WWDC: The aftermath
A day after the event it's time to look at the announcements in the cold light of day. There has been a lot written about it, some of which I think is strange, some of it great.
First of all, let's just recap what this conference is called - Worldwide Developers Conference. Note the word 'developers'.
A few people have said to me and I've read all over the place that they were a bit disappointed blah blah. Why? We pretty much knew what was coming, it was always going to be a preview of Leopard and almost a guaranteed announcement that the Intel transition was over, with the introduction of the new Mac Pro and Xserves - and that's exactly what happened.
It's not a consumer show, that's Paris expo next month. So, yes it would have been lovely to have had a new iPod nano, an iPhone, a media centre Mac etc. etc. but the fact that they weren't announced isn't disappointing, it's realistic. If Apple released these amazing products at every show, they'd run out of them pretty quickly.
We still did get some amazing products though. The Mac Pros are awesome machines, really. Incredibly powerful, the likes of which haven't really been available to the everyday consumer before (OK maybe not everyday consumer, you will need the deficit of a small country to be able to get a highly specced one - I got it up to £11,ooo maxing everything out with dual 30" displays!!).
And Leopard. I was genuinely impressed by Time Machine particularly and also Spaces and the other features mentioned. Steve did say that these were just the things they were showing now, it's not the complete new feature list, it's just a sample. There's more to come people!
So when I read articles like this one over at Stuff magazine, it makes me wonder why they bother. Time Machine and Spaces are impressive and innovative. I mean, what more do they want? The hanging gardens of Babylon? Heards of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the desktop perhaps?
People expect too much. Of course, Apple are partly to blame for this with the hype that's generated with their 'special' events but people also blow it out of proportion.
I'm pleased with what we saw and excited about what we didn't see. At least some people agree with me. There's much more to come from Leopard over the next 6 months and for the consumer gadget freaks, I'm sure that Paris expo in September will usher in the new iPods and whatever else they have up their sleeves. Personally, I can't wait for an 8GB nano.
Far more worryingly, people are talking about the possibility that Steve Jobs is ill or maybe losing his touch. I'd say that's way more reason for investors to get jittery. I'm reserving judgement on this one but watch this space...
Updated: typos.
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