What to expect from the WWDC 2013 Keynote

WWDC is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and it kicks off today with an always much anticipated keynote. The keynote event can be streamed online so tons of internet traffic will be pouring through Apple’s datacenter starting at 10AM Pacific. I thought it might be fun to summarize what I think we can expect to see in the keynote and see how much of it comes to pass and see what ends up being a surprise.

iOS 7

We know iOS 7 is coming and we can expect it to have a much flatter look from a design perspective. If the rumors of a redesign under Jony Ive weren’t enough, the WWDC poster for iOS 7 (shown above) should give much more weight to these rumors. The very thin font multi-colored 7 used to represent the operating system lines up nicely with the descriptions of how the new design might work. Many of the rumors have stated that each Apple application will have its own single color highlight that will compliment an otherwise relatively “black and white” experience. One look at the recently released WWDC app gives some hints as to what this might look like:

As for new features in iOS 7, clearly there will be some. Most of the rumor focus has been on the redesign though, so most of it would be pure speculation at this point. I would expect to see some major new APIs though as there are a ton of sessions at WWDC this year that are marked “Session to be Announced”. The contents of these sessions won’t be known until after the keynote so something has to fill them.

OS X 10.9

Given the thin font is present in the X used on the OS X poster, I can only assume we’ll see similar design changes on the desktop OS as well. Most of the rumors surrounding changes in OS X have focused on power user features. These include things like a new tabbed interface for the Finder and a new fullscreen mode that allows multiple fullscreen workspaces on a system with multiple monitors. It is unclear whether or not Siri will make its way to OS X or not.

One other thing Apple has mentioned in its WWDC lead up is that the developer tools have been revamped. It’s not clear at this point what has changed, but I’m hopeful for some major improvements on this front.

iTunes Radio

An Apple streaming radio service has been long rumored and was supposedly scheduled to be released in the iOS 6 timeframe. Most Apple watchers have suggested that it has been very difficult for the company to get all of the record industry on board. It seems as though they have everyone on board at this point and we may see something released on this front at WWDC this year.

New hardware

New MacBooks of some sort using Intel’s new Haskell processors are almost a given this year. Apple’s online store is already down which always suggests new hardware is on the way. Based on some leaked retail SKU numbers it seems pretty clear that the MacBook Air line will be updated. What’s less clear is whether or not the MacBook Pro line will get any updates at this time. Both are due for updates soon though so it wouldn’t surprise me either way.

Another rumor for new hardware has centered on the fact that recent builds of OS X include support for Broadcom chips supporting 802.11ac WiFi. If the new MacBooks support this wireless chip it seems fairly obvious that Apple will need to offer new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule products that support this higher speed wireless.

Surprises?

Maybe we’ll see an iWatch or an iTV. Who knows. All I know is I’m looking forward to WWDC.

Contact

If you want to reach me, I’m easiest to find on Twitter @brentschooley but you can also email me at bschooley@infragistics.com.