The 64-bit Apple: processor before OS

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The Register, after eWeek, reckon that Apple may ship new machines using the new PowerPC 970 from IBM before it releases Panther, its next version of Mac OS X which is expected to make full use of the 64-bit hardware architecture.

Provided that no new hardware announcements at the WWDC in two weeks doesn't sound like an option for Apple, it makes sense for the company to calm the folks down with machines that fill the performance gap, give them a preview release of Panther (already announced) and buy two to three months before releasing Mac OS X 10.3 and announce yet another performance gain. My bet: they will announce a new hardware architecture (read new chips and motherboard) but won't deliver the machines until one or two months later (as usual for quite some time now, they tend to pre-announce machines unreasonably long before they can produce them in quantities, a trend that Jobs stopped when he came back but is guilty of doing again).