WWDC ’17 was an opportunity to see what the road ahead looks like 16 years after iPod, and ten years after iPhone.
Let me begin with the end. The New Apple is the Old Apple. For the first time, Apple feels fully post Steve Jobs, while fully embodying what Jobs created.
I was so very impressed, and genuinely WOW’d by the breadth, depth and specificity of Six ‘Insanely Great’ Moments:
1. Apple Pay Cash is the Next Step. As an enthusiastic user of Apple Pay(mostly at Whole Foods, but also, occasional online purchases), I can attest to how magical the experience is of pulling out your iPhone, and having the device recognize the full context and logistics of the transaction. Via Touch ID, with a secure touch, you are done. Disclaimer: I have thought a lot about Digital Currencies, including Bitcoin, Block Chain and Tokens, and the realness of your iPhone as a Store of Value becomes even more so with the new Person to Person payment support coming to iMessage. Apple Pay and Touch ID make it very potent for a lot of use cases. Apple is starting to chew up a bigger portion of my wallet.
2. Machine Learning, Machine Learning and More Machine Learning.Apple has gotten the message that Machine Learning (ML) is the wellspring of the future. While they’ve baked ML into iTunes, iPhoto and Siri, they are now striving to make adding Machine Learning capabilities to numerous Media, Test and Task Libraries that are Pre-Trained. Trained Libraries are like perfected algorithms, whereas true Machine Learning looks for patterns, captures the data set systematically, and then gives you methods to amplify the learnings from the data set. Machine Learning is simultaneous in its infancy, and an Atomic Bomb that is ready to go off. In the same way that the ubiquity of being able to “Google it” changed everything, Machine Learning is the New Transistor. The applications are legion.
3. Augmented Reality is Really Good. Apple touted the fact that they will have the largest AR Platform in the world. From what I saw, by pushing out predictable iPhone, iPad and iMac releases, Apple is giving rise to applications that are “holy shit” good. Case in point, Peter Jackson, he the maker of the Lord of the Rings movies, is releasing something called Wingut AR, which has to be seen. It’s truly magical in the way that it uses the iPad as a Looking Glass. The various disciplines that Apple has brought together to crack the AR code is very impressive. All of this is built using Apple’s new ARKit, which in the days and weeks ahead, will yield a LOT of compelling apps. Of note is that both the AR and VR app below are powered by the Unreal Engine, Outlook: Given Apple’s expertise in display technology, Apple will come up with an Eyewear Family that deals in Overlay and Immersive Experiences.
4. Virtual Reality is Opposite Side of the Augmented Coin. One thing that’s important to understand about the way Apple approaches platforms, is that while they treat each form factor as stemming from the same OS core, they also cultivate each form factor as its own derivative. This has certain advantages. I wrote this some time back (see “Holy Shit! Apple’s Halo Effect”), and it’s more true than ever. Consider the Star Wars Virtual Reality demo by ILM/Epic Games, which you should watch, as it’s terrific…and thought provoking. It robustly piggy-backs on the power and software capabilties of the Mac to create a fluid, magically immersive experience. It also provides a frame of reference for understanding the distinction between AR and VR. The former Overlays reality, whereas the latter delivers a Fully Immersive Reality. It says here that Apple will be very at home in both AR and VR domains. Apple feels poised to deliver something that will open a new front for Developers, Devices and Deep User Engagement by extending Apple’s dominance in delivering Retina like Displays, Dynamic Visual Environments, Hi Fidelity Sound, Audio Control, Touch, Tilt and Siri.
5. HomePod: Reinventing the Home Music Experience. Let’s go no further than the basics. I love my AirPods, I loved every iPod and iPhone I’ve had specifically because it is so great to listen to. Apple delivering In-Home Sound with HomePod is a no brainer for me to embrace. It piggy backs on my Apple Music library. 40 Million songs in your Pocket…and now, with AirPlay 2, it becomes multi room. Apple is so smart to focus on multi room sound, and doing that really well, and only tangentially, as the Smart Speaker that would out-duel Alexa. But make no doubt, the HomePad does not have an A-8 chip in it, to solely deliver great sound. That noted, it smartly uses technology to optimize sound for a specific room environment, and for multiple speaker configurations in a same room to better orchestrate their settings. This is not coming out until the end of the year, so Apple still has to deliver the actual product, but if delivered, it will crush it during the holiday season.
With amazing sound, spatial awareness, and the vast Apple Music library, HomePod takes the speaker to a whole new level…www.apple.com
6. iPad Native Experience — iPad Pro. Apple finally got religion about what makes an iPad Pro a distinct iOS experience, versus merely being the bigger screen cousin of the iPhone. The new iOS does things like enable Drag and Drop, toggle between numerous Screen Modes, and generally embrace the BIG idea that iPad is a Magical Piece of Glass that can be translated into anything that you want. Watch the video below, and see what I mean.
iPad Pro introduces our most advanced Retina display, the powerful A10X Fusion chip, iOS features tailored for iPad…www.apple.com
I’d be remiss if I didn’t close by noting that sadly, there was no Jony. Not even as the voice guy on a cool Apple commercial.
Sabbatical, Secret Project or Sayonara?
