I won’t claim to be an expert when it comes to the tech world, but after several years of reading blogs and tech sites, watching product launches and keynotes, and generally maintaining an interest in all things digital, I can see patterns emerging. Rather than being able to tell you what Apple will do, I think it is much easier to start with a list of what they almost certainly won’t do at the WorldWide Developer Conference on June 10th.
- No “cheaper” iPhone. (You can already buy a cheaper iPhone, they still sell a product launched almost a full three years ago, the iPhone 4)
- No third-party app defaults (at best, you might eventually be able to choose an email client, or browser, for example, in the share menu of a productivity app, but more than that is probably wishful thinking)
- No iPhone with vanilla Android Jelly Bean (it’s just not going to happen, so stop asking!)
- No widgets (MAYBE a bar in notification centre for settings…maybe)
- No fingerprint scanner (I really don’t see this coming any time soon, not enough of a reason for expensive, space wasting tech)
I’m certain that they will announce new tech at next week’s keynote, and perhaps even some new services (iRadio, anybody?…although I think iTunes Radio is a more likely name). The event will likely focus on Mac hardware and perhaps show some demos of the next iteration of Mac OS X (although we are running out of room in the 10.x naming, perhaps at some point that will need to be rebranded). There will definitely be a beta version of iOS 7 released, which is sure to be widely panned but extremely easy to use and understand.
The fact that Apple is considered boring is a testament to how hard they work to hide all the interesting tech and software that goes into their products. I believe there will always be “low hanging fruit” not dealt with in many Apple products, simply because there is no market for a perfect product, and the perfect product (Chromebook Pixel, Retina MacBook Pro, *Insert PC name here*) will never truly be attained when everybody’s view of perfection is different.
Apple has a history of justifying it’s premium “Apple tax” because it marries great hardware with software that just works, and services that aren’t perfect, but are good enough for everyday users, with some very bright shining spots. Odds are, this year’s WWDC will not render the other tech giants’ products obsolete, but it will provide more than enough to hold off many consumers until they are ready to release the next big thing, whatever that is.
