On October 26, 2007, Friday, Apple Inc. will debut its Leopard operating system, which integrates a range of features that have both analysts and users going ga-ga over it. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs believes that the Leopard will bring about a schedule of product upgrades, which could continue for as long as a decade. As you all know, AAPL has put out major releases of its OS on the average of one per year. Leopard, which offers more than 300 new features, is the sixth major upgrade that Apple Inc. has made to the Mac OS X since the operating system was launched in 2001. Such product pacing has allowed it to outshine Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), which took five to seven years to debut Windows Vista after launching Windows XP. Despite the long wait, Vista still failed to excite customers both on the enterprise and personal computing levels. Even MSFT’s plans to release an update for its Vista in the first quarter of 2008 and to offer a service pack for Windows XP in the first half of the year didn’t help boost Vista’s popularity. And by 2010, the year that Microsoft is set to release its next OS, i.e., Windows 7, Apple would have already debut two novel versions of its OS. Thus, translating to more market share for the Mac against the dangerously declining share of the PC. It doesn’t take a genius to determine what this means in the long run.

From CrunchGear:

Direct interaction. Users can actually “grab” digital information with their hands, interacting with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.

Multi-touch. Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger like a typical touch-screen, but up to dozens of items at once.

Multi-user. The horizontal form factor makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.

Object recognition. Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content.

It looks like Microsoft has some fight left in it. A true second wind. Surface is one hell of an exciting development. I want one!

iPhone is right on track – passing several required certification tests and is expected to start shipping in late June as originally planned. The device is touted to have the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has come with a price. Engineering resources at AAPL have reportedly been diverted from Leopard to the mobile device, possibly indicating the firmness of Apple's belief that the market holds tremendous promise and business opportunities for the entity.