Why the world eats out of Apple’s hands
The announcements are predictable. New versions of everything Apple OS — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — are expected.
No, september isn’t the biggest month for Apple. But — okay, let’s reconsider that a bit: it is indeed a big month alright, thanks to arguably the tech world’s biggest announcement pertaining to some game-changing gizmo called the iPhone. The year’s middle months, however, are also of equal — if not more — importance for the $800 billion company.
Welcome to the Worldwide Developers Conference, Tim Cook & Co’s homecourt, where the best and brightest minds gather to strut their stuff, eager to get even that teenie-weenie slice of the technology market. Consider it Apple’s version of Google I/O and Facebook’s F8 — but, as CEO Cook says, it’s the longest-running developers’ event. Ever.
Of course, before Cook, there was some dude named Steve Jobs — who did nothing except propel Apple to the throne it’s sitting on pretty right now.
Anyway, while the WWDC — which starts on Monday here at the San Jose Convention Centre in California — actually started in 1983, not much was pretty known about it from its inception until the mid-1990s.
It was also in 1983 that the legendary Jobs unveiled the infamous “1984” Apple commercial, which made its appearance in Super Bowl XVIII the following year and introduced the Macintosh, pretty much propelling Apple into the consciousness of the public. Oh, and Jobs wasn’t wearing his signature turtleneck shirt back then; go ahead and search it on YouTube.
In 1998, Jobs — who a year earlier was brought back to the very same company he founded in his home’s garage in Los Altos — gave his first keynote at the WWDC, which would later be dubbed as “Stevenotes”, in reference to the hype he creates and the manner he would deliver his speeches. And since this was the pre-iOS era, Apple’s focus was on its main arsenal, desktop machines, as well as its strategies with going against Bill Gates and the rest of his tech army over at Microsoft.
Things took a turn in 2002 when Jobs and Apple fully flaunted OS X — even holding a mock funeral for OS9 at the event. Since then, Apple used the WWDC to make major announcements for its upcoming products — most notably, the release of the iPhone in 2007 (though it was earlier announced during Macworld in January).
In 2011, Jobs’ keynote at the WWDC was his last as he later passed away on October 5 that year. Cook took over, and the event has been stronger than ever, with participants eagerly anticipating what’s next from Apple, evidenced by the following milestone announcements at the WWDC. 1998 — Jobs makes his first WWDC keynote, showcasing Apple’s desktop offerings and plans to take on Microsoft. 2002 — Mac OS X 10.2 unveiled; mock funeral held for OS 9, indicating full focus for OS X. QuickTime 6 and zero-configuration networking tech Bonjour announced. 2003 — Power Mac G5 unveiled. Mac OS X Panther, Safari 1.0 and iApps (now iLife) suite introduced. First-ever iSight camera given to attendees. Advanced screening of Finding Nemo held. 2004 — First Apple Cinema Displays in 20- and 30-inch widescreen models launched, podcast support for iTunes demonstrated (iTunes was released at Macworld 2001) and Mac OS X Tiger previewed. 3,500 attendees. 2005 — Jobs announced Apple was leaving the x86 platform to partner with Intel. 3,800 attendees. 2006 — Mac Pro replaces G5, killing off the last PowerPC Mac. Ten improvements to Mac OS X with Leopard were introduced, including Time Machine, Spaces, Boot Camp, Core Animation and others. 4,200 attendees. 2007 — The original iPhone was released after being unveiled at Macworld earlier in the year. Full beta version of Mac OS X Leopard rolled out, Safari brought to Windows, EA announced more games for Mac and third-party Web app support for Safari on the iPhone discussed. Over 5,000 attendees. 2008 — App Store came with iOS 2.0, essentially kicking off the mobile app wars. iPhone 3G announced and Mac OS X Snow Leopard previewed. First sold-out event in WWDC history. 2009 — Marketing head Phil Schiller takes Jobs’ place in the keynote as the latter was on medical leave. Upgrades for unibody 15- and 17inch MacBook Pros (released in late 2008) announced, while MacBook Airs were also boosted. iPhone 3GS (which came with copyand-paste), Spotlight and MMS introduced. Tickets sold out two months before the WWDC began. 2010 — iPhone 4 unveiled with over 100 new features, most notably a revamped design and Retina Display. iPhone OS renamed to iOS, plus new apps introduced, including FaceTime and iMovie for iPhone. Tickets sold out eight days before becoming available. 2011 — Jobs’ final public keynote before his death later in the year unveiled iCloud, iOS 5, iTunes Match and Mac OS X Lion. Tickets disappeared within 12 hours. 2012 — Cook takes over WWDC keynote. New models of MacBook Pro (one with Retina Display) and MacBook Air announced, plus previews of OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6. Tickets sold out in 1 hour and 43 minutes. 2013 — Souped-up Mac Pro and MacBook Air models, plus refreshed AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme announced. iOS 7, OS X Mavericks and iWork for iCloud revealed. Tickets vanished in, well, 71 seconds. 2014 — The biggest software updates since the App Store’s release were unveiled, including iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. For the first time, tickets were sold lottery-style via Apple’s website. $25 iTunes gift cards splashed to mark the WWDC’s 25th anniversary. 2015 — Apple Music debuts. Major new software announced, including iOS 9’s new features, OS X El Capitan and the first big update to Apple Watch. Swift also announced to become open-source software to support iOS, OS X and Linux. 2016 — Deemed the largest ever edition for developers as Apple announced it would allow thirdparty developers to extend functionality in Siri, Apple Maps and Messages. Updates to iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10 unveiled, while OS X was renamed to macOS with a new version, macOS Sierra.
— alvin@khaleejtimes.com