Steve Jobs Emails Again: OS X Is Not On Backburner

Steve Jobs’ busy fingers might be needing a rest right now. He has just responded to concerns that Mac OS X in on the backburner to the iPhone OS, which will get a major 4.0 upgrade later this year.

Mac fans were worried about the fate of OS X after Daring Fireball’s John Gruber said there will likely be no OS X 10.7 update at WWDC this summer. Wrote Gruber:

“It’s my educated guess that there will be no 10.7 news at WWDC this year, and probably none until WWDC 2011. Apple’s company-wide focus has since been focused intensely on one thing: iPhone OS 4.1 The number one priority at Apple is to grow mobile market share faster than Android. Anything that is not directly competitive with Android is on the back burner.”

Worried that Apple is neglecting the Mac, a reader of 9to5Mac sent Jobs the following email:

I was wondering, is it true that the iPhone 4 is cutting into OSX development causing a delay, as a big Mac user, this is of huge concern to me. I just hope your balancing development and working as much as you can. Is OSX development still a huge priority? I have a worry that Apple is branching away from computers and not updating their computer customers as much.

Jobs reply:

No. Not to worry.

So there you have it. I guess everything is OK with OS X. Steve isn’t abandoning the Mac platfrom just yet. Of course, we’llsee what happens at WWDC in June.

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About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, OS X, Steve Jobs |

http://trimtab.ca dibs
I notice that the majority of Steve’s replies (from the ones I’ve seen) tend to be negative. The next question is whether the people asking the questions are to blame, or Jobs?
Al
Apple is a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of talented employees. I’m sure they are up to the challenge.
cv
@dibs:
It’s the people asking the questions. If they were asking questions like “are you still committed to the Mac business?” or “are you discontinuing support for the original iPhone?” or “did you purposely choose to use the Core 2 Duo processor in the 13″ MacBook Pro as the best price-performance solution?” then the answers would all be yes.
Steve Jobs can’t control what questions people ask. He’s just telling it like it is, not artificially manufacturing an answer that’s negative.
Jamie B
He said not to worry about the MacBook Pro’s, and well…
s4ndm4n
I think El Jobso has done a pretty smashing job considering they are constantly releasing multiple items and updates (device and OS). Within the past year they’ve already released iPhone 3GS, Snow Leopard, iPad, New MBPs, announced iPhone OS 4.0 and there is still quite a bit coming up and that I haven’t even mentioned. I think the Captain of Cupertino is fairing nicely considering all the irons he has in the fire. Not to mention that he at least takes the time to respond to people, whether it be 2 words or 2 sentences.
charli
1. Who from Apple ever said we were hearing anything about 10.7 at WWDC this year
2. what’s been the track record from a release, to first info about the next one, to new release
3. who says the same team of folks is working on the iphone OS as the mac one.
sp
Look, here’s the deal: Eric (a$$hole) S. is trying to pull a fast one like Bill (a$$hole) G. I think Steve needs to put 110% into firming up ground with Android. I hope this isnt pirates of silicon valley pt II, but it’s starting to look like it. It would be very wise of Apple to cut the head off the snake as quickly as possible. That’s not possible completely, but may be able to stem the android wave that IS coming. Poor Steve…getting burned twice. Pisses me off to no end. He’s the innovater and then some a$$hat steals and rides the coattails.
Joseph
Macs and the desktop OS are still at the center of Apple’s success. Nobody who understands Apple’s business model can question Apple’s commitment to them, or would think that OS X could be put “on the backburner”. Not sure what information Gruber had, but his choice of words was poor.
king
People must be stupid some how
Leopard is only 2 years old with constant improvements
Snow Leopard is only 6 months old, how is it on the backburner?
I would say its moving too fast
Allan
> Steve Jobs canâ€™t control what questions people ask
Steve Jobs is controlling what questions he’s answering. By saying things in a negative context, he’s minimizing your expectations.
ghostshadow
I just don’t get why people ask moronic questions like this. Snow Leopard is what, 8 months old? They just came out with the 10.6.3 update. How the hell does that mean they are abandoning it? I mean seriously… I think it’s stupid to wonder if they have put OS X on the back burner when they are coming out with updates 1 week prior to their stupid questions.
http://twitter.com/captaink99 Suresh
actually, you need to RE-READ Steve Jobs response to the question.
the Question said:
1. Is OSX development still a huge priority?
2. I have a worry that Apple is branching away from computers and not updating their computer customers as much.
Steves Reply said:
1. No.
2. Not to worry.
That means his response to is OS X developer a huge priority. The answer is No!
Greg
I’m quite confident there’s going to be no meaningful news of 10.7 this summer either. That’s not because Apple’s de-emphasizing Mac OS X but simply because 10.6 is only about 8 months old. Any talk about 10.7 – which their engineers have already been wokring on for quite a while – will be very vague and forward-looking. Nothing major and concrete, and no major OS release in 2010.
http://macosnext.com Justin
It’s important to know that Mac development will continue. Lots of users rely on OSX for their industry.
Sharath
@Suresh
The second one is not a question, its a concern. Steve’s reply clearly means “Don’t Worry” and you are interpretation is wrong. And Mac OS X development is on. Any person with a little knowledge of Mac OS X releases and updates will know that things are pretty normal. And if anyone says he/she doesn’t know about the statistics then they better not question or try to suspect.
http://cubistcode.com Lee
Things are pretty normal wrt OSX development. People are just too used to the phone world which moves much quicker and it makes the more mature desktop OS market look sluggish in comparision.