Apple made yesterday a historical day in various ways. Steve Jobs was to launch software and no actual new devices (iPhone 5). The media knew in advance which Apple products would be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Why did they take this extra ordinary unexpected step? Simple, to ensure that the new software does not get lost in the usual hype which surrounds Apple product launches. Secondly, I think it was also a reassurance to their shareholders that Jobs would be there and not one of his lieutenants. (Their share price did take a bit of a nose dive.) The Software which will be available later in the year is the new Mac OS X called Lion and iOS 5 (for the iPhone and iPad).
“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.” Mac OS X Lion contains 250 new features and in my opinion is starting the blur between desktop and mobile device software for Apple.
New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. I really believe this could be the start of a trend for other big software manufacturers.“iOS 5 has some great new features, such as Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand and we can’t wait to see what our developers do with its 1,500 new APIs,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Perhaps iOS 5’s paramount feature is that it’s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post PC revolution that Apple is leading.” With iOS 5 and iCloud, you just enter your Apple ID and password and iCloud will seamlessly integrate with your apps to automatically and wirelessly keep all of your mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music and more up-to-date across all your devices without ever having to connect to a computer.
The biggest announcement was iCloud. I believe that what Apple is trying to ensure is the arduous synch function between your notebook / desktop PC and mobile devices will become less user dependant and more technology based (cloud). The fact that iTunes libraries, email, documents and images can be put into the cloud (iCloud) and accessed on any Apple device owned by a user. It is a genius move and the price for this service ($25 per year) will ensure that many users contemplate buying Apple Notebooks and desktops rather than buying any other devices. This is especially the case if the person owns an iPhone and iPad.
So Steve what is next? iPhone 5?
