Apple made the announcements at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, where it mainly highlighted the features of its next upgrade to the Mac OS X operating system, dubbed Leopard and to be released in October.

Some analysts viewed the moves as infectious ways for the company to attract new converts to its products, but investors were betting on more astounding news from the Wall Street darling.

Shares of Apple fell $4.30, or about 3.5 percent, to $120.19 June 11 before gaining back $1.19 in after-hours trading.

Analyst Shaw Wu at American Technology Research called Apple's news ''underwhelming,'' especially as Apple deflated speculation from Mac enthusiasts for the possibility of an OS X feature that would have let Mac users simultaneously run Windows and Mac programs on their machines.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs divulged little about the iPhone that will go on sale in the United States on June 29.

''The announcements were more around user-interface changes (for Leopard) than something more radical,'' Wu said. ''So I think that was disappointing and investors were hoping for more.''

Still, Apple made clear its ambitions to further encroach on Microsoft's turf by making its Safari work on Windows-based PCs.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 16, 2007
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