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SAN FRANCISCO -- The clock is ticking for Apple, which promised to update its Mac OS X operating system this month, and is now expected to meet that deadline with a release Tuesday at the Seybold Conference and Expo here.

Announcement of the tune-up will be the focus of Apple's keynote presentation, according to two sources who ask for anonymity and who are familiar with Apple's plans. Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of product marketing, is scheduled to address the conference joined via satellite by Apple's Chief Executive Steve Jobs.

Apple representatives say only that the company has not veered from its plans to release Mac OS X Version 10.1 in September.

"We haven't changed anything that we announced earlier," says Natalie Sequeira, an Apple spokesperson.

Improvements Noted

"That's sounds like a perfectly logical venue to make the announcement," says Michael Silver, an operating systems analyst with Gartner.

Moreover, Adobe, one of Apple's leading software vendor partners, also says it plans to make a product announcement Monday related to Mac OS X 10.1. Apple would not comment on the event.

No matter when it is released, the software will likely be welcomed by the market, say users and analysts. Roger Kay, an IDC analyst, recently previewed the latest point release of the new operating system running on Apple's newly released dual-processor Power Mac G4. He says Apple has fixed several glaring bugs that have kept many users from adopting early versions of the software, which include Mac OS X Version 10 and Version 10.04.

Version 10.1 is more stable, integrates more deeply with Windows (including Windows networking and file sharing) and has improved graphics performance, Kay says. He and other analysts say the Mac OS is now ready for broad adoption.

"It's a real improvement over 10.0," Kay says.

The operating system also features CD burning capabilities built into the Finder toolbar and DVD playback, two features users missed in earlier OS X releases, according to information on Apple's Web site.

Sales Hold Up

In addition to enhancing features, Mac OS X 10.1 is pegged to improve Apple's hardware sales as the greater PC market suffers, analysts say.

"Apple has really pushed to get their [hardware] products out regardless of the operating system, and they've had considerable success," says Brett Miller, a PC analyst with A.G. Edwards and Sons. "You have to expect their sales to continue driving forward with the new operating system."

While most major vendors are hit hard by a decline in PC shipments this year, Apple--which holds less than 5 percent of the total PC market share--got a boost in one sector, IDC reports. U.S. shipments of its notebooks jumped 68.4 percent in the second quarter of 2001, due in large part to sales of its iBook series, which sold 182,000 units in its first two months. Worldwide, Apple's notebook shipments grew by 25.2 percent.

"That's pretty good for Apple," Miller says.

Meanwhile, IDC's preliminary estimates show total PC shipments worldwide declined 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2001, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Shortcomings Addressed

Apple released Mac OS X 10.0--an upgrade to its operating system with a reworked and more colorful interface--in March with little fanfare. While it was considered by users and analysts as one of Apple's most significant operating system releases ever, it is packed with bugs. Critics complained that it lacks a number of key features such as DVD playback.

"A lot of users pointed out that there were some serious holes in 10.0," Kay says. "Even Apple has admitted that they just needed to get something out the door."

In the new version, Apple has managed to fix many of those earlier issues, users and analysts say. Mac OS X 10.1 will include support for Apple's new dual processor computers, according to information on Apple's Web site. It will also include "protected memory" and "preemptive multitasking," two new features that add stability to Macs when users run multiple applications at once, according to Apple.

"What it means is that each application is using its own memory. In previous versions of the operating system it would trade off memory between each application," says Brian Sheafer, a Mac consultant with SV Macintosh Consulting. With the new technology, "if one application crashes then the rest of the operating system will remain stable," he says.

With renewed industry backing, the only question that remains is when users can expect Apple to release Version 10.1. Apple had planned to make the new operating system the focus of the Apple Expo in Paris, but cancelled the show due to the devastating terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Applications Expected

Anticipation is high among sectors related to the operating system, such as software application vendors, which are at a standstill with new products under development. Apple has enabled Mac OS X to run software developed for older versions of the Mac OS in what it calls "Classic" mode. Users can switch Mac OS X from its regular mode to the classic mode to run older software applications. With most users relying on this classic mode to run their applications, software makers have been slow to release upgrades to their products.

But that is changing as the latest operating system upgrade nears release. "New applications [for OS X] are coming out more and more every day," says Mac consultant Sheafer, who currently uses Mac OS X 10.04 and Mac OS 9.1 on the same computer. "It's a whole new operating system for the Mac, and since it's a complete rewrite I would say that things are coming out pretty quickly."

Adobe has released its Acrobat Reader 5.0 with native support for Mac OS X. The company says it is waiting for 10.1 to hit the market before it moves any of its other flagship software products, such as OS X-native versions of Adobe GoLive, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Aladdin Systems has also released a version of its StuffIt Deluxe decompression software to run on Mac OS X. The software allows users to open large files and e-mail attachments that have been compressed for downloading.

Quark, which makes the popular desktop publishing software QuarkXPress, also expects to release this year a version of the software native to Mac OS X, the company says.

Pledging to lead the way with software tuned for Mac's new operating system, Microsoft says it will release the latest version of its Office productivity software in November. Office v. X for Mac OS X will include the most advanced versions of Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage applications, Microsoft says.

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