Apple at WWDC

Yesterday was a big day for true Apple fans, as the company held an event at the World Wide Developers' Conference. But for the casual follower like me it turned out to be yet another underwhelming Apple keynote. I had a late lunch and followed along with CNET's live blog (very well done). And I was really hoping for a "one last thing ..." moment, but it just never happened. It's sort of like Christmas with some presents but no surprises. And the presents weren't that great either. Basically there were three main aspects to the talk:

First, the laptop line had a few relatively modest updates and there is one new model ... if you have $2199 (or more) to spare. But even if it is the world's first retina display laptop, to me that just feels like way too high a price to pay. You'd have to be a real power user to possibly justify it. I'm more than delighted with my retina iPad (less than a third the cost), and my budget Windows laptop (ditto). I truly don't feel I need anything more.

Then, to accompany the new laptops, there will be a new Mountain Lion operating system. Older model users will also be able to upgrade for a very affordable $19.99. Now there's a place Windows could definitely improve. I have no idea how much the upcoming Windows 8 will be, but based on previous experience, it could be well over a hundred dollars. Not the way to encourage people to upgrade at all.

Finally we got to something relevant for me - so long as I don't mind waiting three or four months. iOS 6 will be out sometime this fall. Probably along with the next iPhone and, just maybe, finally a decent iPod Touch. Unfortunately, as of now, it will not be available for the first iPad - not because of hardware issues but simply because they don't support that model anymore. That is rather disappointing; I don't feel a two-year old device should really be considered obsolete. Anyway, I am definitely looking forward to getting to experiment with Siri. The new Safari sounds good. The new Maps might be nice. And I certainly liked the sound of an email notification system that lets you designate certain contacts as top priority so you're always notified of their messages. No more missing out on important emails because they got lost in my 7000 or so other messages! In total there are supposed to be over 200 improvements/new features. I guess further details will be forthcoming over the next few months, but I'm already looking forward to it.

Et c'est tout. Disappointing, like I said. And it seems as if a few other people felt similarly: shares of Apple stock fell $12 in the hours following the keynote. Guess we'll just have to wait until fall for our big surprises.