I posted my Apple predictions earlier today in a short, quick list under a tongue in cheek title poking a little fun at Apple fans like myself. I didn’t see the need to elaborate further than a quick list since I knew many of you in the tech world have been following the same rampant rumors I have, and many of the predictions were really a given.

That said, am I the only person who found the overall WWDC keynote underwhelming? It was long on time and short on content. Granted, WWDC is a developers conference, so I understand the focus on developer news like applications, but I don’t think I expected it to stop so abruptly after the much anticipated iPhone 3G announcement.

Overall, it felt as if Steve Jobs was not his usual excited self, and not excited about the products he was pimping. Remember the last time we got that feeling from Steve? That’s right, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. And it turned out the release was beta quality and not up to Apple’s usual high standards, plus it took months to fix. That makes me worry for early adopters of the latest iPhone, frankly.

Out of my predictions, a few came true. One of the predictions I was most excited about, Mobile Me, turned out to be nothing more than what Apple should have been doing with their iPhone to computer, calendar, contacts and web interface all along - easy synching. Sure, Windows only offers ActiveStink (ActiveSynch), but the point is that they offered their sub par synching ability right from the get go.

Add in the fact that Mobile Me costs $99 a year, ad infinitum, plus the fact that there were no significant increases in storage under iDisk or other improvements, and I’m just not sold. Sure it is better than .Mac as it stood (this is .Mac’s replacement) but I think with the availability of cheaper (and often free) third party and social media applications out there doing the same thing they have some kinks to work out of this idea.

I must admit I am interested to find out if it auto synchs to Windows Mobile phones. Apple is known for including Microsoft apps in its master plan even though Microsoft rarely returns the favor, so I’m guessing it will. Sadly, I don’t want to drop the $99 to find out using my HTC Mogul and my MacBook. If any of you do, please let me know in the comments.

That’s right, in spite of the Big Announcement of the 3G iPhone (or the 3G Jesus Phone as a fellow writer likes to call it), I’m still not switching. I’m sticking with the HTC and Verizon. The iPhone still has some kinks to work out in terms of usability and feature set, though today’s improvements were a good start. Also, Apple can count on me switching when they drop the requirement for AT&T and include Verizon users in the master plan. I won’t be made to switch just because Steve Jobs says so. Choice in provider is as important as choice in phone for me.

Of the applications discussed, those like Band sounded fun but insubstantial, and TypeKey doesn’t thrill me at all. I was relatively underwhelmed by all but Loopt. Loopt isn’t going to replace Brightkite for me as a location based social media app for my phone, but I can see iPhone users that aren’t early adopters of other technology settling in to it like an old shoe because it is simply there and they won’t seek out something more exciting. "It just works" indeed.

I think Apple is going to get into some hot water with their Mobile News Network, which smacks of some of the copyright issues found with content aggregators like Shyftr and the ever popular video grabber Red Lasso. I will be reviewing Mobile News Network and the ramifications of it more fully separately and link back to it here later today for you.

The best part of the developer apps section of the keynote was the reveal of the Apps Store, another prediction come true. Having the apps available all in one place will make it easy to try them out and see what fits for you, and easier to support the developers who paid the arm and a leg it took to get a shot at the iPhone SDK plan. As part of the app section Steve Jobs addressed the OS 10.6 rumors as well (really, Steve, Snow Leopard? That was the best you could do?).

It was fascinating to watch the Apple stock plummet as the keynote became ever longer and more bland. Apparently the iSheeple are fair weather fans. The announcement of the 3G iPhone did stop the drop and return the stock to their $183 value, but Apple should never forget how its stock hangs on the every word of Steve Jobs. When Steve has a bad hair day, shareholders suffer.

Overall, we saw some decent apps hit the street that support Apple’s iPhone SDK program, we got a name for and release time frame for the next OS (10.6 will be Snow Leopard and appear in time for MacWorld in January or thereabouts), we got a release date for the 3G iPhone (July 11, if you were napping by that part of the keynote), and a release date for iPhone 2 software update for iPhones and iPod Touches (mid July). It wasn’t a total waste of an afternoon on the blogosphere, but it wasn’t Apple’s usual sparkle and panache either (although kudos to Twitter for staying up under the load - oh wait, they cheated with an API call decrease. Nevermind.)

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Related:

God Jobs to release new 3G Jesus iPhone version at WWDC and other Apple predictions

Steve Woz attacks Apple’s Steve Jobs for early iPhone price cut

Steve Jobs blinks, offers $100 store credits to early iPhone customers

iPhone 3G to drive Blackberry, HTC smartphone prices down

Apple announces details on $100 iPhone rebate

Stumble It!

Entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 5:02 pm under Apple.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Leslie Poston.