Apple's world developer conference, WWDC, is the annual event in which the company shows the new tools and functions that its main platforms will have, iOS -the operating system of the iPhone- and macOS -that of Mac computers-.
The name makes it clear. It is above all an event aimed at developers who create applications and services for the company's products and which every year brings together thousands of people in an event that before the pandemic was face-to-face and is now mixed.
But WWDC also usually includes some important announcements, including new products, and this year everything indicates that it will be a key event for the company because it seems certain that it will dedicate part of the conference to talk about a new virtual reality platform and the glasses that will be They will inaugurate it.
It would be the company's fifth major computing platform after the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad and the Apple Watch, and a somewhat risky bet both for the price of the first device to be launched by Apple, which is suspected to be high, and for the fact that, so far, virtual reality does not seem to arouse great interest among the majority of consumers.
If the rumors are true, the focus of the event will be on a new virtual reality and mixed reality platform (mix and real and synthetic image) that will receive the name of xrOS and the first virtual reality glasses that will use it, the Reality Pro .
The glasses are expected to command a high price tag, close to €3,000, and although Apple will show off the product during the event, it likely won't hit stores until the end of the year.
The price would be justified by somewhat more advanced features than those usually found in consumer-oriented virtual reality headsets that companies like Meta have put up for sale up to now. Reality Pro, for example, will use two 4K resolution Micro OLED panels capable of generating a very sharp image with a wide viewing angle.
Various external sensors will also make it possible to capture the movement of the hands in space without the need for controls, gloves or special commands, and on the internal screen the glasses will be able to show the image of the real world thanks to various external cameras.
The reason for announcing them at its developer conference is that Apple needs that when these glasses hit the market, at the end of the year, there will already be a wide variety of applications and games with which to take advantage of them. It is likely that Apple has also created some of its own applications to access emails or messages or display large virtual screens on which to work or watch series and movies.
The design of the Reality Pro will be similar to ski goggles and several analysts believe that Apple could separate the battery into an external module to hang on the belt that would lighten the weight of the helmet, one of the big problems in the products that They will be from now on their main rivals.
It is unlikely that this platform will reach the size or importance, for example, of the iPhone, but the strategy in the coming years for Apple would be to create more affordable models and little by little manage to condense all the technology of this first model into a more conventional-looking glasses and therefore more attractive to the general public.
Another product that could see the light of day at this WWDC is a new Macbook Air that would have a larger screen and would be sold as a complement to the current model, launched last year. The model would have a 15-inch screen and use the same processor as the smaller Macbook Air, the M2.
Another possible renewal would be that of the Mac Studio, desktop computers aimed at professional users that Apple launched in March 2022 but have not yet received the update to the company's new generation of processors.
Apple also promised that in two years all Mac models would abandon Intel processors to move to these new M manufactured by the company itself, with a more efficient architecture. The deadline has passed but the Mac Pro, the most powerful and modular Mac in the catalog, has not yet been updated, so in this conference Apple could also explain what the plans are for this range, despite the fact that its high price makes it on a team with few potential users.
Fewer rumors are circulating about new versions of the company's operating systems. As every year, Apple will announce today the new software that will arrive in the fall on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and the rest of the company's products. In the coming weeks, the first beta versions of these operating systems will also be available for download.
In iOS, the iPhone operating system, one of the novelties could be a new horizontal mode of operation that would turn the phone into a smart screen, for example, when resting on the nightstand. Apple also plans to launch a new journaling app that automatically creates a summary of the activities carried out and sites visited throughout the day. The Health application will also include several new functions related to mental and emotional health and a complete redesign of the virtual wallet where credit cards and passes are stored could be announced.
Regulatory pressure, both in the US and Europe, will also force Apple to be more open with its app store, and new policies are likely to be announced to allow, for example, third-party stores on its phones and tablets.
Little is known about the changes and news for macOS and iPadOS, but one of the platforms that will undergo a major redesign will be watchOS, the Apple Watch operating system. Instead of a list or grid of applications, the main interface will become more dependent on widgets - small applications with reduced functionality but always active - that will be easier to navigate. These widgets were one of the big new features on iOS last year, so it makes sense that they're coming to the watch now.
Apple could also announce major changes to Siri. Attention in the world of technology has been rapidly diverted in recent months towards advances in artificial intelligence, and Apple, although it presents innovations related to this discipline every year, does not seem to have the same interest in these tools as Google at the moment. or Microsoft. New features for your digital assistant and for your productivity tools could help change that perception and the best scenario to do so is, without a doubt, this conference.
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