WWDC Thoughts

Yesterday’s WWDC keynote was a widely hyped event for Apple. There was the usual speculation and rumors leading up to yesterday’s activities, some of which were revealed as true, while most, were dismissed as false. It wasn’t that the keynote sucked, it just was not up to Apple’s lofty standards.

In essence, the problem with yesterday’s presentation was that the world’s coolest company didn’t look like the world’s coolest company. They looked scattered, frustrated, confused, and almost bitter. It left me disappointed from a customer and fanboy standpoint. Here’s why:

Snow Leopard

What I was most excited about for WWDC was the unveiling of Snow Leopard, Apple’s mythical and heralded new OS that would blow Windows 7 out of the water and redefine the user experience with Macs. What a snooozer! Sure, a move to 64 bit for all applications is deserving of praise and a few minor UI tweaks look alright but where were the new features? The new applications? A Quicktime upgrade is all? A final Safari 4 is promising but the beta was so bad I couldn’t even use it. Snow Leopard came across as more of a service pack for Leopard than anything. Considering how many shots Apple still took at Vista yesterday, and then further criticized Windows 7 for being built upon Vista, what was the point of then showing off their ‘new’ OS that is built upon their old one? What was Apple thinking? $29 is fair for an upgrade ($49 family pack) but I can’t help but think this should have been a free upgrade. Ships in September (A month before Windows 7).

New Macbook Pro Family

This was actually a nice surprise from Apple and I think it directly stems from the Microsoft laptop ads knocking Apple’s specs and price points. What we get is upgraded specs for the whole notebook line with decreased pricing. Additionally, the 13″ unibody MacBook now becomes a MacBook Pro joining its older siblings the 15″ and 17″. The white plastic 13″ remains the only MacBook left. Coming from someone who is planning on buying a MacBook this summer, this was great news. The addition of a SD card is great for 95% of Mac users but Apple should have kept the ExpressCard slot available as an option for those who wanted it. All memory now comes standard at 4GB RAM upgradable to 8GB (For another $900) and makes the new price points the most affordable Apple notebooks ever.

iPhone 3.0 Software

We saw most of the features in the beta rollout a few months ago but that doesn’t diminish the quality of the upgrade. Added is the horizontal keyboard across the entire phone (SMS, Email, Notes, etc), Cut and Paste functionality, better Safari performance and usage improvements, ‘Find my Phone’ GPS ability with MobileMe, spotlight search capability (cool), improved stock app, improved calendar app, a voice memo app, MMS finally (Although not immediately, FU AT&T), and tethering ability (Another US delay, suck it AT&T). The upgrade is nice but in all reality these features should have been in the initial iPhone software. Another bummer was no video capture for the 1st gen and 3G iPhones. It wouldn’t have been that hard to implement but Apple wants to sell the new iPhone hardware someway. Free for iPhone users on June 17th and $9.95 for iPod Touch owners.

iPhone 3G(S)

I mean what a stupid name. Apple rolls out their expected new iPhone hardware without many expected features in their attempt to retain the initial AT&T 2-year contracts and fend off pressure from the Pre and Android. The phone is faster, has a compass, has a better camera, can take video, has Nike+ integration, and has voice recognition. I don’t see a need for a compass, the iPhone’s 3.2 camera is still behind most smartphones, I had a Sprint phone in middle school that could take video, and voice recognition is supposed to be a new feature? What an absolute fail from Apple. No front facing video, no improved speaker, no 5MP camera, no matte backing, etc etc. If you’ve never had an iPhone before, I suppose it is the best to get, but those with one don’t have enough incentive to upgrade. The price points for new users are $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB. Existing AT&T customers will generally pay $200 more but call to make sure depending on your plan. The lone smart move from the iPhone this year was the idea to sell the 8GB iPhone 3G for $99 to further expand market share.

The keynote wasn’t a complete failure. It was a solid showing from Apple but it did not have the luster that we have grown so accustomed to. There was no tablet, no iChat on iPhone, no Steve Jobs, and no “One more thing”. Instead there were multiple failed app demos, an Apple executive dressed in mad scientist gear, the never ending MSFT and Palm catty digs, and no singular awesome moment. I mean, do you really think Steve Jobs would have allowed a presentation with himself to be dressed up in science gear and allowing developers to linger on stage while their app fails?

And another big FAIL – AT&T. I haven’t had any problem with AT&T since getting my iPhone but yesterday was laughable. When Apple finally announced their MMS software they showed the carriers around the world that were ready to support the feature immediately, guess who was missing. When Apple announced tethering for your laptop, guess which carrier was absent from immediate launch? AT&T needs to get their shit together if they want to continue their exclusivity with the iPhone. Not having MMS support in 2009 is disturbing from a tech standpoint and delaying tethering means they’re simply trying to come up with a way to charge us for it. Telecoms are the single biggest farce in American business. They find out ways to rape customers for texting (Which costs them next to nothing), find ways to increase fees for tethering, hoard profits instead of improving network performance, and generally kick their customers in the balls at every opportunity.

I won’t be getting the new iPhone because I’m hoping that Apple considers opening the iPhone to the Verizon network, provided Verizon finally allows their phones to open to external software, because Verizon phones absolutely suck. So when my contract is out this time next summer, I will actually have options as a consumer! What a crazy idea!

Apple didn’t strike out yesterday but they didn’t homer either. They took a 3-1 pitch outside and accepted a walk. In business, you can only accept a walk so many times before the other team starts hitting homers. If it really is true Steve Jobs is returning at the end of the month from his health hiatus, July can’t come soon enough for Apple stakeholders.