WWDC 2009: Better Than Expected, Despite AT&T

June 8th, 2009

Glancing back at my expectations for this year’s WWDC Keynote, things turned out better than expected, and there were a few surprises I didn’t see coming. Not even AT&T could totally spoil things.

The Good

New MacBook Pros: Totally didn’t see this one coming. All have great specs with better than expected pricing, especially the 13 inch MacBook Pro at $1199. Apple even put back Firewire. Not sure what the implications are for the MacBook line – there’s now just one lone, plastic MacBook hanging out at $999. I don’t know if this means the MacBook as a whole is about to be phased out, new MacBooks are expected at lower than $1199 price points, or that mysterious tablet will fill in the gaps. But even if not, the $1199 MacBook Pro looks seriously tempting – it may be time for me to upgrade (my white plastic MacBook is now a few years old).
Snow Leopard: Extremely pleased with the availability of September with the price of $29. That’s an awesome deal, especially when past versions were $129. Although Snow Leopard is not a full version upgrade, Apple still could have charged $75 and gotten away with it. $29 is an awesome deal.
New iPhones: New hardware specs were right in line with what I expected (16 GB and 32 GB, better camera, faster processor, compass) but the pricing was another surprise. The 16 GB 3Gs will be subsidized to $199, and the current iPhone 8GB drops to $99. I didn’t think Apple would go that cheap, and now that an iPhone is around a hundred bucks, it seriously enters the “impulse buy” area – well, provided you’re prepared to pay AT&T on a regular basis for the privilege.

The Bad

AT&T: Several times, AT&T’s general suckitude cropped up, specifically implied lack of tethering, their promise to support MMS “later in the summer,” and the questionable upgrade pricing for current iPhone 3G owners (annoying enough that it deserves a separate post – and let’s just say I’m not upgrading anytime soon). Additionally, I wish AT&T had some improvements to announce, say a lower monthly fee, network upgrades for better connectivity, etc.. But instead one just got the feeling AT&T is holding Apple back and no love will be lost if / when Apple finally dumps them.
No Steve Jobs: Even if Steve couldn’t attend in person, he could have participated remotely, through a demo, say a phone call via an iPhone 3GS. This would have been icing on the cake and public confirmation that the iCEO is in fact healthy and primed for an Apple return later this summer.
No new iPhone design: All those spy pictures with a black rim, matte case, and buttons in different locations were wrong.

Conclusion

All in all a better WWDC keynote than I expected, mostly due to the surprise MacBook Pro upgrades and lower prices. The biggest bummer was AT&T. Oh well, I guess I’ll put the money reserved for an iPhone upgrade and Snow Leopard toward a new MacBook.

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