WWDC June 2007 — What Should We Expect?

The World Wide Developers Conference is about on par with MacWorld, where every year Apple attends and shows off to the world what they’ve been up to since the last update. For many websites such as Apple Matters, it’s our chance to speculate, and when the time arrives, it’s time to praise and criticize.

If you can cast your mind back to last year’s WWDC event, which took place in August, you’ll remember the feeling of an incomplete show—when Steve Jobs thanked everyone for coming, many asked themselves, “I thought there was more, are you sure you’ve not left something out Steve?”

It probably comes down to over-expecting once again, but all we really got last year was the Mac Pro which featured some new specs, and not a lot more. Of course there was also the announcement of Leopard which tickled a few Apple lovers for a couple of months, but the hype soon died when what we really saw was a slightly more efficient Tiger with novelties that will most likely wear off after 2 weeks of use.

So what can we expect at this year’s event?

The iPhone

The iPhone rumour mill started running wild when it was announced that WWDC 2007 would arrive two months earlier this year; of course those rumours have now been confirmed and it’s pretty obvious why the event is arriving two months earlier. As far as I know the FFC hasn’t given Apple the all-clear to sell the device yet, although there shouldn’t really be a problem there. The biggest problem Apple faces at the minute is convincing those with perfectly good, working mobile phones why forking out nearly $599 for a new mobile phone is worth it, despite all the cool features the iPhone has to offer.

It’s also hard to imagine many people buying the phone straight away when it doesn’t have expandable memory, a detachable battery, or even the best camera (3-mega pixel is bog standard now guys, not 2!) available. I’m also curious as to how the internet communications device the phone has to offer will benefit those in Europe, whose internet bandwidth charges will cost almost as much as the phone itself after two months of browsing the web. Oh, and don’t get me started on 2.5G data transmissions—it’s all about the 3G now.

Of course, the phone does have its perks. The beautiful display is combined with the awesome multitouch technology, which promises up to 15 simultaneous touches, allowing 10 fingers, the palms of both hands, and three “other” devices to caress the screen. There’s also the fact that it has a built-in iPod, which will most likely compete head-on with the real iPod, and OS X all bundled into one. Who needs Windows Mobile when you can have your Apple equivalent?

There’s still no release date for the iPhone, which will arrive on Cingular networks in the States, but Apple has stated that it will be unleashed to the public this June, with rumors of Europe seeing it as early as September, Asia by the end of the year, and Australia in early 2008.

OS X Leopard

There are many out there who are going to buy Leopard as soon as it arrives, regardless of what it has or hasn’t got to offer, then there are others who are contemplating buying Leopard but will wait until WWDC to see if Apple has added anything worthwhile to justify forking out our their hard-earned cash, and of course there are those who aren’t the least bit interested in buying Leopard—fair play.

When Apple announced Leopard’s features at last year’s WWDC, I was overwhelmed with excitement like the majority of Mac geeks, but the excitement soon died when I realized that Leopard doesn’t really have anything worthwhile, except of course Spaces, which I have no doubt will increase my productivity at home.

There were a few other features but most are minor enhancements to things like iChat and Mail that no power user will really ever use.

Many are seeing Leopard as the direct competitor to Microsoft’s already out-of-date Windows Vista, yet Tiger, Apple’s current OS released back in 2005, is more advanced than the severely criticized Windows OS, so I’d like to see Leopard change the way we use operating systems, rather than enhancing the way we use them with a couple of face lifts.

I’ll wait until WWDC 2007 before I decide whether or not a purchase of Leopard will be beneficial, but Apple has a lot of work to do to convince me at this moment in time.

Once again, Apple has yet to issue a release date for Leopard, simply stating “Spring” back at last year’s event. Of course, if Leopard hasn’t been released by WWDC then it will be delayed once more, as June is technically Summer and not Spring—this is just me being picky though.

What else?

Unusually, I’ve not heard many rumours of upcoming Apple releases, but those I have heard have been surrounded by “touchscreen technology” of some sort. Leopard is expected to have the capabilities of dealing with touchscreen controls, so it’s no wonder many are expecting a touchscreen Mac to arrive in our local Apple store some time soon, but the more realistic approach is that Apple will release a PDA of some sort to accompany business folks in their day-to-day lives. The PDA could also go hand-in-hand with the “another iPhone model” rumour.

According to RumourWire, Apple has been working on a second iPhone model which is likely to arrive in 2008. While this probably goes without saying (you don’t see Nokia releasing just one model at a time), there’s a good chance another iPhone could actually be a PDA aimed at businesses. Will WWDC tell all?

One other thing that I am expecting to see at this year’s event is a new revision iMac. Whether this new iMac has touchscreen controls or not, I do expect either a new design for the iMac range or at least a few specification enhancements, such as a faster processor or a better graphics card.

Only time will tell, but what do you expect to see at this year’s WWDC event? Is there anything in particular you’d like to see Apple release or are you happy with what the fruity technology giant currently has to offer?