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Ivan Petkov

In 2007, Apple revolutionised the way we perceive and interact with mobile technology, since they put the ordinary user in the centre, instead of business functionalities that dominated high-end phones before the advent of the iPhone. And iPad made the entire PC industry rethink the concept of "personal computer." In 2013, Apple is facing many new challenges. The company must compensate for the gaffe with Apple Maps, win the shaken confidence of its investors who gave the introduction of iPad Mini cold reception, and show consumers that its products are still based on innovations. Apple needed a new image. Therefore, everyone was looking forward to the opening of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that took place on 10-14 June 2013. At it, the company traditionally presents many new products and outlines its development plan for the following year.

Expectations were incandescent because of the presentation of iOS 7 – the mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and the appearance of which has not been changed since 2007, when the smartphone was introduced for the first time. At the opening, Tim Cook and his company revealed a lot of news: the new Mac OS X named Mavericks, Mac Pro, the new MacBook Air laptops and more...

Mac OS X Mavericks

At the beginning of the WWDC, Apple announced that the number of Mac users is currently 72 million, which is a two-fold increase compared to 5 years ago. Tim Cook also emphasised the company’s 15% annual growth in the computing sector, compared to the PC market, which has grown by only 3%. 33% of Mac users now have the Mountain Lion version.

Following a period of more than a year when Apple named their new versions of Mac OS X after cats (Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, etc.), now the company is reorienting itself to cities in California. And Mavericks is the first of the new series. The new desktop operating system features:

• a significantly optimised battery life;

• Finder tabs;

• an option to add tags to the names of files, so that they are easier for finding;

• the Mavericks also provides a built-in option for the use of multiple monitors. In addition, televisions that are connected via AirPlay can work as additional screens.

Additional optimisations have also been made in terms of the reduction of the load on the processor and power consumption, such as memory compression and App Nap for redirection of resources to other processes. Apple has added an option for responding to notifications that can be displayed on the screen even when the computer is locked. There are also changes in the interface of the calendar, which is no longer decorated with leather texture and has an option for the display of events from Facebook, as well as weather information. iBooks is another mobile application that has reached company’s computers.

A new Safari browser

The web browser Apple Safari will feature a new Home screen with top visited sites, as well as a new tool which will enable users to continue scrolling further from the end of a site’s article to the next one. As regards performance, the next Safari will offer enhanced features and reduced energy consumption.

MacBook Air

At the WWDC 2013, Apple announced that it will renew the whole series of ultra-thin laptops MacBook Air, which are now equipped with the latest Intel processors from the Haswell series. This has resulted in significant improvements in terms of energy consumption and devices now provide all-day computing per charge - according to Apple, the 11.6" version will work for 9 hours, and the 13.3" version - 12 hours per charge.

In addition, laptops now feature a 40% faster graphics system and compatibility with the new wireless Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard. Along with this, the company will also launch new AirPort routers that are compatible with it. These new laptops are on sale as of today at prices starting at 999 and 1,099 dollars for 11.6" and 13.3" models. The lack of Retina display is the only disappointment for fans of ultra-portable laptops.

Mac Pro

Among other things, the company’s new computer mostly impresses with its appearance. It is a 25 cm high black cylinder with a diameter of 16.8 cm. Its housing is made of special aluminium, which emphasises its black colour, and its innovative design is absolutely memorable.

The model has a 12-core 256-bit Xeon processor with an E5 chipset, two powerful AMD FirePro graphics accelerators with 6 GB of memory. Thus, the machine can be connected to up to three monitors with 4K resolution.

The powerful Mac Pro works with DDR3 RAM running at 1,866MHz and has a special Thunderbolt 2 interface that allows transfer of up to 20 Gbit/s, and the housing of the model provides 6 such ports, in addition to four USB 3.0 ports, two LAN input jacks, HDMI 1.4 and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Furthermore, the model also features Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity.

Thanks to its special form Mac Pro offers astonishingly good and quiet cooling among three plates placed in a triangle surrounded by the cylindrical casing.

The new Mac Pro is expected to go on sale by the end of the year.

iOS 7

The new Apple iOS 7 mobile operating system was introduced last at the conference. The American company announced that it has sold 600 million iOS devices so far and introduced iOS 7 as the biggest platform change since the introduction of the iPhone, in terms of interface and functionality.

All icons have been dramatically changed, as well as typography and a new colour palette has been used, new animations have been included, and windows’ elements have been made transparent. The interface is now extended over the entire screen and uses available space more efficiently. The change has affected all embedded applications such as Weather, Calendar, Messages, Game Centre, Mail, the notifications system, folders, etc.

The so called Control Centre is also a great innovation – it is shown on the display with a move up from the bottom of the screen. The tool features a number of the most desired controls for fast access – adjustment of screen brightness, volume, Airplane mode, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and a flashlight. The Control Centre will also provide control via AirPlay, as well as all settings related to listening to music.

Now all applications can run in a background mode, which, according to the company, will not affect battery life, and switching between them is very similar to the card interface of webOS. New additions to iOS 7 also include the AirDrop technology, which, similarly to Wi-Fi Direct, allows a direct wireless connection for file transfer between iOS devices and OS X. However, the technology will not be available for iPhone 4 and 4S.

The premiere of Apple’s new music streaming service has finally come, after all sorts of rumours about it. This is the iTunes Radio which will be available to users via iTunes, iOS and Apple TV. Listeners will be able to create their own or listen to pre-set radio stations, vote for their favourite songs and add tracks to desired songs in iTunes. The new service will be launched in the autumn with iOS 7, and, initially, it will be only available to users in the USA. The service will be free of charge for everybody, but users who have an annual subscription to iTunes Match will not hear ads, unlike other users.

A new look and image – aren’t they too drastic and too sudden?

Over the last three years, Apple was criticised about its slow pace and the fact that the number of presented innovations in mobile products of the company declines with each version. And while the company’s shares reached incredible levels, consumers bought iPhone and iPad with unprecedented vigour, inertia and Apple-fans’ applauses seem to have muted this criticism. However, competition in the mobile sector has exacerbated dramatically and Android, the main and largest competitor of iOS, managed to develop a lot. Meanwhile Samsung, which sells 90% of phones with Android, presented a number of exciting innovations that have won them many admirers and sales of the Korean company exceeded those of Apple. Criticism in terms of lagging behind were being heard much often at the time and seem to have been heard in Cupertino, too. With Apple iOS 7, the company offered not only a new design, but many new features with which it will catch up with its competitors. And while these innovations are accepted fairly well, the same cannot be said about the design! The design of iOS 7 is the work of a team led by Jonathan Eve. Criticism comes from ordinary users and designers from around the world. The design is a particularly sensitive topic when it comes to Apple, since the company boasts a very good appearance of its products.

Social networks were literally flooded with opinions of displeased consumers

Another thing that was subjected to criticism was the opening of the conference itself. For years, fans of Apple were enchanted by the charisma of the late Steve Jobs. His presentations stood out with simplicity and originality, as well as his ability to present the company’s new products in a way that left the audience speechless and in disbelief for a moment, and later burst into loud applause. This year’s performance was marked by humour that was characterised as excessive by fans of the company. The old virtual calendar of the platform imitated leather binding. "No virtual cows were harmed in the making of this calendar," said Craig Federighi at the presentation of the new version of the application.

Last but not least – the painful issue regarding innovations: users see copying of features available by iOS competitors in many of the innovations. Jobs’s famous "Copycats" were mentioned, not without sarcasm, but this time regarding Apple.

Regardless of criticism and applause, one thing is clear: this year’s conference managed to stir the status quo and bring Apple fans a lot of new and interesting products. iOS 7 is also a big step forward, and, despite criticism, it will be very successful, according to analysts. But there is still more time until the release of the new iPhone with the new iOS 7. Surely, we will see more details and some of the "edges" of the operating system will be smoothed out.

Maybe it’s time to see Apple as a company just like any other - with its loyal fans and millions of users, but also with its weaknesses. It is unrealistic to expect a revolution similar to that of 2007 with each introduction of products. But who knows...