Softpedia has reason to believe Apple is very close to releasing Mac OS X 10.6.3 to the public (in under 12 hours). The most recent builds seeded to developers stand as evidence that development has followed a straight line, with few impediments. To their knowledge, developers see no issues in the focus areas they’ve been assigned, putting the 700+MB update on track for release by the end of the day. Mac OS X version 10.6.3 will be the third incremental update to Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, delivering maintenance and security fixes.

Earlier this week, Softpedia reported that people familiar with Apple’s Snow Leopard development cycles were telling AppleInsider that a comparison between the latest two beta builds showed very few differences, in what is a clear indication that development was wrapping up. January’s Mac OS X 10.6.3 build 10D538 listed just one known issue – “viewing shared photo albums in Front Row may cause Front Row to crash.” Build 10D548, seeded to developers as February kicked off, had no known issues, and altogether listed very few changes compared with its predecessor.

In a followup report, AppleInsider revealed that “Apple on Friday evening equipped developers with yet another build of its upcoming maintenance and security update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,” noting that the build in question “includes few changes from an earlier build distributed two weeks ago,” citing people familiar with the matter. Those people reportedly indicated that Apple had narrowed down the focus areas to iCal and printing, AirPort, QuickTime and graphics drivers.

Also on Monday, Softpedia noted that, in January, beta testers reportedly said that the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.3 was roughly three weeks away. Depending on the accuracy of these claims, our software updaters may show the incremental update in a few hours, or a day at most.

Update: although there was a strong indication Apple was very close to releasing Mac OS X 10.6.3 on Monday, developers appear to be working on the latest build still. Without a doubt, the incremental update is close to its final form, although it's hard to predict exactly when it is being released. Softpedia merely provided a prognosis, based on the latest developments.