How about them Apples?

Stung by criticism of neglect of its desktop market, the Mac maker is injecting life into its desktop computers

If you were expecting the traditional, “and one more thing” from Apple’s big announcements in the US this week, you would’ve been disappointed. Those days are gone. Under the tyrannical rule of Steve Jobs, suppliers and would-be leakers were terrified of the omertà imposed by the secretive co-founder, and leaks were not tolerated. This choke-hold has slowly loosened under the less maniacal Tim Cook.

Apple, reeling from scorn of its lacklustre Macbook Pro update last year and harsh criticism about the lack of new high-end Mac desktops, took the unprecedented step of announcing updates to these seemingly neglected products.

The Worldwide Developer Conference held each June is usually where Apple announces updates to its operating systems (OS), and where it may make the odd product announcement.

Monday night’s big announcements were therefore expected. Cook and his team unveiled the new tvos (with Amazon Prime Video); updates to the Apple Watch watchos; a new version of the desktop macos (called High Sierra); and updates to IOS, specifically with new features for ipads.

Apple also unveiled the US$4,999 imac Pro, its most powerful all-in-one imac yet, and its answer to accusations that it is ignoring its core market of video-editing professionals.

Among the updates to the desktop line-up are revamped imacs with boosted screen resolution and processors, as well as speed bumps for its Macbook laptops.

The much-rumoured ipad Pro 10.5 was revealed, as well as an updated version of the larger 12.9-inch model. The software now includes a proper file manager, an app dock, app switcher, and the ability to drag and drop between apps. While macos has started to feel like IOS, the ipad version of the latter is looking more and more like the former.

The last, biggest announcement was another poorly kept secret: a competitor to Amazon Alexa and Google Home voice assistant, called the Homepod. Looking typically Appleesque and enabled for Apple’s Siri, it contains numerous speakers and microphones and is described in the usual hyperbole as a “breakthrough home speaker” to “rock the house”.

It’s also designed to take on Sonos, the market leader in wireless speaker systems. When it releases in December, we’ll have a better idea of how good it is.

Meanwhile Apple has been keen to let us know how well its services division is doing. So far 180bn apps have been downloaded and it has paid $70bn to developers, who receive a 30% cut of the total cost of an app.

Apple has been stung in recent years by falling iphone sales and criticism that it has lost its mojo — which the neglected imac, Mac Pro and Macbook Pro seemed to demonstrate. This week’s announcement is aimed at restoring these computers to fighting fit, as Windows 10 and Microsoft’s Surface tablets and laptops have given the Mac maker a run for its money. Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of

imac Pro is Apple’s answer to accusations that it is ignoring its core market of videoediting professionals

Stuff magazine (stuff.co.za)