Did Apple unveil OS X 10.8 last week to preempt Windows 8?

The timing may be suspicious, but the OS looks more to Google than to Microsoft

"Apple Speeds Mac 'Mountain Lion' to Take On Windows 8" Bloomberg Businessweek

"Steve Jobs is gone, Windows 8 is coming and Apple panics" betanews

As predicted, the tech press spent much of the rest of the week trying to make sense of last Tuesday's news that the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, is due out before the end of summer.

Most of the speculation had to do with the way Apple (AAPL) handled the announcement, privileging some reporters with previews and not others. (Why MG Siegler, who doesn't usually write reviews? Why not Andy Ihnatko, who does?)

Many wrote it off as Apple's way of keeping the press firmly under its thumb. "Access isn't an entitlement," Ihnatko tweeted philosophically. "I've gotten things early, I've not gotten things early. I can only do my job, day to day."

Some, as the headlines quoted above suggest, smelled something even more Machiavellian in the annoucement -- the first time in memory that the press got to test a Mac OS before Apple the Mac development community could. According to betanews' Robert Johnson:

"Apple more typically announces a new OS version months before it's made available to anyone, typically during their Worldwide Developer Conference. But with 10.8 things are different. The timing allowed Apple to preempt the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which Microsoft announced in January would be the end of this month."

Was Mountain Lion announced prematurely to take the wind out of Microsoft's (MSFT) sails?

Click to enlarge. Data: Wikipedia. Chart: PED

The timing is curious. Even if Mountain Lion's release doesn't happen until the last day of summer, developers will have less time to prepare for it than for any OS X since Panther in 2003. (See chart.)

But as John Gruber and John Siracusa pointed out in Friday's The Talk Show podcast, the new features being added to OS X -- messaging, notifications, app synching, etc. -- are all about integrating the Mac more tightly with iCloud.

Google (GOOG) is the master of cloud-based computing, not Microsoft. So if Apple had any competitor in its sights with last week's Mountain Lion announcement, it's Google.

Posted in: Andy Ihnatko, Apple, Bloomberg Businessweek, Google, iCloud, Mac, Microsoft, Mountain Lion, OS X, PCs, Windows 8

• Apple gives the Gray Lady the cold shoulder

  A lesson in access journalism in the wake of the New York Times' Foxconn series

  "An Apple spokesman said no executives were available to comment."

  That sentence, appearing 12 paragraphs into a 14-graph story by Brian X. Chen in Thursday's New York Times, speaks volumes about how Apple (AAPL) deals with press coverage it doesn't like.

  For more than a week, the company had been seeding selected media outlets with early access to its next MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 17, 2012 7:18 AM ET
  Posted in: Access journalism, Apple, Daring Fireball, Foxconn, Macs, Mountain Lion, New York Times, OS X, PCs, Phil Schiller, Tim Cook, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post

• Apple public relations' new media pecking order

  How the news of the Mac's next operating system -- Mountain Lion -- got disseminated

  The top tech news story Thursday, apparently, has nothing to do with working conditions in China, or who owns the iPad brand, or even the fact that Motorola (MMI) may have to remove "slide to unlock" from its smartphones.

  No, the top 135 stories on Techmeme this afternoon are all about the next version of Apple's (AAPL) MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 16, 2012 3:50 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, David Pogue, Jessica Vascellaro, John Gruber, Mac, Macworld, MG Siegler, Mountain Lion, New York Times, Niley Patel, OS X, PCs, Phil Schiller, TechCrunch, Tim Cook, Wall Street Journal

• Mac's share of Web traffic hits 13.7% in U.S., 6.45% worldwide

  Net Applications shows a 25% increase in Apple's global desktop share in fiscal 2011

  "Mac gets back-to-school bump" is the headline of a brief report Saturday in Net Applications' September survey. It notes that Apple's (AAPL) share of desktop usage, as measured by visits to its clients' websites from machines running OS X, rose 0.42 percentage points in September to a record (for Apple) of 6.45% worldwide and 13.7% in the MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 1, 2011 8:16 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Net Applications, OS X, PCs

• Apple puts Steve Jobs' iCloud unveiling online

  The two-hour video is available here. It gives you a far better view of Monday's proceedings than was afforded most of the people -- including yours truly -- who were there. If Apple (AAPL) had provided it as a live webcast, it would have saved me a lot of typing.

  Apple PR has also issued three press releases that cover the days' main developments.

  Apple Introduces iCloud
  New Version of iOS Includes Notification MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 6, 2011 8:56 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, iCloud, iOS, iPhone, iTunes, Lion, Mac, MobileMe, Moscone Center, Moscone West, OS X, Steve Jobs, Twitter

• A peek inside Apple Store 2.0

  Screen grabs from the staff's new iPads suggest it will matter more to them than to us

  "Everything feels a bit different," reads an entry in the Daily Download, the new internal publication for Apple (AAPL) retail employees that fell into the hands of 9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub Thursday night. "Switching to RetailMe on iPad is like switching from a PC to a Mac."

  But from the topics covered in Issue No. 1, MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2011 7:21 AM ET
  Posted in: 9to5Mac, Apple, Apple Store, iPad, Mac OS X Lion, OS X, PCs, Retail, Steve Jobs, Tablets

• Live (sort of) blog: Back to the Mac

  We'll be watching Apple's live video stream from the comfort of our home. You can join us.

  If you want live blogging from reporters who actually traveled to Apple's (AAPL) Cupertino campus for today's event, there are plenty of sites to choose from, including Macrumors, MacDailyNews, TUAW, All Things Digital, Engadget, Gizmodo and ArsTechnica.

  We're content to watch it from home. You're welcome to watch it with us. Click here. If you MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 20, 2010 12:44 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Lion, MacBook Air, Macintosh, OS X

• Live video: Back to the Mac

  UPDATE: Join us here for our live commentary.

  From Apple (AAPL) PR:

  Apple® will broadcast its October 20 event online using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 20, MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 20, 2010 9:42 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Mac, MacBook Air, OS X, Steve Jobs

• Techmate: Google vs. Apple = open vs. closed

  In this episode of Techmate, Jon and Michael compare Apple's (AAPL) closed-system strategy to Google's (GOOG) more open approach.

  Mason Cohn, Producer - Mar 31, 2010 1:04 PM ET
  Posted in: AAPL, Android, Android Market, App Store, Apple, apps, Chrome, Chrome OS, GOOG, Google, Google Android, Google Chrome OS, Google phone, iPad, iPhone, Jon Fortt, Leopard, Michael Copeland, open source, Open vs. Closed, OS X, Snow Leopard, Steve Jobs

• Apple wins clone suit

  A federal judge rules in Apple's favor in the Psystar copyright infringement case

  Nearly a year and a half after a Miami company called Psystar announced that it was selling "Open Computers" pre-installed with Apple's (AAPL) Mac OS X Leopard -- and 17 months after Apple sued Psystar for copyright infringement -- the case has come to its all-but-foregone conclusion: a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday in Apple's favor.

  "The MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 14, 2009 3:32 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Clone, Copyright, OS X, Psystar