The eyes and ears of the iPhone and iPad application development world will be trained on California soon, as Apple holds their annual Worldwide Developers Conference in the Moscone Center in San Francisco from June 10th to the 14th. Apple likes to play coy when it comes to details; they love the buildup and anticipation preceding the introduction of new hardware and software. Even though they haven't given us much to go on, that doesn't stop folks in the industry from making a few educated guesses.
Let's start with what we do know. Several Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, have dropped hints that updated operating systems are likely to be rolled out at WWDC 2013. That means OS X 10.9 and iOS 7 will be introduced, and some controlled leaks have been trickling out that iOS 7 especially will be dropping the heavy textures of skeuomorphic design for a flatter, monochromatic look, likely the influence of Apple's new design guru Jonathan Ive.
From here on out, it's all rumor. iRadio, Apple's streaming music service, has been seeing a few roadblocks lately. While they've lined up music licensing terms with Universal and Warner Music, Sony has been a holdout. Unless final-hour negotiations are cleared up on that front, it is unlikely that iRadio will be making its maiden voyage at WWDC 2013. But Apple loves springing surprises, so rumors continue to swirl around this possibility.
Additionally, Google has thrown down the gauntlet by introducing their Google Play Music All Access, which has been created to compete directly with Apple's popular iTunes downloading service. This, and other recent technological announcements from Google, Samsung and others, has been putting Apple in the hot seat lately—and many industry experts expect many of these topics to be addressed at WWDC by some of Apple's top brass.
What we won't be seeing, more than likely, is new hardware. In arecent interview—one that almost seemed geared to lower expectations about WWDC 2013—Cook said, “...we've got some really great stuff coming in the fall. And across all of 2014.” While this could be a bluff—and it wouldn't be the first from Apple or any other tech giant—it serves to quiet rumors that new gadgets will be the focus at WWDC this year.
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