WWDC – Rumors and predicted launches

We’re all well aware (and anxious) of the much hyped about event – WWDC 2012 to be held at San Francisco at 11th June.

There are plenty of rumors on offer in every corner of internet, about what’s Mr. Cook is going to pull out of the hat. Apple is known to keep the their secrets tight under their roofs – but the event is going to finally bring forth some of the really exciting changes.

There’s a lot of speculation about new iPhone – the bigger iPhone, new “mini” tablet, and now iOS 6. The more the event comes closer to its actual date, the rumors are getting stiff.

As read on one of the popular blogs – the major surprise and pretty much confirmed by an “inside” sources of apple – is regarding the upgrade of the Maps app. Apple has been using Google Maps since its launch in 2007 as a primary source of navigation and mapping service. In the meantime – apple has been criticized for collecting location data and other information about geolocation of the device behind doors – which halted in succeeding releases of the iOS.

It is important here to note that apple purchased a swedish company – C3 Technologies last year, that has extremely good 3D mapping service (SAAB) which apple may deploy to its next release of the iOS (may be iOS 6). The same “inside” source who confirmed the upgrade of the native Map service also suggested that the entire map service will have 3D Maps as per the leaked images of the map app over the internet – that got pretty much talks around the iOS and apple fans and bloggers.

With each advancement in hardware, software and third party services that come integrated in the bundled OS (e.g. twitter, google maps) – the developers are running in a never ending marathon to keep up the pace with the development tools and frameworks. For example, the map services rumored to be changed by Apple in next iOS release, the big question arises in integration of native map interfaces into custom apps. For now – developers have been using Google APIs for integration of various functionalities apart from just location pins and directions. Introduction of “Apple Driven” map service will bring potentially big changes to the way maps are used. While it is apparent that google map will still be an option for developers to put maps in the apps – but crucial question is the overall experience that users are expected to get out of the iOS devices is gonna differ. Will Apple provide next level of functionalities that supersede what Google offers?

Talk about Siri – Mr. CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an interview at All Things D, that Siri is going to have plenty of improvements in the plan and it will much better. They see lot more that can be done with it. However, it still lacks at present, an integration with custom apps and its dependency on internet (Siri doesn’t work while you’re offline). It needs to be noted here that Siri has been criticized of its current level of accuracy and competency with global customers using different accents. It works well for american accents but not otherwise as reported by many. Is apple going to surprise us all over Siri too?

Again – it is too early to comment on anything or all of these –  unless reality come out from the doors of WWDC on 11th June. We never know what Apple will throw at us – and what developers will be able to catch out of it.

Lets wait and watch! Do you think Apple will keep the largest developer fraternity happy while still keeping up the pace of the customer needs and internal strategies?

Feel free to post your thoughts.