Multiple reports today suggested that Apple’s new OS X 10.5 “Leopard” could be delayed significantly (some even suggesting October!). The main reason they are giving for the delay? Problems Apple is having integrating Windows Vista via its Boot Camp software.

I’m not sure if I believe this or not. It seems awfully convenient for Apple to be able to blame Microsoft for delaying it’s new operating system because Microsoft’s sucks. But lets say it is true, why wouldn’t Apple just perfect Leopard working with Windows XP, which most people are still using anyway, and then release some kind of patch later for Vista? Come on Apple, if that is all that is holding you up, I don’t think many people would care if you dropped Vista support for now.

But that seems like a fairly obvious thing to do, and no doubt Apple has thought of it. So why are they not doing it? Well the only thing I can think of is that they really mean for Leopard to have very tight integration with Windows. Perhaps even to the extent that it will run Parallels-like inside Leopard and not on a separate boot (like Boot Camp currently requires).

Make no mistake, having some Windows integration is a very smart and necessary move for Apple even at this point. Though I don’t think I’ve booted XP on my iMac in over 5 months, it’s still a comfort to know that it’s there if I ever need it for something (like remoting into work or something like that). Having a safety net for people, even if they never have to use it, is a great selling point.

An even better selling point would obviously be if you could run Windows programs while still in OS X. There have been rumors of this, and perhaps this is the reason for the delay.

Or maybe Apple still just has some kinks to work out on their own end and this is all an excuse…