next-generation Mac

I find the whole DVD thing a little hard to understand, and not having it is a serious flaw," said IDC analyst Roger Kay. "It seems to me that if they don´t have full DVD support in OS X, that´s probably a bit premature."

Apple spokeswoman Alicia Awbrey confirmed that full DVD support will be missing from the new release. She deferred commenting on support for iTunes, iDVD and iMovie software to the March 21 press event.

"In terms of the whole feature, product details, I´m not prepared to go into that right now," she said.

On Tuesday, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple started an ad campaign for CD-rewritable drives, playing into its ongoing emphasis on consumers´ ability to create music CDs, edit video and write DVDs.

Lack of support for any of these features in the new OS will be a significant shortfall, said Gartner analyst Chris LeTocq.

"The iTunes, iDVD and iMovie have got to be an essential part of OS X," he said. "These things are all essential parts of Apple´s messaging. They have got to work under OS X."

Another sign of possible trouble is the timing of the final code´s release. For example, Microsoft released on Friday the gold code for its next Windows version of Office. Office XP is slated to go on sale on or around May 31 but will appear in new machines earlier that month.

Analysts say this represents a more typical lead time before a product goes on sale. Apple has less than 20 days to manufacture CDs from the gold code, package them and ship the product to retailers for sale March 24.

LeTocq pointed out that Apple doesn´t work with the same volume as Microsoft, so the timing isn´t as tight as it might appear. Still, "it´s not a good sign," he said.

"Three weeks to move it through the (dealer) channel is unusual, but not impossible," LeTocq said. "It´s achievable but a little tough. I think you´ll be able to order from the Apple site on the release date, but it will be more difficult to buy Mac OS X at stores because of the logistics involved.