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June 11, 2007

events

All the WWDC predictions you’ll ever need

Posted Jun. 11, ’07, 5:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » Events

WWDC badge The day has finally arrived. It’s been months of anticipation for me and, I’m assuming, all of you. By now, I’m sure you’ve read predictions telling you to expect everything from an iPhone SDK to OS X gaining virtualization. Without further ado, I put my reputation, or lack thereof, on the line.

Likely

  • Leopard features revealed. That line about Top Secret features has become infamous. If that feature complete beta is released to attendees, it’s only a matter of minutes until they’ll be revealed anyway, so expect Steve to talk it up.
  • iPhone talk. Steve will mentioned unparalleled interest and the technology behind it. I also expect service plan pricing to be described.

Unlikely

  • Hardware. While we could possibly see a hardware revision, we won’t be seeing a run of the mill incremental update. In the past year, Apple’s made it clear those updates no longer deserve fanfare. For there to be a hardware update at the keynote, it’ll need to include a case redesign or be an entirely new model.
  • iPhone SDK. The closest thing to an iPhone SDK we might see is a special version of WebKit that allows users to simulate surfing the web on an iPhone, primarily for web developer testing purposes.

Just no

  • Full up iPhone SDK. If Apple really had intentions of releasing an SDK at WWDC, they wouldn’t have made any kind of reference to later this year. Cingular has a legitimate financial concern when it comes to unfettered network usage, which is the same reason we’ll be seeing just SMS and not iChat on the iPhone.
  • Virtualization in Leopard. Apple doesn’t get anything out of developing its own virtualization software. They currently have two well established software companies duking it out for the Macintosh market. One is inexpensive and the other is currently free. Neither is hardly an imposition for interested users. Apple doesn’t have to shoulder the support or support costs. Finally, it’s in our best interests because with an Apple solution, the third party developers will meet decreasing demand until they quit, ending all innovation. And all the costs that Apple would incur would get passed on to us.

With that on the books, tell me what I’m wrong about. What did I miss? We’ll meet up afterward to mock each other’s wrong predictions. Get on the books in the comments.


9 Comments

Will said:

I haven't seen this anywhere so I will go out on a limb...how about the Iphone touchscreen interface showing up in a new line of Macbook/MackbookPro and new Apple Displays?

June 11, 2007 5:59 AM
sjm said:

I think that we might see some Ilife updates as well.

June 11, 2007 6:27 AM
jayH said:

do they announce new case designs during WWDC? because that ugly iMac CLEARLY needs updating...

June 11, 2007 6:34 AM
Walt said:

I’ve gone on record elsewhere, but I don’t want to miss out on being mocked, so I’ll sum here. New iPods. Touch-screen iPods that is. Ooo… I can almost feel the hurt of being mocked on that one now. Redesigned iMacs. Nothing but talk (and demos) for Leopard, iWork and iLife. They’ll be released all at once. New (redesigned) iMacs. Talk on iPhone SDK, maybe some as of yet unseen features of iPhone (which by the way, I broke contract on two of my household phones that were T-Mobile that are *not* going to be iPhones and brought them up under out AT&T landline account – come June 29th, all I’ll have to do is switch my remaining T-Mobile account that *will* become iPhone, BTW… breaking contract with T-Mobile is $200, not the $150 I thought it was. Oh well.)

June 11, 2007 7:31 AM
Ricardo Nunez said:

Forgetting iLife and iWork?

June 11, 2007 7:32 AM
pos said:

I don't know, I think that there may well be a new product or total redesign up Apples sleeve. Why would they need ensure that a couple of tall and narrow boards are covered? They look about the right dimension for an iphone, but there would be no reason for them to cover that!? We'll just have to wait and see. I'm looking forwards to grabbing the keynote none the less.

June 11, 2007 8:07 AM
Erik said:

Although Apple are very unlikely to provide virtualisation as part of Leopard.

However, they could provide kernel level programming hooks that make virtualisation easier and more reliable on Mac OS X.

This would allow systems such as Xen to be ported to the Mac.

June 11, 2007 8:22 AM
Stan said:

Although this is WWDC, I predict a Beatles on iTunes announcement, to coincide with the 40th anniv of Sgt. Pepper. (June '67)

June 11, 2007 8:31 AM
Walt French said:

> Cingular has a legitimate financial concern ...
> we’ll be seeing just SMS and not iChat on the iPhone.

AT&T/Cingular also has a legitimate financial concern in justifying a rich mothly subscription with an exclusive service.

Both the push-to-talk convenience of iChat and the network effects -- "You can iChat all your (iPhone-using) friends on the AT&T-exclusive iPhone!"

Look for the next round of carping to begin when AT&T announces the monthly plan for the iPhone. $75/month or so seems likely -- $1800 for a 2-year contract -- making the $600 for an iPhone look like chump change.

June 11, 2007 9:07 AM

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