Ben Thompson: “WWDC went in the other direction. The first 90 minutes were excellent: very tight, with excellent clarity and momentum, well-rehearsed speakers delivering mostly iterative announcements with the occasional surprise. The final 60, on the other hand — the “one more thing†— were the exact opposite: unclear and dragging, with unprepared speakers delivering…well, I’m honestly not sure what most of them were saying. If there was a surprise the lack of a coherent message has to be top of the list.”
Yeah, I know, the title is a bit sensational, I couldn’t help myself. I love Apple as much as the next fanboy, but I do see some flaws in their once highly polished veneer. Apple Keynote’s are important and for developers WWDC is very important. To have Jimmy Iovine stink up the stage like he did was disappointing.
You won’t hear Apple’s biggest fans talk about this disaster, they only focus on the positive, but it’s important to talk about this as well. To see the company you develop software for start to stumble a bit is worrisome. Some recent moves remind me of the Microsoft of the 90’s. Will we hear monopoly talk?
Do I think Apple is doomed? No, of course not. They’re just hitting a gawky teenage stage. They’re tripping over their own feet. I also believe this disastrous showing must have been due to a last minute cancellation. It was rumored we were going to hear about the new Apple TV. That didn’t happen. It would have been so much better if they had just ended the keynote. Painful.
That’s enough ranting. I need to go read about the new API’s and do my day job.
The Loop: “Over the weekend, I turned off Apple Music and it took large chunks of my purchased music with it. Sadly, many of the songs were added from CDs years ago that I no longer have access to. Looking at my old iTunes Match library, before Apple Music, I’m missing about 4,700 songs. At this point, I just don’t care anymore, I just want Apple Music off my devices.”