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Multi-Touch device at WWDC |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 |
 WWDC is around the corner. Everyone is making prediction based on "inside" information. I don't have any. But I'm wiling to say they're wrong, except for Shaw Wu. Yes the 3G iPhone will debut. But that's not the story, it's a smoke screen. There's something more that almost everyone is overlooking, and it's big. Apple has been rumored to have built a fake, full-scale Apple store on a Warner Brother's lot to film something for the WWDC keynote. With over 180 retail stores and the Boston store just opening, Apple
surely could have filmed in one of their stores. So why the super
secrecy?
The secrecy comes from the competition. While Apple does enjoy a very high employee retention at their retail stores, a large enough pay-off from their competition could make almost any of them turn. Microsoft is recovering from the Vista fiasco, and Steve Balmer has openly slammed Apple about the number of units sold when talking about multi-touch at D6. Looks like Microsoft is gearing up for a challenge, at least it better be.
So what is it that Apple needed to build a set for? Chances are it is going to be something touch screen related. Touch screen is going to be the next big leap in technology. We saw it with the next generation of One Laptop Per Child's computer, the OX-2 . We have also been watching Jeff Han do it since TED 2006 . Apple has incorporated it into the MacBook Pro and the entire iPhone is based on it. CNN uses multi-touch (the wall), and everyone is getting into it. Microsoft is pushing it big time, their "Surface" product release in 2007 and Windows 7 multi-touch features  showcased at D6. Microsoft is betting big on multi-touch.
So the question is, Where's Apple? Apple revolutionized the telephone with the touch screen iPhone. Big success, bigger than anyone (except Steve Jobs) could imagine. They kept that under lock and key pretty damn well for a long long time. They also kept the x86 version of OS X under wraps since 10.0. So it's not a far stretch to say that Apple's multi-touch sensation is on the way, and is under severe lock and key for a good reason.
We've seen what Microsoft and Jeff Han visualize mutli-touch as becoming. But we've only seen a sneak peek at what Apple is planning. Apple is the innovator, D6 allowed Microsoft to show off Windows 7 and multi-touch before Steve could. So Apple has to have something to one-up Microsoft in this department. The big question is, how is it going to work? 
Two of the biggest problems with multi-touch devices are smears and fatigue. To use CNN's "the wall" to write emails is an overkill, and it will hurt your wrist and arms to be standing up typing against a wall all day. Sorting pictures on a wall might be nice, but not everyone can afford or has space for a 36" monitor to work with. You also have children. Children are messy. You can't tell children not to use a multi-touch device. You'd be killing your future if you did. Apple has a way around all of this. They have to. Just doing what Microsoft and Jeff Han have done won't cut it. If Apple doesn't show off some multi-touch features, big features, they might as well hand Microsoft a victory and watch the Apple stocks take a dive.
So Apple has something else up there sleeves. We know that Apple had over 180 unmarked containers from two separate manufacturers since March. We know that there were some boxes that resembled iMac size boxes from Quanta Comptuers rushed out via FedEx on Wednesday. The boxes could be deceiving. They could be a 30 iPhones together, or they could be 4 smaller products or one big product.
If I were to put money down on this, here's what we'll hear about at the Keynote of WWDC 08. Of course how great iTunes is doing. it will also cover how many copies of Leopard sold and how many Macs have been sold. He'll go into the new .Mac (rumored to be Mobile Me). He'll also introduce the 3G iPhone, show some of it's capabilities and tell developers to go to the workshops to learn more. But the "one more thing", that is up in the air. Whatever it is, expect to use more than one finger on it, and expect it to be copied in Windows 7. Personally, I see a touch screen interface like a keyboard. Let's not forget the MacMini. It needs to be included in the fun, and nobody has a multi-touch keyboard, yet.
No, this isn't insider information. The prediction and statements made
here are not from an Apple employee. Nor are they from an anonymous
reader. Where there are facts I've linked them. Everything else is logical conclusions. Disagree with them? Tell me in the comments.
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