WWDC 2010 Predictions

Tomorrow, Monday, June 7 at 10 a.m. (PT)*, Apple will kick off WWDC 2010 with a keynote address by CEO Steve Jobs. What is he going to talk about? The next generation iPhone, of course. The iPhone 3G was announced at WWDC 2008, the 3GS at WWDC 2009, and there are no signs that this year is going to be any different. We’ve seen the leaks. Gizmodo was the first, and others soon followed. Over the past several weeks we’ve seen more next-generation iPhone leaks that we have for any other Apple product in history. It seems that we already know almost everything there is to know about it. Hopefully Steve’s got a few tricks up his sleeve, though, as it’s always nice to have surprises.

However, most people believe that there will be a bit more to the keynote than just the iPhone 4 (or iPhone HD, or whatever they’re going to call it). In this post, I’m going to cover all the rumors, what I think will happen, and what I’m hoping for.

I’m going to start off by giving a bit more detail on what we can expect from the next generation iPhone.

• Longer battery life
• Faster processor (Apple’s A4 processor)
• More RAM (512MB, up from 256MB)
• Front facing camera
• Improved rear camera (5MP, though 8MP has been rumored)
• Rear camera flash
• Ability to shoot HD video
• Improved screen resolution (960 x 640, quadruple the current iPhone’s 480 x 320 resolution)
• More storage (two models, 32Gb and 64GB)
• Support for micro-sim
• Secondary mic for noise cancellation
• New industrial design

Keep in mind that none of this information has been confirmed by Apple, so the specs might not match up exactly.

I believe that they’ll call it the iPhone HD, not the iPhone 4G, as people could confuse “4G” with “4G network”. I definitely don’t think the next generation iPhone will be a 4G phone.

I think it’ll go on sale late June/early July (as with previous models), and will be available in both black and white. The iPhone 3GS 16GB will probably drop in price and replace the iPhone 3G 8GB iPhone as “the cheap option”.

And no, I don’t think it’ll be available on Verizon… just AT&T (for now). In New Zealand, of course, we’ll have the choice – Vodafone, Telecom, or 2º.

What else?

iPhone OS 4.0: It’s already been announced, but Apple probably left a few iPhone 4 specific features out especially for WWDC – such as iChat.

Also, we didn’t hear much about Game Center at the 4.0 event, so this might be covered in a bit more detail.

OS 4.0 for the iPad will probably appear on the Apple Developer Center sometime next week, so that devs can start testing it and giving feedback.

Apple TV update: Probably not yet, but there have been rumors. Most of them say that the next generation Apple TV will be based on iPhone OS, which is good, because it will finally give users the chance to download 3rd-party apps and games (without “hacking” it).

MobileMe: In order for Apple to compete with similar services offered by competitors such as Google, Apple needs to make MobileMe free (or at least significantly cheaper). Hopefully we’ll hear something about this at WWDC this year, but if not, probably sometime in the near future (maybe they’ll integrate it with Lala, and make iTunes streaming from the cloud a reality).

Mac Pro update: It’s been over a year since it was last updated, so it’s due soon. Intel has already introduced the 6-core Xeon chip which many people believe will be used in the next Mac Pro.

Mac mini update: The Mac Mini is currently in short supply, so there’s a possibility that it’ll be updated at WWDC. Rumors suggest that an HDMI port will be added to the machine (along with other minor improvements).

MacBook Air update: It’s been ages since the MacBook Air was last updated. However, we’ll probably just see spec improvements, if it does get updated – don’t expect anything too major (like a new industrial design).

iMac update: Some rumors are suggesting that the iMac will be given a refresh so that the whole lineup sports the i5 and i7 processors found in the 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pros. While that would be nice, don’t hold your breath.

27″ LED Cinema Display: Rumors suggest that Apple is planning to add a 27″ Cinema Display to complement the 24″. I don’t know if we’ll see this happen at WWDC, but it sure would be welcome.

Mac OS X 10.7: Not very likely, but there have been rumors. However, some say that it won’t be 10.7 that will be announced at WWDC, rather 10.6.4 – I guess we’ll see soon.

Safari 5.0: Safari hasn’t been doing amazingly well lately – Chrome is eating up its market share and has, in fact, recently passed it. Apple may announce 5.0 at WWDC in order to try and fight back. Recently, they have been touting HTML5 as the future of the internet, so to support their argument 5.0 should offer improved support for HTML5 features 4.0 is currently lacking, such as full-screen video & geolocation.

Some people have also speculated that Safari 5 might support extensions, similar to Chrome and Firefox.

iLife & iWork 2010: iLife & iWork ’09 are still the latest versions, and as as you can probably tell, we’re already well into 2010. There is a possibility that we’ll see iLife and iWork 2010 (or X) at WWDC. However, given that 2009′s updates were quite significant (with the exception of iDVD and iWeb), there is also the possibility that Apple will skip 2010 entirely and instead wait until 2011.

Cloud-based iTunes: This ties in with Apple’s purchase of Lala… personally, I don’t think we’ll see anything yet – I reckon Apple will wait until their September music event later this year.

iPod touch with camera: There have been rumors about this for months, and pictures have been circulating the web since August last year – but like iTunes, I don’t think we’ll see anything about this until September.

So, there you have it. I think I’ve covered all the major WWDC 2010 predictions that I’ve heard over the last several months. If I’ve missed anything out, be sure to let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, leave a comment if you’ve got a prediction of your own that you want to share.

What would I really like to see? The next generation iPhone, of course, but also something regarding MobileMe… if they made it free that would make my day.

I’m not attending WWDC, but even so, I’ll still be tweeting all the latest developments as they occur on the day – so if you feel like tuning in, please do (for those who don’t know, I’m @dankando on Twitter). In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, queries, or comments, leave them below, or send me a tweet.

*Tuesday, June 8 at 5 a.m. New Zealand time

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