Eight months after Microsoft released Windows Vista to manufacturing, Apple is still struggling to wrap up Mac OS X 1.0.5 Leopard. The Cupertino-based company has promised that a feature complete Leopard will be the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2007 in San Francisco. "The Leopard Beta. Available first at WWDC. At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, we're planning to show you a feature-complete version of Mac OS X Leopard, and you can take home a beta copy," reads an announcement on the WWDC website.

However, Apple could speculate the fact that Leopard won't be launched until October 2007 to their advantage. Sure Windows Vista beats Mac OS X 10.5 to the market with little competition. But this situation could as well backfire. The reason for this is simple. While Windows Vista will enjoy a generous market window without any real competition or alternative, Leopard's late release will be made to the usual Apple tune, advancing the world's most advanced operating system.

The gap between Windows Vista RTM-ed in November 2006 and available to Microsoft's Software Assurance customers via volume licensing the very same month, and then to the general public at the end of January 2007 and Leopard, available on October will create the perception that Vista is old news and outdated altogether, and that Leopard is the upgrade to go for. Vista has faired pretty well with over 40 million sold licenses after the first 200 days of availability, while Apple's Tiger has slowed down, but add Leopard to the equation and the general perspective will shift.

By the time Leopard will hit, the iPhone's initial momentum would be over, and Windows Vista would be at approximately one year of saturating the market, courtesy of Microsoft's $500 million Wow marketing campaign. Leopard might just seem a breath of fresh air. And it will be a fresh 64-bit operating system featuring Core Animation, Spaces and Time Machine.