Five Things That Didn't Happen at WWDC10

Apple released details of the extraordinary new iPhone 4 today at its World Wide Developer Conference. It's truly an amazing device and I'm sure everyone is going to be talking about the new features ad infinitum, so I wanted to reverse track and cover 5 things Steve Jobs didn't talk about today at WWDC10:

1. No New Carriers

AT&T remains the sole iPhone provider much to the chagrin of those who want to tell AT&T and their new data plans to stick it. It's all well and good that you can stream Netflix videos starting next summer, but data restrictions could put a damper on that unless you use WiFi. Would have been nice to hear about some additional carriers, but it didn't happen.

2. No iPad Refresh

This was all iPhone 4's day and there was nary a mention of the iPad today. But you have to think the next one will be coming out soon with a camera to take advantage of the brand new FaceTime video conferencing technology and the HD video editing tools available with iMovie for the iPhone.

3. No Changes to MobileMe

Yesterday I reported about possible changes to MobileMe, including a free version, but Jobs never even discussed the service. He also never breathed a word about iTunes, so no new cloud services any time soon.

4. Didn't Stick it To Google

After the beating Apple took at Google I/O a few weeks ago, you couldn't blame them if they stuck it to Google a bit. Google, however, remains the default search engine on the iPhone, although they are offering Yahoo! and Bing as additional options. Perhaps iAds is Apple's way of beating Google at its own game. We'll see.

5. No Big Microsoft Announcement

Although Apple announced the availability of Bing on the iPhone, and Jobs praised how Microsoft built the app, there was no other reference to its Redmond competitor. There had been some rumors in the weeks before the convention that there would be a big Microsoft-Apple announcement. It never happened.

All in all a very big day for Apple. I fully expect iPhone 4 to set new sales records, but it's always interesting to compare the rumors to reality, and as usual, Apple held its card close and saved the best for the show.

[Singleton]

as usual, Apple held its card close and saved the best for the show.

Yeah, by leaving prototypes at a bar :).

[Techwriter10]

The prototype might have provided some information about what it looked like. There was no way to know what it could do and that was the key. Nobody I heard predicted the great screen resolution, the high definition video, the back lit pictures, FaceTime and so forth.

Thanks for you comment (however snarky).

Ron

[Singleton]

Well, that's clearly not true.

Here's just one example: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/29/iphone-4g-put-under-a-microscope-960-x-640-looks-like-a-lock/

FaceTime was also clearly predicted, considering the prototype had a front facing camera.

Seriously man, I don't know if you do any research on your stories.

[Techwriter10]

The story wasn't about the leaked prototype. It was about pre-conference. rumors that didn't come to be. You chose to jump on the last line of my piece. I stand by the line.

Thanks for commenting.

Ron