2023-07-02 13:30:00
I deliberately waited for the weather to cool down WWDC23 to talk regarding my vision of the event.
Yes, I know that this is an event for developers and, as such, it aims to bring improvements to systems that are not necessarily seen by the “lay eyes” of the end user. But we cannot forget that the purpose of the changes is to evolve towards improving the user experience, making devices more intuitive and indispensable in our lives every day.
I also recognize that Apple’s operating systems have evolved a lot in recent years, which makes it difficult to bring changes that really call attention — many times we even prefer not to move too much so as not to disrupt what is working.
After all this disclosure to satisfy the most critical eyes of posts, let’s go to the critique. I watched the keynote twice and read the releases to make sure I didn’t miss anything interesting, but I confirmed that my initial vision remained: WWDC23 was full of marketing; but, from the perspective of productivity, very little evolution was actually presented.
Tim Cook on WWDC23
So let’s go through the main topics and highlight the frustrating points.
New products
I remind you that my statement is that there few evolution and not none evolution.
The 15-inch MacBook Air, while without any evolution in capabilities per se, was an interesting launch. A larger screen, quite portable, makes a lot of sense in times of WFA (work from anywhere). I’m testing the machine and should do a review soon, but first impressions are great! Light, thin and elegant like the 13″.
The first impact of the size is a little strange, but it only takes half an hour to get used to it and not want to go back to the smallest. Especially in the context that the M2 chip is quite powerful and probably enough for more than 70% of MacBook users and with the advantage of being much lighter/thinner than the 14″ MacBook Pro, this might be an excellent option!
The Mac Studio update might have been just a release for the press and placed in the Apple Store [Online] no fuss, it was just the natural cycle.
About the Mac Pro, well… speechless. Rafael, Eduardo, Rambo and Breno already described it well in the post-event podcast — which, by the way, you should listen to if you didn’t. I might not see the logic of this machine. Perhaps, one day, we will receive a special revelation that opens our eyes to something that made no sense, but until then, there is no reason to buy the Mac Pro, being so much more expensive than the Mac Studio.
I’ll leave the Vision Pro to the end.
Operational systems
In the central item of the WWDC, the changes in operating systems, very little was shown that was really relevant. We had some positive highlights in iPadOS 17 and iOS 17 such as interaction with PDFs on iPad, Visual Organizer improvements (Stage Manager) and Freeform, FaceTime video message options and more intuitive/realistic interaction in the widgets for both.
In Mail, the option to automatically place codes received for page validation is also interesting. But let’s face it: these changes would be a good choice for an iOS/iPadOS 16.6. For macOS Sonoma 14, perhaps better use of widgets would be something truly worthy of an OS evolution. O Stage Manager on the Mac, for me, it even makes more sense than on the iPad if you consider the way to interact and the size of the screen.
Apple often forgets that its products are used professionally and not just for entertainment purposes. Dedicate time to introduce the possibility of dragging emojis to the message, make a reply quickly or new Memojis gets annoying.
What I expected to see and didn’t: How long will we live without multiple users on the iPad? What features are introduced to bring the iPad closer to replacing a computer? They should have left to iPadOS 17 the possibility to use Final Cut Pro, released recently, which would have had something more relevant to show.
The iPad Pro had a very good evolution in 2018, it grew a lot with the emergence of an exclusive operating system, iPadOS; with the M1 chip and iPadOS 16, Apple has solved some problems that were very annoying, such as the impossibility of sharing the screen. But there is still a huge amount of programs that run on the Mac that don’t run on the iPad. The evolution of the iPad Air to the M1 also brought pressure for Pro models to have more professional features, but there was nothing specific to that product in iPadOS 17. I even sold my iPad Pro (with an M2 chip) and bought one iPad Air (with M1), much cheaper, and I basically didn’t feel any difference on a day-to-day basis — not least because the iPad’s camera, at least for me, has little influence on work.
On the Mac, macOS really is the most stable and mature operating system, and maybe that’s why little might be added. But speed and interface intuitiveness never hurt! In iOS 17, given the price and capacity of iPhones, we might have it much broader in professional terms, improving the interface. Why not the option to put the iPhone on a monitor? Why not bring some of the great features of iPadOS to iOS and turn the iPhone into an ultraportable precomputer? Due to the size of the iPhone Pro Max and the expectation that it can be even bigger, with sharing on the monitor and using a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard, we might have a great option for the iPhone as a professional gadget.
Yes, some minor things were interesting and will help us on a day-to-day basis, but my point is: what are the major evolution items? I think a lot was missing.
Apple Vision Pro
There is no doubt that the star of the event was the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro. We finally know the company’s wearable and augmented/virtual reality device (or at least the ideas for it).
Everything that was shown is really incredible, but many gaps were left in the air. I wrote here a review of Quest 2, by Meta. Although with interesting features, it is quite tiring to use for long periods of time, which makes its use at work quite difficult. Probably Apple’s glasses will be lighter, given that the battery is separate. But how comfortable will they be? What is really professional usability?
Of course it made me want to test the gadget, but the excitement soon had a bucket of cold water: the price. Even for the US market, $3,500 is a lot of money, especially for a device that still finds itself in a useful gray zone. With that amount, it is possible to buy a MacBook Air (M2), an iPhone 14 Pro and an iPad Air with Magic Keyboard — three devices with multiple uses and different approaches. Will the Apple Vision Pro be able to replace all three? I don’t think so, at least initially. The big question is how many will be willing (and financially able) to include this item in their Apple kit.
Conclusion
As the purpose of this column is to bring the perspective of the world of work, productivity and organization, I did not dedicate myself to commenting on the changes in watchOS and tvOS, although I saw interesting things.
WWDC23 featured all the traditional pyrotechnics, overproduction and impact statements like a good Apple event. But, following the frenzy and excitement passed, little was left of concrete evolution. As hard userI expect to see more consistent innovations in future rounds.
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#WWDC23 #Lots #Marketing #Evolution