Fans get a sweet, small bite from Apple
Few ‘wow’ moments at developers’ gala
For Apple fans, the iPhone maker’s first big conference of the year included plenty of assurances that the company has kept refining its suite of iproducts with upgrades and new devices, the most notable of which was an anticipated entry in the voice speaker market.
Among the offerings: The ability to pay friends with Apple Pay. An iPad with a larger, sharper screen. How about an industrial strength iMac for $5,000?
There were few wow moments, though, extending a trend in recent years of incremental refinements that keep loyalists happy but which fail to carve out huge new markets, like the first iPhones or iPods did.
Beyond making its voice heard in the voice-activated speaker market with HomePod, a space currently dominated by Amazon Echo and new entrant Google Home, Apple also unveiled a new augmented reality developer kit that could jumpstart an industry that has had fitful advances for several years.
“We believe AR in the next iPhone will be a turning point for the broader AR industry,” says Gene Munster, head of research at Loup Ventures, who predicts Apple will sell more than 100 million augmented units of the forthcoming iPhone, often dubbed X or 10.
Mainly, WWDC 2017 was just over two hours of jargonfilled tech-speak aimed not at consumers but rather developers. The biggest pitch was left for the very last, when CEO Tim Cook announced the 7inch, $349 HomePod — which ships in December.
HomePod seems in many ways like an echo of existing products on the market, in everything from form to price. But where Amazon and Google are peddling a robotic home assistant, Apple leaned on its music roots with its pitch.
Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, announced HomePod by taking a shot at the quality of the speakers in competitors’ products. Apple purchased Beats Electronics a few years ago and is hoping to pull fans of Beats headphones and wireless speakers over to HomePod.
Experts anticipate that Apple will pull the covers off a significantly revamped iPhone at its annual event in September.