Hits and misses from WWDC17
Siri’s a snoozer but iMacs are A-OK,
Apple had a chance to pull out its big guns, and really, really beef up personal assistant Siri to take on Amazon Echo and the Google Assistant.
It didn’t do that Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Based on its presentation, and the announcement of a new HomePod speaker which featured amazing sound first and Siri integration second, we’ll have to call Apple’s feeble attempt at improving Siri the biggest miss of WWDC.
Siri, which has taken a backseat in development, will have a new voice in the fall that will have inflections, be able to translate some foreign phrases and offer us several options to queries instead of one.
“I didn’t care, and none of the developers I spoke with cared, either,” says Benoit Vatere, a Los Angeles-based app developer. “Siri matters to Apple ( because it’s a feature of the iPhone) but not to us. Nothing changed.”
Here are eight others in our hit-and-miss column.
APPLE PAY
Millennials like to go out to dinner, concerts and other social functions and use digital funds to pay each other back. Right now, the app of choice is PayPal’s Venmo, but Apple’s new peer-to-peer payment scheme, coming in iOS11, looks to break down the friction of an app. Payments will be made through iMessages as a text message. Since Apple already has our sign-in credentials and ability to use TouchID to authenticate, reaching to pay up should be easier in iMessages than on Venmo. Our take: It’s a HIT for Apple but a MISS for PayPal.
NEW IPADS
Sales for the iPad tablets have been falling steadily for years as iPhones got bigger and consumers preferred using those larger screens to a tablet whose main functionality hasn’t really changed since the first edition. So now Apple has a bigger (10.5 inches) and more powerful iPad with a hefty $649 price tag.
Our take: I love the tablets, but when the best that Apple’s website can tout is a “120MHz refresh rate” as a reason to buy a 10.5-inch iPad (as opposed to the $329 entry level edition), you know even Apple realizes this one is a MISS.
IMACS
The desktop computer from Apple is bargain priced, relatively, starting at $1,299 with a 21-inch monitor, and has always been a workhorse. The iMac hasn’t changed much over the years, leaving Apple with little to sell except — again — power and a brighter screen.
Our take: The computers are indeed beautiful and would make a fine addition to anyone’s home, but for this ranking, we have to go
NEUTRAL. It’s neither a hit nor miss.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Apple introduced a software kit for developers to teach them how to bring AR to their apps, for su- per-imposing digital images over real ones. Apple did a poor job of explaining what consumers will be able to actually do with AR beyond playing awesome games. Still, Vatere thought the AR announcement was the biggest takeaway from WWDC. “It lets us bring fiction to reality,” he says.
Our take: A big HIT.
DO NOT DISTURB
A new IOS feature lets drivers opt-in to turn their screens dark via bluetooth and Wi-Fi while driving. It sounds great — but what tech addict is going to vote to do this voluntarily?
Our take: Political points for Apple, but overall a MISS.
NEW ITUNES APP STORE
The problem with the app store is that it features thousands of apps, and finding new ones is hard. So in the fall, Apple will redesign it to look like Apple Music and feature one cool new app per day, instead of several at a time.
Our take: The same old problem of discovery doesn’t sound like it will improve. It’s a MISS.
HOMEPOD
The new speaker sounded fantastic when I heard it, but at $349 this is a big purchase for consumers who have shown much interest in low-cost speakers from Amazon and Google. Siri is an afterthought here to the music (see above), which probably makes sense. Still, going after Amazon and Google on the low end was probably a battle Apple wasn’t going to win. Our take: It’s a HIT.
APPLE TV FANS
Finally, the best announcement of the day for consumers. Amazon TV — original shows such as Goliath, Transparent, I Love Dick and others, are finally coming to the Apple TV set-top box, and for this, everyone wins. Amazon, Apple and Google have been acting like brats. Amazon won’t sell Google Chromecast or Apple TV products because they compete with Amazon’s Fire TV. How nice to finally see some grown-ups in tech land. Our take: For consumers, it’s a huge WIN.