Appleis ambition in the consumer space combined with its limited resources may be causing the recent product delays, according to the Mercury News on Friday.
"The problem Apple is running into is that itis a relatively small company compared with tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM," said Van Baker, a Gartner analyst.
Apple, which has about 18,000 employees, is small compared to, say Hewlett-Packard with 156.000. And since Apple has expanded into the Apple TV and the iPhone, their engineering resources have been stretched thin.
The impact could have wider implications.
Analysts could start to lose faith in Appleis ability to deliver products on time. The back-to-school buying cycle could be affected. Worse, many of those customers who could have been enticed to move to Leopard instead of upgrading to Vista could slip away.
Richard Shim, an IDC analyst, referring to the Leopard delay and Appleis diversification, said, "Itis also a sign that theyill have to be more careful with spreading themselves too thin."
In recent years, investors have had little reasons to doubt Appleis success. The hugely successful migration to Intel is an example. Even so, the Apple TV and Leopard delays could become a concern to analysts and investors and put a damper on their iPhone expectations.