The first day of the Apple World Wide Developers Conference for 2014 has taken place, with Apple CEO Tim Cook taking to the stage to welcome the crowd largely comprised of developers. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was keen to emphasize that this is the 25th year of the conference, which it now considers to be a critical part of attracting new developers to Apple. According to Cook’s statements today, there are now 9 million registered Apple developers in total, and this figure has increased by an impressive 50 percent since 2013.
As predicted, much of the talk on the first day of the conference surrounded new operating systems, namely the Mac operation system OS X Yosemite, and the brand new platform which is expected to function in the next iteration of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s flagship smartphone, the iPhone 6, the iOS 8 operating system.
Tim Cook speaks of OS X Yosemite at WWDC Day 1
Cook spoke of OS X Yosemite firstly, and the translucent appearance of the apps in this new version of the Mac operating system created a strong impression with conference goers. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) describe this new operating system as “the future of OS X”, and were also diligently pointed out that “its incredible new design and amazing new apps” have been designed to “work beautifully with iOS”; this pushing its integration potential with Apple’s mobile platforms.
There was also a surprise for observers when Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, called infamous rap producer Dr. Dre live on stage. It was thought by many that there would be little reference to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s acquisition of the Beats headphones, but this little stunt indicated otherwise; all intended naturally to demonstrate the extent to which OS X Yosemite is integrated with iOS.
Apple’s successful sales figures
In the introduction to the segment of his speech devoted to iOS, Tim Cook also spoke of the successful sales figures that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has clocked up in recent years. Cook stated that over 200 million iPads have been sold in total, while the iconic iPhone has passed half a billion units. Additionally, Cook claimed that over 130 million customers who bought an iOS device in the last year stated it was their first Apple device, underlining the growth potential of Apple’s key product lines.
So what of iOS 8 itself? Federighi underscored that the security aspects of the iOS 8 operating system are key to this upgrade, while making derogatory remarks about certain features of Android in this respect. After this little diatribe, the new features of iOS 8 were outlined, beginning with the health-related news that many have been waiting for.
Apple’s New HealthKit app
The new HealthKit app included in iOS 8 will collate information from various health apps and fitness devices, proving you with an overview of all the data accessible in one place. Each app is apparently able to access specific information from other apps, thus providing iOS 8 users with a more holistic way to manage their fitness.
Many other aspects of iOS 8 were discussed, but the key features of can be summarized as follows:
- Messaging has improved in iOS 8, with threading becoming more sophisticated.
- Apple has introduced a new feature called Quicktype, which enables access to special layouts and character sets.
- Notification Center has been refined to be more user-friendly.
So a couple of solid upgrades from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and it will be interesting to see what the rest of the conference brings.
