Next Monday marks the beginning of Apple’s long-awaited annual event for developers, the World Wide Developers Conference; WWDC 2015.
What should we expect? Announcements. Plenty of announcements. The interwebs are abuzz with expectation and excitement, and Apple will deliver whatever it has both to developers and Apple watchers, thanks to live streaming over the web and Apple TV. Here’s what I want Apple to announce.
8 Is My Lucky Number
Every certified Apple prognosticator has an ongoing laundry list of both expectations and wants, and seldom are the two ever in sync. That’s the case with WWDC 2015. We have to remember that this is a developer’s conference, so the typical Mac user is an observer, not a participant, in Apple’s announcements.
So, allow me to start my list with the expected announcements, and then close it with a few items that I want Apple to announce, but that don’t have much to do with developers, or may not be ready for prime time.
OS X Bakersfield – Alright, the next version of OS X, 10.11, is not likely code-named or named Bakersfield, but it will be a name of some notable place in California. Death Valley? Nope. Oxnard? Uh uh. Mavericks beget Yosemite so I’m thinking Disneyland. Regardless, we’ll see a new version of OS X.
iOS 9 – Well, duh? Word on the streets is that Apple wants to make both OS X and iOS more stable, more secure, and come with improved performance while being backwards compatible with older devices, and since developers develop apps for both OS X and iOS, iOS 9 will be on stage and in your face.
Apple TV – No, not an Apple television, as in hardware, not an Apple television streaming service, but an upgrade to a new Apple TV box; I’m thinking games, HomeKit, Siri, FaceTime, facial recognition, AirPlay, all wrapped up into one new device priced at $99.
Siri Everywhere – Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Siri on iPhone and iPad has become a first class citizen with deeper, integrated context understanding, unrivaled dictation capability, and faster response. It’s time for Siri to venture forth and become a more public persona– for Mac, Apple TV, and hooks for developers to use Siri to do your bidding.
Watch Apps – This is a no-brainer. Apple has been hard at work pushing out Watch, and what it needs most is applications. No, not tens of thousands of iOS apps that have Watch extensions, but native Watch apps. We’ll see that at WWDC 2015 next week.
Those are the five basic, no-brainer, absolutely positively expected announcements from Apple next week. Remember, it’s a developer’s conference. But there could be more.
Beats Music – iTunes is in need of a major overhaul as an application and a platform. iTunes isn’t developer related, but Apple spent $3-billion on Beats Music last year for a reason, and it wasn’t just for a line of overpriced headphones. This would be a good venue for Apple to announce Beats Music with a subscription. Apple has somewhere around 800-million iTunes accounts and credit cards so if only 5-percent of them adopt Beats as their streaming music service of choice, it becomes the world leader overnight.
Apple Maps Almost Everywhere – Apple’s Maps app has improved dramatically the past year, and while it doesn’t have all the features found in Google Maps, it’s the de facto default for iPhone and iPad users. Apple Maps is on the Mac, too, and with a web-based interface, Maps could make it out to everyone else with an iCloud account.
Apple TV Channels – Wait. Doesn’t Apple TV already have dozens of so-called channels? Yep. So-called. What most of us want isn’t what Apple TV does right now– no major networks, no prime-time networks, no live events or news– so now is the time for that fable Apple TV streaming service, an ala carte menu of popular TV channels. Yes, this is a long shot because anything to do with the disparate, Balkanized television industry is akin to herding cats or shaving a bobcat inside a dark closet, but it’s on my list.
I could add more to this list, but I want to be a balanced certified Apple Watcher who understands the difference between wants and needs, hope and expectations. Besides, Apple has rained on my expectations parade a number of times in recent years, and I don’t expect iPhone 6s or iPad Air 3 or iPad Air Plus to show up until late summer. But an announcement would be nice, right?
