Where the hell is Apple?

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By Richard Woods

Apple has a reputation for being very secretive as to what they are working on. That’s why people love to spread rumors about what they are doing. If you search the internet, you could find hundreds of images of what the next iPhone will look like, even though it’s all speculation until Apple makes an official announcement, and we haven’t heard an official announcement from Apple since they announced the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad back in November. So here we are six months later and Apple is clearly falling behind their competitors and we haven’t heard a thing about what they’re working on. Well Apple’s big yearly event WWDC – which stands for World Wide Developer’s Conference – is coming next month and all eyes are on Apple. So what are we going to see?

First we have to look at Apple’s history. Typically, we get a new phone every year between July and September which ships with a new version of iOS. The iPad was a yearly refresh as well until last year when they came out with the third generation model in March, the fourth generation model in November, and surprisingly decided to discontinue the third generation model and continue to make the second generation model as a low end model. When they did this, many people that bought the third gen iPad were upset because their product was rendered obsolete so quickly. So based on Apple’s history, I would not expect to see a new iPhone or full size iPad in what remains of the first half of this year.

Next we should look at what Apple has to do to catch up with the rest of the technology industry. Touch screens are rapidly becoming the standard in the pc industry. Google has even introduced a touch screen ChromeBook called the Pixel. Windows 8 is designed with the idea of a touch screen in mind and it assumes that touch screen is the future of the industry. Touch screen computers are coming in all shapes and sizes from tablets that turn into laptops to laptops that turn into tablets and everything in between. Microsoft has released the Surface RT and the Surface Pro which are the first tablets that run Microsoft Office and they have attachable keyboards.

Apple currently doesn’t make any kind of touch screen computers aside from the iPad and who hasn’t at some point tapped the screen of a MacBook expecting something to happen? One thing that we know about Apple is that they don’t do anything unless they can do it perfectly and Mac OS isn’t quite yet designed for touch screens. But the key word in World Wide Developer’s Conference is “Developer”, meaning they won’t necessarily be announcing any amazing new products but they will be appealing to developer’s and telling them what they need to know to keep making great software for Apple products. Everyone knows that there will be a preview of the new operating system that will come to iPhone and iPad, iOS 7. My suspicion is that we will also see a brand new Mac OS that’s a little more like Windows 8 in that it will be designed for touch screens and pave the way for touch screen computers that will come in the fall.

So no word in six months and all we’re gonna get is a couple of OS refreshes? Not necessarily. The next thing we have to look at is what everyone is expecting from Apple. Since the retina display was released with the iPhone 4 and gradually made its way around Apple’s universe everyone wants every Apple product to have one. The brand new iPad Mini still doesn’t have a retina display and the MacBook Air still doesn’t have it. So two new completely redesigned operating systems, an iPad Mini with Retina, and a MacBook Air with Retina can make for an impressive keynote, but “Apple impressive”? I’m not so sure.

We want something new. Something innovative. We want the new iPod announcement, the new iPhone announcement, the iPad announcement…we want the Steve Jobs special. Many people have talked about the possibility of an iWatch and for some reason, I’ve never heard the words “iWatch” and “FaceTime” in the same sentence. Why not? Video calling through a wristwatch? Definitely a product that I would buy. It’s also something that they would need apps for, so it’s very likely something that they would announce at a developer’s conference.

The rumor of an Apple TV (a physical set top box) has been around for a few years now, but that’s hardly an exciting product. What will an Apple TV do that every other TV doesn’t do at this point. Apple is a computer company and they are currently losing market share in every aspect of the computer industry. It makes no sense to create a product in a market they are not in when they clearly need to keep their focus on the market that they are in.

One last thing that I wanted to talk about is the possibility of a game console. iOS is known as one of the best touch screen gaming platforms out there and we know that there will be a few Android powered gaming consoles coming soon and Microsoft just announced their new Xbox One console. Can you imagine playing Madden on your iPlay and being able to design your own plays on your iPad while you play the games on your TV? But this doesn’t seem to be something that we will see at a developer’s conference as it is more of a consumer product.

So what will we see from WWDC next month? The new iOS 7 is a guarantee and a matching redesigned Mac OS is likely to come with it. An iPad Mini with Retina will likely be there to replace the existing iPad Mini at its $329 price point. The existing iPad Mini is likely to drop from $329 to $229 to compete with the high end smaller Android tablets. The Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD both retail for around $199 depending on the size of the hard drive. And one more thing…the all-new iWatch with video chatting capabilities.