 19th, 2004
At a technology conference in San Francisco, Apple Chief Software Technology Officer Avie Tevanian said that Apple would slow the pace of major OS X releases. In coverage of the event from CNet, Mr. Tevanian is quoted as saying "We're slowing that (pace) down a little bit...because that's not a sustainable rate. But you'll still see us go really fast."
Apple has been releasing one major Mac OS X release per year since it was first released in the early part of 2001. The most recent version, Mac OS X 10.3, or Panther, was released in October of last year, while the next version, Tiger, will be unveiled during June's WWDC event.
CNet reports that Mr. Tevanian also discussed Apple's appeal to business:
During his talk, Tevanian said Apple has made great progress in making its products a good fit for businesses but said it will take time before they are seen that way.
"We've not been strong in that market in the recent past at all," he said. "We don't expect people to automatically just believe that this product is the best thing for them."
"Our goal right now is to just have people take a look," Tevanian said. "I think most people who take a look and have an open mind will be very pleasantly surprised."
There's more information in the full story, which we recommend as an interesting read.
We would love for Apple to return to its practice of releasing semi-important upgrades every 12-18 months, with paid major upgrades coming every 2-3 years. With Apple clearly seeing OS upgrades as a revenue stream, we don't expect that to happen, but even 18 months between these major upgrades would be better for the platform.
In the meanwhile, we welcome not only this news, but Apple's openness in discussing it.