NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- There were several interesting takeaways from the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday for Apple ( AAPL) investors. Here are a few:
Siri
The opening gags from Siri were hilarious but -- more significantly -- pointed to where Siri is going. What got people doubled over laughing with the Siri jokes was her personality. The more we start to see that come out in her, the more attached we will get to her. |
Apps and Money to Developers
Over $5 billion has now been paid out to iOS developers since inception by Apple. The message is simple: if you're a developer, you can make good coin writing apps for iOS. But developers will only write where there are users. Research In Motion ( RIMM) could pay money hand over fist to developers and few would sign up. They are going where the users are showing the interest and Apple is paying them fairly and well to do so.New Macs
The new MacBook Pros that were characterized as "next-generation" in terms of their thinness, weight and retina display were the star of the show. Apple is proud of their new line of Macs. They are clearly the cream of the crop compared to what's out there from other PC manufacturers. People in the audience loved them and there's still a lot of money to be made from Macs for Apple. However, computers are becoming less and less important to Apple the company, as more revenue comes from its phones, tablets and TVs.Better iOS
This was Scott Forstall's time to shine during the keynote. There are now 365 million iOS devices out there in the wild and 80% of them are on iOS 5. Only 7% of Android users are using the latest version of Android. There are over 200 new feature updates for iOS 6, including a big improvement for Siri and Siri integration into iPads and cars down the road. I love the "do not disturb" function to turn off all notifications from people I don't want to be bothered by. FaceTime will also work better on cell networks. Bad news for Skype. PassBook -- consolidated boarding passes, movie tickets, etc. in one place -- is very cool (and takes Apple ever closer to the digital wallet). The new Apple maps is a shot across the bow for Google ( GOOG). How many years will it take for Apple to boot out Google search?
TV
We didn't get a new TV outright, but we did get AirPlay. This is in the new OSX allowing AirPlay mirroring onto any Apple TV from another Mac or Apple device. AirPlay, in my view, is the most disruptive aspect of Apple TV. You'll be able to show your entire laptop display on your TV if you want, and not just some movie, photo, or video from your laptop. Where AirPlay really starts to get disruptive though is when you start to allow two-way AirPlay between your device in your lap and the TV you're watching. That's really when you see a blending of Internet and TV.iCloud
Apple now has 125 registered users on iCloud in a couple of quarters since launch. That's pretty amazing. What's more interesting is that close to 70% of mobile device browsing is on iOS. Android accounts for only about 20%. As Apple is intent on owning "four screens" in your home -- TV, phone, tablet and computer -- the fact that so many users are already knitting their experience across these devices is a huge leg up on the competition. It also ensures a high adoption rate whenever Apple comes out with a new Mac, phone, tablet or TV.Not Much Facebook Love
For that first 90 minutes of the keynote, there was nary a mention of Facebook ( FB). Instead, there were lots of mentions of Twitter. Later on, we found out that Facebook would be integrated into iOS 6 so that you can more easily share links in a similar fashion to what you are able to do with Twitter in iOS 5. So, Tim Cook did follow through on his prediction from two weeks ago that he'd announce something with Facebook. However, it suggests that this is a minimal partnership between the two that is being done more to please iOS users than to help out Facebook.