First there was Cheetah, next is Tiger -- what then?


When Apple chose a genus for its operating systems, it had a limited number of major upgrades in mind.

Everyone who has designed a network or created a product upgrade roadmap knows choice of naming genus is important.

There must be a great enough range to allow for new nodes, and the class must be distinctive.

Advanced Micro Devices favors breeds of horses, possibly because they evoke a sense of speed and majesty -- Appaloosa, Thoroughbred, and Palomino. Intel names its prototypes after rivers -- Banias, Barton, Foster, Dothan, Northwood -- allegedly because retiring CEO Craig Barrett likes to fly-fish.

When Apple chose big cats as the genus for its operating system codenames, it knew it had an evocative list from which it could render names for its OS until at least the end of the decade. But it is obvious the company never thought the public would latch on to the convention or it would have trademarked the early codenames -- the IP lawyers were asleep at the wheel on that score. Major promotion of the codename only began with Jaguar in 2002.

The OS X revisions and codenames:
10.0 Cheetah - released Saturday, March 24, 2001
10.1 Puma - Tuesday, September 25, 2001
10.2 Jaguar - Saturday, August 24, 2002
10.3 Panther - Friday, October 24, 2003
10.4 Tiger - Friday, April 29, 2005 (trademark filed July 2, 2003)

After the Puma maintenance release to fix the manifold problems with 10.0, upgrade frequency slowed to 18 months between 10.3 and 10.4. This is a good time-frame for Apple -- it gives it enough time to bed a new system, getting independent software vendors on board, and regularly injects fresh revenues. And given that OS releases are largely a question of market timing, this is a manageable schedule.

In the order in which the trademarks were filed, and judging by the frequency of previous releases, that gives us a rough roadmap for future OS releases:

10.5 Lynx - Friday October 27, 2006 (trademark filed July 8, 2003)
10.6 Cougar - Friday April 25, 2008 (tm July 8, 2003)
10.7 Leopard - Friday, October 30, 2009 (tm August 10, 2004)

(Interestingly, Cougar, Puma and Panther are different regional names for the same species of North American mountain cat.)

That still leaves some major trademarks to be filed on Caracal, Kodkod, and the king of cats (likely reserved for 10.9) Lion, if Apple decides to take us through to 10.9, some time in 2012-2014 (allowing room for error). But I wouldn't rule out a Saber-Tooth release, if only for its connotations of raw, unyielding ferocity.

Posted: Mon - April 25, 2005 at 11:34 AM          

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