If all that is left for Apple to do other than copy 3rd party ideas I'd say their innovation has truly peaked. If that's the case... I'd rather they look back into previous versions of OSX and resurrect some of their own ideas that people miss and provide options to activate or ignore them. (e.g., Spaces & the old Expose'). And I still struggle with "Versions".
But this will never happen of course.
Agree but OSX is a General Consumer OS. 3rd parties will continue to lead the way on this.
I see some good ideas in this thread, but most of it is just nit picking small stuff for the immediate future. OS X has lots of stuff it can improve upon, but to really see all that it can be, you have to have a much broader vision of what computing should be like for us in the future; and how OSes in general will take us there.
Remember, SJ wanted to sell us things we didn't know we wanted, but once we see it would trigger a, "Duh, why wasn't it always like this?" moment.
So, what should computers/computing be like 5 years, or 10 years from now? That's where OS X, and hopefully others are headed.
Personally, I'm really hoping all these advancements in processing power will actually result in more "me" time. There's really no need to chase or drool over the latest specs if paying all that money just results in more headaches and less time to enjoy your life. Improved experience is what Apple wants to focus on, but many of us are still chasing the latest specs hoping the newest shiny things will somehow drastically improve our lives even though the last generation items were just as good one day prior. This is speaking just on the CPU processors... of course, things like Touch ID and a combination of other things does sometime improve the efficiency of security/lives on a day-to-day basis.
So, what can we expect? Well, for one, you can probably tell that the iPad, MBP, etc. are moving more towards non-serviceable, not easily upgradeable parts. Once the full migration with iCloud is complete, I'm expecting people will be able to walk into the Apple store, and have their laptops exchanged (instead of serviced) as easily as iPhones. Why are we headed this way? Cause having zero down time does improve your life vs. waiting 3 days to get your primary machine fixed. Plus, the laptops are just tools and tools should be replaceable.
However, before we get there, there's still a lot of work to be done. More apps need to make use of the iCloud; ideally to the point of you logging into your iCloud/iTunes account on a new machine and all of your apps, settings, backgrounds, data, media, etc. are downloaded (close to instantly) so you'd have your new workstation up and running in an hour or less.
Another thing to improve upon is maybe the hiding of the file system. Yes, this goes against what most of us wants; even myself, but the truth is, that's how computing should be. The only people that really need access to files are content producers - whether that'd be business presentations, science, music, movies, web/program developers, etc. Most media/general consumers are playing Angry Birds, spending money on Farmville or whatever to get to the next level. What none of them ever talks about is how they should manage their saved games for these apps - and I believe that's what Apple is hoping to achieve with iTunes and iPhoto. Granted, it'll be awhile before most of us will be able to relinquish that control... but in the end, if we ever get there, life will be easier/better for us.
Sync'ing, collaboration, continuing media/work streams from one device to another will be the future of computing. What I'd love to see personally is seeing those abilities expand beyond just Netflix, documents collaboration, etc. For example, sometimes I run cron jobs in Terminal for my business - I do it manually instead of activating a cron job so I can see the results in real time. I do this on my MBP cause it's my primary machine, however, if I need to leave for a meeting, it'd be great if I can swipe that Terminal window to a local mini or Mac Pro so it can continue to run while I pack up the MBP to take with me. Imagine being able to retain your session on any app, whether it's a Terminal window, or a Skype chat from a desktop to your iPad. Those are the innovations I'd like to see as we move forward with computing.
Of course, battery improvements from using less energy is also important - but they're already doing a great job at tackling that part aggressively compared to MS.
