OS X 10.9 Advanced Build May Await Developers At WWDC

WWDC 2013 is coming up, and we've already heard some rumors concerning it, such as the expected MacBook refresh based on some leaked SKUs. With only a handful of days left before things kick off, another rumor has surfaced, this time concerning OS X 10.9. According to a bug report that was spotted, the next version of Apple's operating system may already be at an advanced build state.

The information comes from the folks over at Apple Insider, who spotted what is believed to be the build number of OS X 10.9 in a bug report: 13A451. The "13A" portion of the number suggests it refers to OS X 10.9, seeing that OS X 10.8 started with "12A" and OS X 10.7 with "11A," following a similar structure all the way down the line.

And the slightly more pertinent part, the last three digits "451," suggest that the next iteration of the operating system has reached a pretty high number of builds, exceeding the 269 that were achieved before Apple stamped Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 with the Golden Master title and sent it on its way. You can see each build's numbers in the image above.

There are handful of reasons that OS X 10.9 could be at such a high level of builds, the biggest one perhaps being that an advanced – that is, an almost final – iteration of OS X 10.9 could be revealed next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Word has it that this version of OS X won't be a big change up from Mountain Lion, making this one of the more likely explanations.

There are a couple other possibilities, however, including that Apple may simply be putting OS X 10.9 through more builds than Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 went through, or that the expectation of no major overhauls is incorrect, with Apple instead using a higher number of builds than it typically does in light of a big change. We'll know for sure on June 10, when we'll bring you live coverage from WWDC, so stay tuned!

SOURCE: Apple Insider