WWDC Keynote Summary

[MacRumors]

During today's opening keynote speech at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs made a number of announcements. The transition to Intel was of course the most important, and is covered in a separate MacRumors news story.

Among the other announcements, fact, and figures, were the following:

The next Mac OS X will be named Leopard and will be out in late 2006 or early 2007.

QuickTime, with its H.264 video codec, is available for Windows starting today. QuickTime has been downloaded over 1 billion times.

There are a million visitors a week to Apple's 109 retail stores. $500 million worth of third-party products have been sold in the last year.

iPods have over 75% market share among ALL players, with 16 million sold. iTunes has a 82% market share this month and the share is growing. The iTunes Music store has sold 430 million songs. iTunes is adding podcasting support, to take podcasting mainstream, because it is "TiVo for radio" and "the hottest thing going in radio", with 8,000 podcasts and more all the time.

Mac sales have grown 40% in the most recent quarter, in contrast to PC sales growth of about 10%.

Two million copies of Tiger will have been sold by sometime this week. Over 15% of Mac users are now on Tiger, with 50% of the installed base expected to be on Tiger within the next year.

The developer community has grown to a half million Developer Connection members. There are over 400 Dashboard widgets now available, over 40 Spotlight plug-ins, and over 550 Automator programs.

UPDATE: A quicktime video stream of the keynote speech is now available: http://stream.apple.akadns.net/

 

[Zeekium]

so should i buy a iMac G5 or wait until next year?

 

[Whistleway]

so should i buy a iMac G5 or wait until next year?

Yup. Same here *confused with all this techno jumbo*

 

[ToddW]

the big transition to intel won't happen until late 2007. if you are going to plan on having a computer for the next few years I would go ahead and buy. I am thinking of a laptop this year, so I will probably get an ibook even if the updates don't come. if you are going to use something for three years or so I say go ahead. This is going to be a big transition and I'm sure Apple will support its PPC users for years to come.

 

[Chimera]

I'm guessing that the G5 desktops will be replaced last as there is no current Intel technology good enough to beat the G5. However for laptops the Pentium M is a much better chip than the G4. I'd go out and buy an iMac for sure.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I WOULD NOT purchase any Mac until next year now, unless there is NO WAY possible to hold out and then I would pick up a dirt cheap G4 or G5 on eBay. My guess is all PPC Macs will be bargins on eBay. I can feel the value of the iMac G5 in front of me...falling by the second. Oh well, it was going to happen sooner or later.

Steve left a lot of unanswered questions. I would be very leery to purchase anything at this time.

I like how he said we have some great and exciting products in the PowerPC pipeline...he only says this because he knows the kind of losses Apple Computer, Inc. is going to take over the next year or two. I don't think you will see one PowerPC upgrade until next year, it won't matter what they do, it won't sell.

 

[bosrs1]

I'm guessing that the G5 desktops will be replaced last as there is no current Intel technology good enough to beat the G5. However for laptops the Pentium M is a much better chip than the G4. I'd go out and buy an iMac for sure.

I agree. Anyone buying a desktop should do so. There is no reason to wait. However if you're buying a laptop I'd wait. The G4 is too old and too slow. The Centrino Macs will own.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I agree. Anyone buying a desktop should do so. There is no reason to wait. However if you're buying a laptop I'd wait. The G4 is too old and too slow. The Centrino Macs will own.

I could not disagree more. If you do it now you will be very dissapointed in a year when you are sitting with a year old "dead platform." That is my opinion, consumers can spend their money however they wish.

 

[recursivejon]

So what am I supposed to do with the 2.5Ghz MP G5 that i spent a few grand on last fall that no one is going to develop software for / take advantage of?

********

- apple user since age 2

 

[DakotaGuy]

So what am I supposed to do with the 2.5Ghz MP G5 that i spent a few grand on last fall that no one is going to develop software for / take advantage of?

********

- apple user since age 2

Sorry dude, you still have a nice computer. You are not alone everyone elses Macs resale value just hit the floor.

 

[zelmo]

so should i buy a iMac G5 or wait until next year?

Sure, if you need a computer. The first x86 Macs are a year away, per Steve. Even then, Apple will have to support PPC-based Macs for years down the road. Rosetta emulation will allow x86 h/w to run PPC s/w, so you won't lose that s/w investment. Future software, at least for a while, will be binary to run on either system architecture.

OS X and great hardware design are what I like about Apple. As long as it's still OS X, and it still has the same level of security, who cares what label is on the processor?

I wonder, though. Had IBM been able to get the PPC to 3.0GHz this year, would Steve had held off on this announcement for another year? Probably not, since the laptop line has really gotten stagnant as a result of no low-heat, low-power G5 chip.

 

[gugy]

I just can't believe we have not seen any product announcement.
we are ****ed!
I feel really bad in buying a computer that I need so badly. I can't wait anymore. I guess I'll buy a 2ghz PowerMac on ebay. That's so bad!
Apple will lose tons of sales in the upcoming months.

 

[lopresmb]

Apple Press Release

Here it is --- the press reaease from Apple - detailing how Mac's will use INTEL processors.....

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html


---I still can't believe it

 

[Chimera]

I could not disagree more. If you do it now you will be very dissapointed in a year when you are sitting with a year old "dead platform." That is my opinion, consumers can spend their money however they wish.

But Apple said it will take upto 2 years and desktops may have to wait until late 2007!! I think current PPC chips will be supported by software devs for at least 4 years to come, seriously those G5s will probably be hardly updated in the next year and a half.

 

[slb]

Jobs said that they'd be selling Intel-based Macs by this time next year. It's hard to justify shelling out for an iMac G5 knowing that Macs will be running on faster Intels just twelve months away.

 

[x_Viper_x]

so should I get my powerbook now? since if they prob wont release G5's until intel?

 

[javiercr]

I agree. Anyone buying a desktop should do so. There is no reason to wait. However if you're buying a laptop I'd wait. The G4 is too old and too slow. The Centrino Macs will own.

a centrino and pentium Ms are more or less based on a pentium iii which is from the same generation as the g4, the difference is that intel is moving ahead with new stuff for laptop and the G series aren't going anywhere in that direction. I have a G4 1.3 and a pentium M 1.8, i have to say that the pentium M is very good for power consumption and keeping cold.

 

[iJaz]

Jobs said that they'd be selling Intel-based Macs by this time next year. It's hard to justify shelling out for an iMac G5 knowing that Macs will be running on faster Intels just twelve months away.

Hmm, you say faster Intel-based Macs, Apple doesn't seem to agree!
http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/

 

[stephenli]

yes i cant disagreed that we have wait for sooooooo lonnnggggg to have a Powerbook G5. Yet, PowerMac G5 dual 2.7Ghz is still significantly faster than 3.6Ghz dual xeon based system, according to apple.

Then, what would intel give us?!
itanium for XServe?
Pentium D for PowerMac & and Pentium M for Powerbook?

well, let me order a dual 2.7 tomorrow.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Jobs said that they'd be selling Intel-based Macs by this time next year. It's hard to justify shelling out for an iMac G5 knowing that Macs will be running on faster Intels just twelve months away.

I agree, I feel stupid shelling out the money 3 months ago for this iMac G5. I agree, it will run into the future, for awhile, but by next year if I buy an Intel Mac, this one will be dumpster material. No one is going to pay a few hundred (or thousands new) for a computer that has no future.

I think this is a positive for Apple maybe in a few years, but over the short term, it is going to be hell for them. Sales will take a huge slide. Also, what they offer now is what will be offered for the next year. I don't think they will put one dime into a "dead platform."

 

[gugy]

I would feel very uncomfortable to buy any G4 based powerbook now. Macmini is ok because it's cheap anyway, but shelling good money for a g4 powerbook seems suicide to me.
I need a computer badly and I was waiting for a PB g5 today. i guess i'll buy the cheapest dual processor powermac and wait for something better next year.
I really don't care if Apple chosed Intel. IBM screwed up anyway. so get rid of them before they make more damage. Hopefully now Apple will keep up with more sounding upgrades.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Hmm, you say faster Intel-based Macs, Apple doesn't seem to agree!
http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/

Yeah I know...that is the FUNNIEST website on the world wide web right now! Oh Apple you crack me up sometimes. Please if anyone on here works for Apple have that site taken down. It makes you look like a huge hypocrite and really makes your choice of Intel look pretty dumb to the average consumer.

 

[xli_ne]

Hmm, you say faster Intel-based Macs, Apple doesn't seem to agree!
http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/

apple's marketing team is going to have a fun year or so. All that "wintel" bashing and now they have to say that intel is they way to go. O well. Have fun with that.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I would feel very uncomfortable to buy any G4 based powerbook now. Macmini is ok because it's cheap anyway, but shelling good money for a g4 powerbook seems suicide to me.
I need a computer badly and I was waiting for a PB g5 today. i guess i'll buy the cheapest dual processor powermac and wait for something better next year.
I really don't care if Apple chosed Intel. IBM screwed up anyway. so get rid of them before they make more damage. Hopefully now Apple will keep up with more sounding upgrades.

Just get a CHEAP slightly used 1.5 or 1.67Ghz Powerbook. There will be bargin prices coming on those in the next few weeks and months. Imagine a nice 15" Powerbook for $500 slightly used. This should be a good time to get one of those Powerbooks for a Mac Mini like price. You should be happy if you are in the market right now.

 

[iGary]