One of the most important dates of the year for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) takes place next week, as the world’s largest consumer electronics company holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). This will be an opportunity for Apple to showcase some of its plans for the rest of this year, particularly in the software department, and its opening keynote speech is expected to offer a sneak peak at the next generation of Mac and iOS software. But what else can we hope to hear from Apple during the WWDC conference? Here are a few suggestions.
Healthbook
This is a much awaited app from Apple which will apparently form a significant part of iOS8’s armoury. In a week in which Samsung released a new fitness tracking watch, it is clear that gadgets which monitor individual fitness and metabolic state will become a new niche product in the next couple of years. And Apple is clearly intending Healthbook to be its contribution to this genre, with the rumored app allegedly intended to be an aggregator for health and fitness stats tracked by apps and accessories.
Healthbook will reportedly track everything within an individual person’s anatomy from heart rate to blood pressure, alongside nutrition, sleep patterns, and general activity. This is set to be a new battleground between Apple and Samsung as their rivalry deepens and evolves.
Apple iOS 8 Updates
Given the software focus of the WWDC, Apple fans can expect the corporation to divulge the latest version of iOS and given indication of the improvements made to the software in iOS 8. It is thought that this will be seen as particularly important given that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has just completed its $3 billion acquisition of Beats.
Whether any integration with Beats is realistic at this point in time is debatable; it could be that we might have to wait a little while longer for this obvious tie-in to occur. But there have been some leaks already regarding what we can expect to see in iOS 8, and it seems that the maps function within the operating system has been vastly improved in particular, which obviously goes hand-in-hand with the emphasis on mobile devices as a form of consumer electronics-based personal training.
Mac OS X 10.10
Additional focus at the 2014 iteration of the WWDC will be on the new Mac operating system. OS X 10.10 will apparently be the primary focus of Monday’s keynote speech, given that the desktop operating system has apparently received a major design overhaul. This has already been compared to the similar job which Apple did with iOS last year. The overhaul of the Mac OS is expected to provide improved aesthetics reminiscent of iOS itself, with the apparent intention to create a more harmonised appearance between the two operating systems.
Hardware
We’d all like to see Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shock us with a spectacular new hardware line. But the WWDC is increasingly focused on software, and anyone hoping for a new iPhone, iPad or iWatch reveal is going to be disappointed. There is an outside chance of a new Mac line being unveiled, but the big news is likely to be limited to software releases.
