Apple mobile 'not a runner' at MacWorld

Evidence for a Macworld Apple mobile phone launch remains "mostly speculative"

With the doors set to open on Macworld in San Francisco on 9 January, the Mac rumour mill has been suggesting that the much-vaunted Apple mobile phone may not be ringing in the changes after all.

The MacRumors website has issued a detailed examination of the history of speculation over the 'iPhone', from a Steve Jobs pronouncement in 2002 to leaks from alleged Taiwanese manufacturing contracts in 2006.

The conclusion is that the evidence for a Macworld launch remains "mostly speculative". 

Linksys has in any case already introduced a series of VoIP devices under the 'iPhone' name.

If the Apple mobile phone fails to show, the $299 iTV device, unveiled last September at Showtime, should be the subject of "more details" at MacWorld, if not a more specific delivery date than the previously stated "first quarter of 2007".

Most likely to leap to the top of Apple's agenda for MacWorld is the Leopard operating system, first previewed in August at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. 

Leopard is due to ship "this spring" and is considered one of the most significant leaps forward for OS X, especially in animation and imaging features with improved versions of media editing packages Front Row and Photo Booth.

New features also include automated back-up services with Time Machine, which allows users to easily restore deleted or overwritten files, and a virtual desktop environment called Spaces.

More details are also expected next week of Leopard Server, which will offer a range of server admin features on a single licence.

MacWorld believes that Leopard Server could "capture some of the small business community by offering a new Server Preferences application that offers stripped-down server management for small workgroups".

• The ongoing saga of Apple's mystery mobile
• Linksys pips Apple to iPhone