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Apple blames iPhone development for Mac OS delay

Sceptics have been saying that the Apple phone version of the iPod was likely to be late, and rumours have been rife that it was not even licensed as a GSM device.

Apple now says the eagerly awaited iPhone is "on schedule to ship in late June as planned after passing several of its required certification tests," thus countering the gossip.

But a Reuters report quotes an executive saying that  delivering the phone on time contributed to the delay of the next version of its OS X operating system, code-named Leopard, until October because the company said it had to divert resources to the iPhone.

The new operating system for Mac computers, Leopard,  will be "feature-complete in early June" - ahead of its worldwide developers conference, said the Reuters story -  but the company stated that the product would not be ready for release. Instead, Apple said it plans to give developers a test copy and ship Leopard in October.