While Apple devoted most of its keynote at the Worldwide Developer Conference to the major overhaul of its mobile operating system, iOS7 wasn't the only topic of conversation. In a carefully orchestrated event that showed Tim Cook firmly in charge, Apple spent substantial time reminding developers -- and the world -- why it does things the way it does and how that keeps on working for its customers. And in keeping with that theme the company took explicit steps to (1) improve its desktop operating system while better integrating it with its mobile devices (2) promised to (finally) roll out a flagship computer for the graphics and scientific customers who have been clamoring for one, and (3) showed off significant updates to its office suite suggesting renewed competitiveness there as Microsoft Office for iOS remains a no-show.
Beyond that, though, Cook and Apple opened the conference with two brief but important presentations that were directed at a wide-ranging audience of which the developers in attendance were truly the tip of the iceberg. The first moments of WWDC consisted of some animated text on the screen that read as follows (I've reformatted it into prose to save you some scrolling):
Apple will be Apple...
"If everyone is busy making everything, how can anyone perfect anything? We start to confuse convenience with joy, abundance with choice. Designing something requires focus. The first thing we ask: What do we want people to feel? Delight. Surprise. Love. Connection. Then we craft around our intention. It takes time. There are a thousand no's for every yes. We simplify. We perfect. We start over, until everything we touch enhances every life it touches. Only then do we sign our work. -- Designed by Apple in California."
The point here was to tell the media, the stock-market analysts, and everyone who has decided Apple has lost its edge that the company is well aware competitors (think Samsung) make more phones and are throwing in every feature they can think of to differentiate them (look back to the Galaxy S4 launch for an object lesson). But Apple doesn't work that way and won't rush things to market. One couldn't help but wonder if Apple was also reminding itself, having had issues launching its maps apps and Siri before either was truly fully baked and ready.
It shouldn't be lost on anyone that this is how the conference opened, but to echo the theme Cook closed the keynote with the same message. The markets were unimpressed and it seems unlikely this fall's iPhone replacement is going to be radically different enough to change the perception of a stagnant Apple. But Apple doesn't care. It will deliver a lower-cost phone or a larger-screen phone when (if?) they're ready and not before. Deal with it.
... which is plenty good enough
Cook then rattled off the kind of market share stats he has come to tout lately as a reminder that unit sales of phones are not the only metric that matters. (Apple currently has only about 1/5 of the global smartphone market and approximately twice that share in the U.S.) Specifically, Cook noted iOS has 74% market share in application download revenue vs. only 20% for Android and that Apple has now paid out $10 billion to developers.
For years, venture capitalists have suggested that it's inevitable developers will be developing first for Android and second for iOS due to market share. But this data continues to question the viability of that strategy and so far it hasn't happened, with most major apps appearing on iOS before Android. Apple clearly has reason to worry about this changing because of its smaller market share and the fact its market-share-increasing lower-cost model remains only a rumor.
So it points out other things like the fact that iOS users account for 60% of all mobile web surfing and were responsible for nearly 20% of all Black Friday shopping online, regardless of device. Those numbers show Apple punching far above its weight in terms of number of users. Cook notes that it has 575 million accounts with credit-card numbers, which it believes to be the largest such pool of accounts online, though no one had much to say about extending Apple's footprint in the payments space. It seems like Apple intends to say more about exploiting this sometime in the future, but perhaps not at this WWDC.
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Significantly, Apple noted that 93% of iOS users are on the latest version compared to just 1/3 on Android. This is great for developers because it means they can take advantage of the latest features on Apple devices, less so on those running Google's system. The new iOS, similarly, is compatible with nearly all the iPhones and iPads still in use -- running on everything since the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. It won't be shocking to see it on proportionally more devices in the first weekend of release than run the current version of Android if the past repeats itself.
Office apps, forecast is cloudy
Microsoft continues to believe that not selling Office on iOS allows it to have a competitive advantage to sell its own Surface tablets, but with tens of millions of new iPad sales every quarter vs. a tiny fraction of that for Surface, the strategy gets stranger all the time. In the meantime, Apple has decided to improve the capabilities of iPad -- and its Mac computers -- with improved versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers (it's own office "suite" of sorts) by making them all cloud enabled. Not only does this mean you can access the same documents across your Apple devices easily, but it means you can open a web browser and use Pages for the web -- even when you're on Windows.
This functionality looked to combine some of the best elements of Office 365, Microsoft's own online version of the venerable suite, and Google Docs, which is cloud-enabled by nature. Whether it works as well in reality as it did in the demos will become clear enough, but the immediate message is clear: Apple intends to compete here and do so inexpensively. Its apps run only $20 each and aside from the possibility of some storage costs don't require an annual subscription fee, unlike Microsoft's. More importantly perhaps to iPad customers, you can actually use them on your iPad.
Oh, and not only did Apple show their apps running on Windows in a browser, they showed a drag-and-drop of an Office doc, converting instantly for use. That was Apple's way of saying, "It's safe to convert over, we promise." What they didn't say much about, though, was getting those documents back out to your workgroup or colleagues. To date documents in iCloud have traveled too much of a one-way street: Easy to get in, hard to get back out. When everything is available, I'll try to revisit the Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft approach to cloud office apps.
Not too cloudy for some surfing
Apple has named its desktop OS after large cats -- Tiger, Mountain Lion -- since launching OS X but it's decided to make a break and call the new version Mavericks, after the famed Northern California surf spot. Without reading too much into that, let's just say that much effort has gone into making your Mac and iOS devices work better together. For a long time, a Google Maps search on your desktop was easily found on your Android phone; Apple now has the same with iPhone and Mac. But there are additional subtle improvements as well.
If you get notified of an iMessage on your desktop and clear that notification, you won't see it again when you pick up your phone, same for a calendar appointment. And, perhaps at last, the Safari browser will work almost as seamlessly as Google's Chrome, where you can easily move between them, getting the benefits of autocomplete, bookmarks, etc. without having to even think about them. For me, this will be the single-biggest test: If Apple convinces me to even consider using their browser instead of Chrome, I'll believe they've got the cloud right.
The instant analysis, though, is that Apple was lagging Google terribly here and they have at least closed the gap. Perhaps in some ways they've moved ahead for Mac users because Google's Chrome OS is lightly used as a primary desktop environment and some of the Apple features seem more robust.
Most of the other changes to Mac OS X are the kind of stuff that power users will appreciate and regular folk will rarely use, although it does appear that the integration between your laptop and AppleTV will be better than ever. If it gets to the point where the average person can play their computer content through their TV, Apple will have achieved something that seems like it should have been figured out years ago.
And about those power users
It's important to remember this is a developer event and for Apple that developer support helps keep demand for its phones and tablets strong, even in the face of the doom and gloom of the tech press. But there's another group that actually kept Apple in business when the company actually nearly went under before the return of Steve Jobs: graphic designers and other high-end computer users. Those folks are basically the customers of the MacPro, which hasn't been redesigned since 2010.
At last, later this year, a new version will roll out and while it looks like some sort of newfangled Dyson vacuum, it promises to deliver the kind of computing power those folks need, with much-improved graphics and processing power and tons of expansion capability. Phil Schiller discussed the Mac Pro's capabilities and again echoed Apple's theme of calling out the tech press: "can’t innovate anymore my ass."
Had Apple been able to ship the Mac Pro today, many no doubt would have bought one immediately, but in the big picture, this is a tiny potion of the company's business. There had, in fact, been rumors the company would drop the product line after waiting so long to upgrade it. But Cook promised a new model last year and now Apple seems close to delivering one. This is going to "assembled in the U.S.," Apple says, but that seems hardly impressive given that it suggests the parts will be fabricated elsewhere and with such low volume, it's unlikely to bring many new manufacturing jobs on shore.
In the end, there is a lot here for a lot of people to like, but a lot of questions that remain unanswered. iCloud is still a wwork in progress, but its a lot better fleshed out than it was a year ago. Apple's commitment to the corporate market didn't get the possible huge upgrade it could have -- broad device-management services, for example -- but there were small nods to the reality of Apple in the workplace.
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