On a brief note, Apple Inc. (AAPL) released news today that the company would need to delay the release of its new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard. The release has long been planned for Spring, but now, the release should be in October.

“…iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team…”

While the iPhone has been making great progress, it seems as though Apple’s number one priority will not be the Leopard release. Unfortunately, Apple stock could see a number of negative days before the release of the new OS. In after hours trading on Thursday, AAPL was down -1.77 a share. The coming weeks could continue to be bumpy, and rumors have been brought up about a possible slow down in Apple system sales leading up to the release. Fortunately, I don’t see too much downside if the iPhone release goes smoothly, and many competitors also know this.

Another notable drop in stock prices was Research in Motion (RIMM). Down -8.16% on news of a formal suit on patent infringement. Smartphone makers should continue to see slides in stock prices Pre-iPhone release, and further outlook on the phone makers will quickly be determined by early iPhone sales numbers.

Conflicts: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL)