But I thought it was about design awards being only focused on iPhone OS and not Mac OS X?
I don't believe for a second that Apple will not update the Mac Pro at WWDC. I can see Apple not updating the MBA. But Apple has to give its developers something for their $10k and $25k Mac Pros.
We all know iPhone OS will be huge as will the new iPhone. Even last year they spent the first 15 minutes announcing Mac updates quickly then spent remainder of two hours discussing iPhone and iPhone OS. I suspect the same this year. The Mac mini, iMac, MBA, and Mac Pro all need updates too. It's starting to be a joke. I am seriously beyond frustrated with Apple. It's ridiculous for them to expect us to buy this outdated ancient dinosaur JUNK!
Just to be more precise, there was more to the Mac at last year's WWDC than just the 15 minute introduction to the new Macbook Pros. Serlet did spend over 30 minutes discussing Snow Leopard. WWDC 2009 was almost evenly split between the two platforms.
This year's WWDC keynote is going to be really important for Apple and I believe the company's executives realize this fact. They are juggling a lot of balls at the moment and there is a significant of deserved and undeserved criticism from myriad parties.
I suspect that the Mac and OS X will be discussed very briefly at the beginning. "OS X 10.7 is well on its way, we'll have a developer's preview (insert date or quarter). In addition we're going to update Macbook Air or Mac Pro." It will be an update that will capture the imaginations of the target audience and put to bed the FUD revolving around "Is Apple Killing the Mac?"
There will of course be the mentioning of iPhone OS 4.0, services such as MobileMe, and the new iPhone. I imagine there will be fewer demos than in presentations past.
The majority of the time, however, could possibly be devoted to pushing back against much of the criticism levied against the direction of the mobile ecosystem and portraying a very clear roadmap for the platform's development. It's going to be very interesting to see how they adjust the roadmap's timetable given the proliferation of Android.
I want to push back against one of your recent posts in another thread.
1st, Apple is not abandoning its core customer base. For better or worse, Apple's core customer base in 2010 exists in the mobile sphere. The core Apple customer is not the person that always lives on the bleeding edge of computing technology anymore.
2nd, if we look at recent history, there are only 2 lines that are imminently in need of an update - the Mac Pro and the Macbook Air. The iMac and mac mini are right where they usually are and we should not expect an update before late summer early fall. There have been some nominal delays in the notebook area, and the chipset/integrated graphics issue that shrouds the notebook line is very reminiscent of the G4/G5 issue. I think it's hard to overstate this significant.
3rd, I fail to see where a lack of faster updates has proved to be inimical to the Mac or to Apple's stock. We haven't seen any contraction in Mac sales quarterly even as people have argued that Mac hardware is way outside the mainstream of PC hardware and prices. In fact, there has been growth. You are always going to be able to purchase a Windows machine with better hardware for less money. This dynamic will never change. So the frequency of updates is a poor rubric for assessing the competitiveness of Apple computers. I think the proper way to look at this is if consumers can walk into an Apple Store and find a computer that will handle everything that they want it to. If you put the majority of users in front of any mac from a Mini to a Mac Pro, the answer will be a resounding 'yes.'
4th, The mobile space is drastically different today than it was a year ago. Android is a worthy competitive to the iPhone OS. I see two dynamics responsible for the shine being taken off the iPhone. The rise of Android occurred in a mid-cycle for Apple. I doubt that Apple wanted to release a buggy OS 4.0 in advance or ramp up production of new hardware. The second, and probably most important is the carrier in the US. The international picture is quite different. I expect to see a more accelerated mobile roadmap to meet the new challenge, and if we don't, I share your frustration over the company's direction.
5th, I share your frustration about the lack of updates for the Macbook Air. I think it has been a great computer, it needs an update ASAP. I do think we need to be realistic that it is a niche product for the company. It is, however, grossly inaccurate to superimpose the frustration about the lack of updates to this product to the whole of Apple's lineup. If we look at the historical update patterns for the company over the last decade, any allegations that there is something 'up' so to say, is simply untrue.
Finally, I just want to share my personal attitude about hardware in 2010 that probably resonates with people outside the bubble. I simply stopped paying a lot of attention. In my office I have a desktop with a 3.06 ghz Core 2 Duo processor with the ability to expand to 16 GB of memory. On the road I carry a machine with a 2.26 Core 2 Duo with the ability to expand to 8GB of memory and hard drives as big as they can make. I can throw pretty much anything I do at either machine, and see no reason to update anytime in the next few years. Increased resolution and display quality are way more important than processor speed right now. Of course there will always be people who will use everything they can get their hands on, but the Core 2 Duo may be old technology, but it's still very good.
