Managing Expectations ⇥ macobserver.com

Judging by the number of prediction posts that have sprung up in my feed reader over the past few days, it must be just a couple of weeks until WWDC.

Noah Kravitz of ReadWrite thinks you need to lower your expectations:

CEO Tim Cook also dropped a veiled hint that this WWDC might not be momentous during Apple’s second quarter earnings call. When asked to clarify some comments he’d made about the company’s short-term product roadmap, Cook responded, “I’m just saying we’ve got some really great stuff coming in the fall. And across all of 2014.”

Cook didn’t rule out a hardware launch at WWDC, but he certainly didn’t set expectations very high with the “And across all of 2014” part of the comment.

Jim Dalrymple thinks that iOS 7 is full of subtle tweaks:

Personally, I don’t think that Apple will take it as far as what some might think. The way I envision iOS 7 is more of a modernization of the look and feel of the operating system. Kind of like what Apple did with OS X over the years.

Jeff Gamet of the Mac Observer thinks that some people are expecting far too much:

My money is on exciting announcements for iOS and OS X, but it may take a while for analysts and some Apple fans to realize just how important those are.

If you think iOS 7 is just getting a lick of paint here and there, your expectations are far too low and need to be adjusted.

If you think iOS 7 is going to be a complete reconsideration of what can be done on a touch screen, your expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted.

The critical thing to keep in mind is that WWDC is a developer-centric event. While Apple did announce the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 during WWDC, the product has clearly shown its ability to withstand its own product introduction event. Therefore, any story that purports that iPhone updates are coming at WWDC are nonsense, and you should disregard them.

As for my own predictions, I feel they’re modest. Given Intel’s introduction of the Haswell architecture, I wouldn’t be surprised to see bumps to the MacBook lines. It’s likely that they will merely be spec bumps; I don’t anticipate a Retina display making its way into the MacBook Air this year. A new Mac Pro seems likely as well, but keep in mind what Marco Arment wrote earlier this year.

According to the rumours, iOS 7 will certainly see redesigned default applications, and integration with Flickr and Vimeo. I wouldn’t be surprised if some features from OS X made their way into iOS — the quick entry field in Calendar, and Gatekeeper are two that come to mind.

As for OS X, we haven’t heard many rumours. That’s probably why it’s the update I’m most excited for. The tenth of June is just a few days away, and I can’t wait for Apple’s surprises.