WWDC + iPhone 3GS
Posted on June 9, 2009 Leave A Comment
Gruber pretty much nailed every point of the Keynote on Sunday night. Spoilerz!
Keynote . . . notes
- Macbook Pro price reductions were a big hit with the crowd
- Safari tabs noticeably absent from the presentation . . .
- Apple OS X VP, Craig Federighi, looks like a super-nerd Steve Martin.
- Bing ads popped up all over nytimes.com as Federighi was demoing the Dock Exposé. Well played, MS, well played.
- 30 Rock clip was a perfect lead-in to ‘Find my iPhone’. Great security support couple with the remote wipe command.
- Wayne Grant from Pasco played off his bugged presentation off very well. Funny guy – and I’d believe he’s a great science teacher.
Macbook Pro
Decent updates to their notebooks. The inclusion of an SD card is definitely interesting and a good move by Apple. However, not EVERY digital camera has moved to SD. Higher end DSLR cameras are still using CompactFlash.
The price drops may be a simultaneous nod to the state of the economy and also a lean towards market share at the expense of a slight hit to Apple’s healthy profit margin. It’s also possible that their increasing sales are netting them a better price-per-unit.
Safari 4
Using it as I type. UI seems faster than the beta. Page rendering seems the
It still apparently likes to hang on ONLY the root of ebay.com, any other URL on ebay works perfectly. Works again if I clear my cookies.
Most interesting thing is that the poorly-designed top-tabs have reverted to the pre-existing placement but retain some of the new finish (curved edges, rollover square close button, etc).
The top tabs were not working as designed and Apple realized it . . . sheepishly, as they didn’t even mention it in the keynote.
AT&T’s missteps
Pricing
Now that the standard subsidizations have kicked in, people are realizing that they can’t get the iPhone for the advertised price. This has been an unfortunate standard practice by all wireless carriers for years, but there never really has been a phone as popular as the iPhone, so their long-standing questionable practices are put into even keener focus.
Existing iPhone owners who bought the iPhone 3G and signed up for the 2 year contract now may be paying up to $499 for a new iPhone.
MMS & Tethering Support
Most shocking and possibly surprising is that iPhone 3GS’ newest features, MMS and tethering will not be available at launch for customers in Apple’s own home country on the very first provider for iPhone.
AT&T has been quoted as targeting ‘late summer’ for MMS and currently has ‘no announcements’ about tethering. In other words, they’re still figuring out how to reasonably gouge existing and new customers for even more money per month.
I would not be surprised if they attempted to shoehorn in an MMS limitation into the contracts when it’s launched.
The positive spin is that it it weren’t for Apple, AT&T probably would never have gotten around to upgrading their cell networks to support MMS. Foolish.
But will Apple leave AT&T?
This is a recurring rumor whenever the exclusivity expiration date is brought up.
I find this doubtful. Most likely, they’ll pull a Pixar, put their feelers out this winter before the contract expires, let the rumors float and use it as leverage to AT&T to make some concessions. Possibly: faster adoption in advance of iPhone updates (avoiding embarrassments such as lack of MMS) and possibly asking AT&T to remove the probably impending tethering surcharge. Better rates for sure.
