Who Are The Winners And Losers From Today's Apple WWDC Announcement?

Tim Cook and several other Apple executives took to the huge WWDC stage to discuss where Apple is going in the next 6-12 months. Overall, there are lots of things coming to get excited about from AppleTV+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade but few were given more limelight than before. Instead, Apple's various OS's were pushed harder than in previous years. Pretty much all the OS's were updated and iPad got its own OS, imaginatively titled 'iPadOS'. iPadOS feels incredibly Android-y with widgets, multiple windows etc. A new Mac Pro and display (Pro XDR Display - $4999 and up - the stand is $999...) were the only physical devices that were launched - a desktop Mac that is super fast, customizable, space-age looking (cough: cheese grater) and...with wheels ($5999 and up / available in Q3 2019). Oh, and Apple killed iTunes after 18 years.

WINNERS

• Playstation and Xbox gamers - Apple Arcade will work on them both.
• Developers (!) - Independent app creation (i.e. no iPhone needed) for Apple Watch means a lot more opps for brands. Caaaaaching! The App Store now being on the Apple Watch is also a big opp for Developers into a huge market. Oh, and the ability to create apps for 100 million Mac users through macOS should make a lot of people happy.
• Smart cities - The noise app on Apple Watch could make the world a better place if partnerships can be formed.
• Women - Cycle tracking is a huge market and win for FemTech visibility.
• Night workers - Apple now has a Dark Mode.  It spent more than five minutes explaining it...
• Consumers - Apple kept banging the privacy drum hard and is making some good progress to force app developers to be better data hoovers.
• AR developers - New tools from Apple now make it even easier to create AR experience from nothing and include people and users into scenes.
• Minecraft fans - Minecraft Earth will bring Minecraft to life like never before. You can stand inside your Minecraft...if that's your thing.
• Radio stations - Homepod, Siri etc now can tune into station with voice commands
• Apple - Slick presentation, demos and focus on privacy -
• Web designers - Safari will be pushing a desktop webpage focus for the tablet experience which means better mobile site experience.
• iPad Users/laptop dumpers - A lot more functionality is coming to the iPad making the switch easier than ever.
• Mac Pro users - A whole new machine that is a monster for editors and developers.
• Podcast creators - Apple is pushing them harder by moving them out of Apple Music.
• Swift-lovers - Not the singer, the code platform. Apple updated the framework and called it 'SwiftUI'.

LOSERS

• Facebook/Google - Both took some serious digs from Apple's privacy focus - a good PR play that is nowhere near done yet.
• Social sign-in services (Facebook/Google etc) - Sign-in with Apple will be popular overnight thanks to the trust people have in Apple and how sick they are of Facebook and co.
• Dropbox/Google Drive - Apple now has filesharing for folders which will thrill some people and stay in Apple's ecosystem.
• Winzip/Compression apps - Apple is now doing this on the device.
• Email encryption services - Apple has created it's own 'temporary' random addresses functionality
• Marketers - Thanks to the temporary email filling in, jobs and data collection just got harder.
• Tile/Chipolo/Tracking apps - Apple just created a way to usurp finder apps and devices.
• Bimoji/Snapchat - Apple is doubling down on Memoji and creating Memoji Stickers/editors.
• Adobe/video/photo editing apps - Apple continues to bring a lot of high-end video and photo editing tools/tricks straight into the photo app.
• Google Photos - Apple has updated the photos app - the only difference is storage/cost.
• Bespoke car dashboard UI - Carplay got a big upgrade and boasted some big adoption/possibility numbers - not using it appears a data play
• Alexa - Siri got a big upgrade and now sounds pretty much human.
• Google Maps - Apple Maps got a big upgrade and aren't terrible anymore.
• WhatsApp - Apple is adding the functionality like share location etc that WhatsApp users love to add
• Activity Trackers - Apple Watch is introducing 'Activity Trends' so you don't need any other health/fitness app to manage your health.
• Us? - Here's hoping people understand what health data they are sharing with whom, for how long etc.
• Cycle-tracker apps - Apple just ate your lunch.
• Webdesigners - Safari will be pushing a desktop webpage focus for the tablet experience which means less mobile site optimisation.
• Smartwatch makers - Apple Watch software upgrades include more apps, more customisation, voice memos, calculator etc.
• People surrounding you - Apple Watch will now chirp. Lord help us.
• Netflix/Amazon Prime Video - AppleTV+ is being positioned as the quality option versus the TV gluttony consumers have become used to and frustrated with. Will it work? Apple sure hopes so and is spending money on it.
• Screensaver app developers - AppleTV will have more than ever.