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Wu told investors that recent reports that Leopard may be delayed, possibly until October, are 'overdone'.

'Spring is technically from around March 20 to June 20 every year, and so there are still nearly three months left,' he wrote. 'Our sources indicate that Apple's latest beta build has made noticeable improvements in stability and functionality from previous builds and that Apple is likely one or two

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upcoming builds away from reaching "final candidate" stage to be released for manufacturing.'

However he noted that the developer community is concerned that they are have yet to see any evidence of the 'top secret' Leopard features that Apple CEO Steve Jobs alluded to when he gave his 'Sneak Peak' of a number of its new technologies last August.

'At some point, we believe Apple needs to "publish" or enable these so-far undocumented features for wider beta testing,' Wu wrote, before speculating that these may include a virtual machine technology similar to that offered by Parallels, though he cited no evidence of this.

'If so, we believe this would serve as a major catalyst for Mac sales,' he said.

Earlier this week Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg also debunked claims that Leopard would be late after speaking with Apple.

'The rumor (sic) mill is wrong again,' he wrote on his blog.