Today Apple unveiled some new goodies at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. In a keynote surrounded by speculation, Apple leadership announced a renewed MacBook product line up, demoed a not-so-new set of features in their next OS X release, Mountain Lion, and gave a sneak peak at iOS6, the next generation of Apple’s mobile OS.
MacBook upgrades
Let’s start with the MacBooks. First, the old line was updated, with new Intel Ivy Bridge processors and HD 4000 graphics for the 11” and 13” Air, and the 13” and 15” Pro, plus the addition of USB 3.0. The Air also got the same 720p FaceTime camera as the Pro models, and the 15” Pro gets a new dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics processor, with 1GB of video memory. A minor upgrade, I’d say. I would not recommend an upgrade for anyone who bought the previous generation MacBooks.
The game becomes more interesting when we take a look at the next generation MacBook Pro. It’s a very thin 15” model, packed with a 2880×1800 Retina Display, flash-only storage, dual Thunderbolt ports, USB 3.0 and HDMI connectivity, and the same processor and graphics as the 15” ‘old’ Pro. This is probably a hint on where Apple notebooks are going to, so I’d expect something similar for the rest of the product lineup in the following years.
The price point of this new MacBook Pro is fair at $2199. It isn’t a bargain, but it’s only $400 (or 22%) more for a Retina Display and 256GB SSD storage, compared to the entry level ‘old’ 15” MacBook Pro. For a leading edge, first generation product, I’d say its okay. If Apple can get enough scale to bring the display price down so it can be fitted in all models without changing the current price, then they will have a very good competitive advantage in the notebooks market.
OS X Mountain Lion
Apple demonstrated again the new features of its next generation Mac OS, Mountain Lion. Aside from the preview we saw in February (which I did not cover because I was on holiday), Craig Federighi showed a couple new ones: Dictation and Power Nap.
Dictation is known for us who are using the new iPad — you simply activate it wherever you would type and dictate. Power Nap is something available only for SSD-equipped Macs. When those are sleeping, it will sync e-mail, calendar entries, notes, reminders and PhotoStream, plus download any app or OS upgrades and perform backup via Time Machine. Just like in iOS.
Another interesting feature is Facebook integration built in the OS. This makes OS X integrated with two of the most popular social networks, Facebook and Twitter.
The rest we have already seen: iCloud deep integration in the OS, with an API so developers can use it; iOS-like Notification Center, new version of Safari, AirPlay mirroring and unified Game Center.
Mountain Lion ships in July and the upgrade will cost only $19.99. Pay once, upgrade all Macs. Very nice!
iOS 6
The next generation of iOS was unveiled at this conference as well. Two things are very important in this update: Maps and Siri.
Maps is important because it means Apple will no longer rely on Google for maps (read: iOS devices will not generate revenue to Google via the Maps app anymore). It has developed an in-house mapping system, with a lot of features we have already seen on Google Maps for Android: turn-by-turn navigation, traffic updates, 3D flyover and local search. Of course, local search uses Yelp, not Google, just like Siri. Oh, and Siri is also integrated to this new maps app, so you may ask her where to go and it will guide you there.
Speaking of Siri, it’s evolving as well. It now helps people with sports and restaurant information (more traffic driven out of Google), it can launch apps, post to Facebook and Twitter and it will come to the new iPad as well.
The rest of the features are welcome, but minor IMHO: iCloud tabs for Safari, Shared PhotoStream, Passbook, Guided Access, new Mail updates, etc. You can read about them at Apple’s official website for iOS 6.
As a consumer show, the WWDC keynote was just okay. The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display looks nice and will probably sell well, and Mountain Lion at $19.99 is a cool surprise. But other than that, nothing to really excite the ordinary consumer now. For developers, there is much to explore. The first beta of iOS 6 and the near-final pre release build for Mountain Lion were released today for the Apple Developer Community and there is a lot to see there — let’s remind people that the WWDC is a developers conference, not a product showcase.
Some lessons we may extract from here are:
- Apple is kicking Google out of its mobile ecosystem gradually. The in-house mapping app, integration with both Twitter and Facebook (Google+ competitors), and broadening the reach of Siri without using Google search are good signs of that. This is particularly important because Google makes more money out of iPhones than it does out of Android, as reported by Forbes earlier this year. If Siri ever comes to the Mac, that will get even worse for Google.
- Thinner notebooks, Retina Display and SSDs came to stay, and the next generation MacBook Pro is a glimpse into the future of Apple notebooks. I’ll be very happy to see the day when we don’t see any crappy displays and HDDs in our notebooks. The price of the Retina Display must go down, though. That’s probably Apple’s (and all manufacturers) challenge in the following years.
- Convergence is the path to follow, at least in the Apple ecosystem. As I told one year ago, at this very same WWDC, OS X and iOS are on the path of merging, or at least, blending together in terms of features and usability. Users like things they are familiar with and this convergence is good to bring users from iOS to the Mac, and vice-versa. But I don’t see Apple merging the two banners into one in the near future, like Microsoft did with Windows 8.
* Update: I forgot to mention this, but Apple also silently upgraded other products: the Mac Pro (very minor and no Sandy Bridge-EP, ugh), Airport Express (finally w/ simultaneous dual band WiFi), Aperture and iPhoto (with unified libraries, which is a good thing for photo editing workflows). And it released a new case for iPad, the Smart Case (which is very ugly).