Lots of rumors abound Apple’s upcoming WWDC June 10 but Cupertino’s only really confirmed new iterations of iOS and OSX for the developer conference. Amidst all the wish-listing of features that would be great (keyboard fixes) and that will never happen (hiding Apple-branded apps), plenty of hints about what will actually grace the stage Monday have trickled out as well.
A fairly massive overhaul of the UI with signs pointing toward a “flat” design has be the most loudly echoed expectation of iOS 7 so far. Apple’s industrial design wizard Jony Ive has reportedly expressed his disdain for iOS’s current textured skeuomorphism and inconsistency. In the short term, this could mean an end to roundly despised features like the green-felt Game Center and inescapable wooden magazine rack, Newstand. In the long term, it will almost certainly lead to a cleaner, simpler user experience.
Of course, simpler doesn’t necessarily mean less. Just as it did with Facebook and Twitter, Apple could more deeply integrate other social networks, with Flickr and Vimeo being mentioned as candidates to really cozy up to iOS 7, according to 9-to-5 Mac. That would make for easier sharing but the system-wide share menu is already crowded, so squeezing in more options could be tough on an iPhone 5 and pretty much impossible on any iPhone or iPod older than that.
But if iOS users want to skip the middleman and zip content directly to someone nearby, an option might be coming for that. 9-to-5 Mac is seeing the hype around the iOS update this year once again settling in on AirDrop, which would allow users to send files over the air between iOS devices. It could make sharing photos, videos and documents much more convenient and, if enabled for OSX devices as well, make it simpler to push files to a computer.
Focusing entirely on redesign and integration without paying attention to services would be a critical miscalculation for Apple. But luckily, aside from the countless API updates it’s likely to roll out at WWDC, Apple could also have a cool new service for its end-users. Apple’s supposedly launching a streaming radio service soon. In the style of Pandora, “iRadio” probably won’t be a Pandora-killer or killer of any other similar service in such a crowded field. But if the rumored song rewind feature comes to fruition, it could be enough of a differentiator to set Apple’s offering apart from the pack.
So many experts seem to think there’s nothing left to do but watch Apple’s ship sink, but Cowen telecoms analyst Matthew Hoffman thinks the iOS 7 launch will be an “unappreciated growth catalyst” for the company. A Cowen note released yesterday still sees software as the key point of differentiation for Apple and anticipates the iOS 7 update running well on the iPhone 4S.
Whatever changes Apple rolls out for iOS 7 aren’t likely to be too earth-shattering but should at least divert attention from Apple’s troubles for a day or two.
Filed Under: Devices
