iOS 6 >> iPhone/iPad

It's WWDC time. On June 11th Apple is gonna announce the future of mobile by unveiling iOS6. Most people will go like, "Meh... Screw iOS, what's the next iPhone gonna be!", but the crux of this post is to explain why WWDC is way more important that it is given credit for.

WWDC or the Worldwide Developers Conference is Apple's annual developer event where Apple launches new software and tech for developers as well as offering hands-on labs and feedback sessions. iPhones were launched during this time but that has changed with launch of the iPhone 4S, iPhones come out at fall now. But the WWDC has never been hardware-centered. Software is the blood of Apple and WWDC is the heart. If the past history is any guide then we will witness the release of iOS 6.

And, again, if the past history is any guide, it's gonna be so much more important that 4" screens, A5X processors or any hardware we can ever imagine.

Let's take a look on what happened at previous WWDCs :

2008 : iPhone OS 2.0 and the introduction of the famed App Store. 5 years, 25 billion downloads and 725,700 third-party apps later the App Store continues it's amazing growth paying off over $4 billion to developers. The App Store is single handedly the most important aspect of the iOS ecosystem and one of the largest selling point of iDevices.

2009 : iOS 3.0 and cleaning up. Copy and paste, turn-by-turn navigation, MMS, HTML5 support for Safari and many other titbits were taken care of. Evidently Apple was refining iOS for the release on the iPad in 2010.

2010 : iOS 4.0, multitasking finally makes it to iOS. Although taken for granted now, multitasking is a very key feature in any OS. AirPlay was also introduced. Though not a fully baked idea yet, AirPlay is playing along quite interestingly with the Apple TV and is evidently Apple's attempt to change our living rooms.

2011 : iOS 5.0 and iCloud. This is a big year for Apple software-wise. iMessage comes to iOS and makes BBM look silly. iCloud hops along and completely reinvents the way devices and native apps share data over the web. Apple cuts the cord (no need to keep syncing with a computer now) for iOS and it truly becomes a "post-PC" device. And, Twitter integration! Hurray!


So over the course of 4 years the WWDCs have completely changed the mobile map. iPhones and iPads are great news but clearly WWDC is at the helm of everything Apple does or plans to do.

Apple's extreme secrecy makes it impossible for details of such events to leak out, alas we're only left with rumours and speculation. But be certain of one thing, the announcements at San Francisco’s Moscone Center on June 11th will radically change things and will define what Apple does (in both hardware and software) for years to come.

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