Digitimes, a technology news site, believes that Apple will delay the release of its much-anticipated new operating system, Leopard, until October.

As Apple has revealed their intentions to integrate a program similar to Boot Camp that will allow users to run Windows along with Leopard, Digitimes claims Apple will need substantially more time to refine Vista integration.

As Apple has spent oodles of money on their most recent marketing campaign of winning Windows users over to Mac, Digitimes says that “industry sources” feel that an April release of the new Leopard OS would be too soon to really ready the Leopard Boot Camp system for flawless Vista integration.

Though OS-X has had no troubles with XP, there have been a few complications with Vista integration (which have a lot to do with the fact that Microsoft doesn’t want their users switching to Mac), and those “industry sources” believe that Apple will need more time to prepare Boot Camp for Vista.

I feel otherwise.

 First, Apple is not known for pushing back releases of their products; to the contrary, most Apple fans wait for Apple Keynote addresses with baited breath, knowing that Steve Jobs loves springing new surprises on the Mac community frequently. Second, if Vista had only been in development for a relatively short time, and developers had not had access to the beta builds for the last umpteen months, perhaps Apple would need more time to scramble for proper Vista integration.

As it stands, Vista has been around, more or less, for quite a while now, and you can bet that as Apple loves to be ahead of Microsoft, they’ve had their developers perfecting Boot Camp integration for some time now.

Third, delaying the release of Leopard would only be a hindrance to Apple; many Mac fans have been waiting with baited breath for the newest version of OS-X, and though Apple does want PC users to make the beautiful switch to Mac, I highly doubt they would inconvenience current users in hopes of winning a few more PC users down the road.

Consider this: if Apple was to delay Leopard for 6 months to integrate Vista, they would not win any more new customers in that time period, and would lose face to current Mac users; if they release it as scheduled, they’ll keep the Mac community happy, and they will continue to steal PC users at the steady rate they already have been.

I’d be interested to speak with these industry sources, because the marketing behind delaying Leopard for Vista integration seems all wrong.

UPDATE 1:  Not to toot our own horns, but TUAW has confirmation from Apple that they will not postpone the release of Leopard past their intended release date.