Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Features, WWDC, Leopard, Developer
WWDC07: Bust or Boon?
It's not often I agree with Paul "Argue Cuz I Can" Thurrott, but sometimes he hits the proverbial nail on the head: In one sentence on his blog, Internet-Nexus, Thurrott sums up the WWDC keynote snooze-fest that wedgied some of the Mac community: "And now we know," say Thurrott, "that OS X is as mature an OS as is Windows and, in the end, there's really just not much you can do beyond the evolutionary stuff." If you ignore the "as mature as Windows" bit, you see the inarguable logic: OS X is a beautiful, powerful, and mature operating system. It's feature-rich, stable, and could easily be considered the best operating system on the market today. So why mess with a good thing?
WWDC keynotes are no longer about announcing revolutionary new features of Mac OS X, for the simple fact that we're all revolutioned out. OS X has reached its prime: it does what needs to do, plenty more, and any major revisions could wind up doing more harm than good. So now it's all about the tweaks, the "evolutionary stuff," as Thurrott calls it: refining the Finder, cleaning up the interface, fixing the tedious quirks that have plagued the OS from day one, etc. Jobs can't get on stage anymore and wow the audience with drool-y features like Exposé.
One could easily argue that the keynote was fudged. Jobs may have the power to take even the most mundane and make it sound world-changing: but when (most of) the material is genuinely bland, and uninteresting, and expected, even His Jobness himself can't save it. Maybe the problem here is that Apple doesn't realize it can't wow the general public with the minor OS X tweaks anymore -- that instead, if it wants to publicize the hell out of its WWDC keynotes, it should focus on pro hardware upgrades, on maybe a few new software features that might turn heads, on the new markets Apple's posed to commandeer: mobile, web, etc.; on only the stuff worthy of a Jobsian appearance.
From what I'm hearing, with few exceptions, developers loved WWDC. It's all about the sessions, the learning experience, the dev networking. The keynote, on the other hand, is for the public, for the tech-ignorant media: and this year's WWDC failed to recognize that.
[Update:] Already a reader, theodorelee, makes a point I should've mentioned: I'm referring to the end-user perspective, not the dev perspective. Leopard (like Tiger) is full of drool-worthy developer features. Would be remiss to not mention that.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
theodorelee said 1:12PM on 6-20-2007
From a end user, your perspective is correct. Leopard is very much an evolutionary product, albeit one of the biggest evolutions the product has seen since inception. However, from a developer standpoint, Leopard is very evolutionary. The stuff that is going to get made with Leopard is going to be awesome. Core Animation, Objective-C 2, Core Text, ImageKit, and PDFKit are just some of the latest additions to the developer tool box. And these will let developers (including Apple) make an incredible batch of apps that will be Leopard only.
You are already seeing some of this stuff with Time Machine. As Leopard is released, expect to see a large number of apps go Leopard only, due to the amazing technology Apple has put underneath the hood for developers.
So no, it's not revolutionary in terms of what end users will see use. But the toolset that has been created is revolutionary, and the apps that are a result of that very well may be revolutionary as well.
Small moves people, small moves.
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chesama said 1:19PM on 6-20-2007
yeah, the next "revolutionary" step is when we go all minority report-like and start seeing holograms in 3-d which we can interact with and spin around with our hands, and with keyboards which we can call up anywhere in our workspace.
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Aaron said 1:30PM on 6-20-2007
I don't really think that Apple did much to publicize this to make hype. I think that was mostly done by the blogosphere.
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The Jerk said 1:32PM on 6-20-2007
I'm not sure if I agree... I seem to remember people almost always being disappointed by the WWDC Keynote, and then they had to be reminded - "Its a DEVELOPERS conference." It always has been, and while the Keynote is a big deal for the public, they have to play a happy medium between consumer and developer and in the end neither are satisfied. Just like always.
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Matthieu Joly said 1:39PM on 6-20-2007
I totally agree that the keynote was boring and I suspect that it was caused by the iPhone introduction coming up. From all keynotes that I've seen this one is the only one that appears to have been rapidly prepared (just compare keynotes and see how Steve Jobs hesitate with his sentences, etc.).
From my point of view, I think that a lot more features were planned and that due to this iPhone launch they have been canceled for a next revision otherwise the Leopard launch would have been postponed even longer and this would have resulted in a share price decline not even acceptable for top management.
Regarding OS X, I think that there is still plenty to do, for example:
1. A real + green button on the windows, not one that works in some applications and not on others (iTunes for example).
2. A really better way to hand fonts. It's really a hassle to use the command-T palette in Apple applications.
3. A feature that really uninstall some software (preferences, etc.).
I hope some agree with me.
Best,
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Tony said 2:22PM on 6-20-2007
You said: "The keynote, on the other hand, is for the public, for the tech-ignorant media: and this year's WWDC failed to recognize that."
I respectfully disagree. The WWDC keynote is for the developers. It is not, and has never been, for the public. WWDC is not MacWorld. What this year's WWDC failed to recognize is that the blogosphere is full of people who want to force their own incorrect perceptions onto an event just so they have something to blog about.
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Jason T. Calhoun said 2:26PM on 6-20-2007
What I've found to be very interesting from a consumer standpoint is the lack of any mention of the iLife/iWork applications. Considering that the iLife suite seems to be the number one selling point in the Get a Mac ad series, I would have expected to have heard at least a vague acknowledgment that they even exist. (Maybe not so much at WWDC as it is billed as a developers' conference, but certainly something at Macworld back in January.)
iLife and .Mac are two major areas for consumers that seemingly have been all but ignored so far in 2007. I imagine (read: hope) that we'll hear more as we get closer to Leopard's release in October.
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Chris said 2:28PM on 6-20-2007
I really disagree...while there wasn't any new groundbreaking features shown off, Leopard as an OS is really looking sharp. I know Apple is trying to improve productivity with Spaces, Quick Look, as well as the network Spotlight, etc. For offices that start going Mac, this is huge. As far as OS X being an evolutionary product....I beg to differ. Apple supports their software efforts by selling hardware....and to sell hardware you need to keep putting out cool software. So, if Apple wants to keep selling tons of Macbooks, OS X will have to have features that sell even though the people who are sold on it don't use it!
This is a developer conference, not Macworld. Apple is done with the transition, theyve got products in the living room and in your pocket, as well as your desk. They're partnering with quite a few companies to do some interesting things. So don't think this is a company that reaches a goal and just kinda sits on it (Redmond).
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Slevin said 2:28PM on 6-20-2007
I disagree with the Snooze fest. The WWDC is meant for developers not consumers. That being said your justification is off base, you should not look at it as an end user, but rather a developer its like saying the unveiling of a new hybrid by VW was a snooze fest for race car drivers when it is a release for regular consumers. It does apple an injustice when you say the WWDC was a bust for end users when it wasn't designed for them, thats what Macworld in Jan is for.
When deciding weather or not something does not live up to its potential you should put yourself in the perspective of the target audience before you make any claims like that, it ruins your credibility. Besides agreeing with Thurrott is a sign of going insane.
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Dan Pourhadi said 2:30PM on 6-20-2007
Tony -- if the Keynote isn't for the public, what's with the press releases? Or the user-centric/dev-excluded features of Leopard, like Spaces, iChat, Mail, etc.? Why not focus more on new APIs, stronger emphasis on things like CoreAnimation, better developer support, the new Xcode and Xray and Dashcode? Why would they invite the media?
Why would they bring the game companies up there to talk about new games for the Mac?
The Keynote is a user/media-centric event because the user/media base has made it out to be, yes -- and Apple needs to accept and work around that, as they've always done.
Whether or not WWDC is a dev conference or not is irrelevant -- users and the media watch the keynote, and judge the announcements by what's made at the keynote. This opinion examines it from a user perspective -- and from a user perspective, OS X is passed the "revolutionary" phase and into the "evolutionary" phase, regardless of the developer perspective.
On principle, you're right: we shouldn't analyze it from a user perspective. But realistically, that's *how* the *Keynote* gets analyzed, by regular Mac users and the media alike. So analysis based on that is very relevant.The key here is that, in the media's eyes, Apple over-promised (with its "secret features") and under-delivered.
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Mark 2000 said 2:34PM on 6-20-2007
Paul is such an ass. I expect he'll be taking MS's money directly before the end of the decade - like Tony Snow and the White House. Exactly what, besides the stupid transparent menu bar - was a rip off of Vista? It can't be the revolutionary new backup system that totally kills system restore (which never saved me from a crash in 5 years). It can't be the iTunes functionality in the Finder. What in the world is he talking about? As usual he provides absolutely no details, just statements.
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Dan Pourhadi said 2:45PM on 6-20-2007
Slevin -- your VW analogy is flawed, because whereas racecar drivers won't use or care about the hybrid features of a new VW car, end-users DO care about and will use the features Jobs talked about at the WWDC keynote.
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Gerald Buckley said 3:04PM on 6-20-2007
Apple had better post the 9A466 image to ADC soon or several of us paid and in good standing Select members will bolt. To give 5,000 or so people access to the image while the other 90,000 or so of us have to sit at home on our thumbs is just plain stupid. WWDC is over already. Post the thing!
Also, if it's all about networking... why doesn't Apple get off their duffs and open a dev discussion forum where the other 90,000 of us can talk amongst ourselves about pre-release dev topics? It's not THAT hard folks!
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Tony said 3:12PM on 6-20-2007
Dan:
It's still a conference, so press releases make perfect sense. Not every developer is able to attend. Features such as Spaces, iChat, etc., while they are user-centric features, they still affect developers.
Bringing up game companies to herald a return to gaming on the Mac...well, it will hopefully encourage other game *developers* to come back to the platform.
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ziggybopper said 3:12PM on 6-20-2007
Evolutionary is the word. At the "D" conference, Jobs said you can't radically change the the user interface. Users wouldn't stand for it. One step at a time.
Add coverflow to the Finder now. Add coverflow to iLife and iWork in the fall. Then announce a new tablet-like touch-screen input device to replace the mouse at MacWorld that lets you manipulate all these coverflow apps like you can with the iPhone. Then, in a year or two, replace the keyboard.
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Greg G said 4:21PM on 6-20-2007
I think people would have been disappointed if he said Leopard coud read your thoughts.
To tell you the truth, as long as leopard has some options (and please, grid view+coverflow along with cover flow+list view), it'll be awesome!
Although I wish they did introduce a few upgrades to the MacPro, so it could be configured to function better as a gaming rig. =D
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jh said 6:24PM on 6-20-2007
No way.
If WWDC was a dev conference, why even talk about the "no Devs here" Iphone?
No, developing webapplications that can be accessed on a server is NOT developing Iphone applications.
So, why discuss the Iphone when you know full well that there's nothing for devs there?
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Catt said 7:22PM on 6-20-2007
I agree that WWDC is primarily a developer conference but unfortunately due to all the buzz Apple has been generating of late with their consumer products, the media and non developers have been paying lots of attention to WWDC for the past couple of years. I keep having to remind myself of three things when I watch these keynotes (1) this is not MacWorld (2) This is not one of those special events that Apple usually do in the Fall (3)Don't expect any major upgrades to hardware or software until the Fall. Oh and one more thing the iPhone seemed to have pushed everything back a bit.
I do think that the features in Leopard are pretty cool and look forward to playing around with them in the Fall. I am also looking forward to seeing what the developers will do with Core Animation and some of the other technologies mentioned. Oh and 64 bits come on folks you gotta love that perhaps that's why iWork and iLife is taking so long. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is converting them to 64 bit apps to run on that 64 bit OS. BTW Paul T can be a royal thorn in the side sometimes in this case he was a bit annoying. He admits that MS copied OS X for Vista now he's saying Apple copied Vista? In so far as Vista copied OS X I guess he has a point there. Can you copy back something that was already yours to begin with? OK I'll give him the grass wallpaper and the file preview and large icons but until I get my hand on Leopard and see how this is implemented for myself not much to say there.
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Ichiro said 10:13PM on 6-20-2007
I have been to many WWDC's (I think since 2000?) lol anyways this was the best WWDC so far. Sure the keynote was not "Groundbreaking" but like everyone said, this is WWDC not MacWorld. All the good stuff was afterwards all under NDA....
There were so many new people there this year, some had NO idea what OS X can do and what kind of development tools are available (for free with every mac!).
I predict a huge increase in software development for OS X. Just from talking with all of the 1st time attendees they were all impressed with the development tools and power of 10.5, also most of them are either independent or working for a very small company with very little overhead. Even though OS X has a very small market share in the world, a small company can still make a good profit from their OS X only software :)
Personally I am more interested in the enterprise part of things.... I think Leopard iCal and Mail (server) is ready for enterprise use. If BlackBerry's BES server supported CalDav I would dump exchange tomorrow.....
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Maarten said 5:18AM on 6-21-2007
I agree it will be more and more difficult for both Apple and Windows to come up with revolutionary new features with the current hardware(screen/mouse/keyboard). Revolutions in OSs will come from software/hardware combo's like the iPhone.
What bothers me is that they don't care about fixing inconveniences almost everybody knows and agrees about. For instance, when will Apple finally make their windows resizable on all sides? ..
Sure, that kind of improvements don't make people switch but lot's of current users would benefit from it.
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