Pre-WWDC15 Checkup


Apple's hype cycle will kick into high gear soon again for developers with WWDC2015 approaching. This year it will take place from June 8-12 as usual in the Moscone centre in San Francisco. Just like last year I'll be following closely & try to comment on the announcements.

Here's what we saw last year:

  • A renewed focus on strongly integrated native experiences. No matter which device you are targeting, Apple expects you to create a separate app for it to give the best possible experience to your users. For Apple this means a separate app for each device & using services like Handoff to sync between devices.
  • Interactive Notifications. This turned out to be a much bigger deal than I initially expected. Most of the Apple Watch interactions are very notification-centric. People spend hours in the browser, minutes in apps & just seconds on the Apple Watch. Short interactive user experiences that are notification-driven make a lot of sense here.
  • Swift. In less than a year Swift has become the de-facto "starter" language for new iOS developers. This happened a bit faster than I expected actually. I have Swift code in production in some projects now even though there's still a higher maintenance cost associated with it.
  • HomeKit & HealthKit. HealthKit, Apple's storage container for health data is a major driving force behind what makes the Apple Watch so popular: the fitness & workout apps. I expect HomeKit to be the same to the new rumoured Apple TV. Apple Watch makes a great fitness device & will be an awesome remote control device for your connected home.
So what will we see this year?

A couple of things have become tradition: new versions of IOS & OS X, with a rumoured (& much-needed) emphasis on bug fixing over feature releases for this year's flock. This year's event is rumoured to bring new content services: a new music streaming service, a new television service & a new AppleTV to turn your home into a connected home thanks to HomeKit.