Apple Inc. recently announced the plans to develop a new version for its Mac X Operating System (OS X) named Snow Leopard. The process will probably take about a year and the release is expected at the beginning of next summer.

Apparently, the new version will not provide any new features and as Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering explained for ComputerWorld, the company’s focus will be on improving the stability and performance of the operating system. "In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world's most advanced operating system," Serlet said, according to CW.

Snow Leopard will offer a built-in support for Microsoft’s Exchange 2007 in Apple’s Mail, iCal and Address Book applications, also a new QuickTime X and it will support up to 16 terabytes of RAM. It will also be accessible for multicore processors and will support an OpenCL (Open Computing Language).

The company also announced its plan to make the operating system smaller, making it more efficient for its users.

Apple’s official presentation claimed that the Snow Leopard upgrade will enhance the OS X’s performances, while setting a new standard for quality and also offering just a glimpse of the things that can be expected from the company’s future innovations.

Even though the company didn’t announce any new features, the time needed for the completion on the upgrade might leave enough room for an additional set of improvements which at this point are not part of the plan. A clearer image should be available over the next few months once an official update on the development process will be released.