Apple to change the Mac apps gameplan

Apple is prepared to make all current Mac applications obsolete in the interests of winning the technology race.

The next generation of the Mac OS, codenamed Copland, will not necessarily be able to run current Mac System 7 programs, but will go all-out for extended functionality.

In an interview with the San Francisco Examiner, Apple chief technology officer Ellen Hancock said the gameplan for Copland had changed. 'If we have to pick between backward compatibility and new functions, we're voting for new functions,' she said.

There was widespread speculation that Copland was dead after Hancock halted development in August, only a month after joining the company from IBM. 'When people said Copland was dead, that was inaccurate,' she said.

'What we have done is shifted our thoughts by jettisoning the compatibility requirement.'