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All the facts, figures you need to know about Apple’s WWDC 2015
Apart from WWDC 2015 being longer than the Avengers 2 movie, over a 1 000 Apple engineers from 70 countries attended the Cupertino tech giant’s 26th developer conference.
As ever, Apple is taking a swing at competitors on all fronts — from desktop to mobile, payments and music. Unfortunately, we no new hardware products were revealed last night, but we did see Apple’s new Mac OS X, its latest mobile operating system iOS 9 and a new streaming service, called Apple Music, among some other things.
Above all its introductions, Apple CEO Tim Cook together with senior VP Craig Federighi, were adamant about proving just how popular Apple’s services have been over the last year or so, and what we should really look forward to.
Mac OS X beats Windows to the chase
While Windows may be the most popular desktop operating system on the planet, it’s always been struggling to convince users to adopt upgrades. According to Net Marketshare, Windows dominates overall marketshare with just over 90% of all PC’s running Microsoft’s operating system. Just over 12% runs its latest version.
Mac OS X — Federighi made sure we take note — has shown a 55% adoption rate in its first eight months. Windows 8.1 shows a feeble 7%.
Then again, OS X only holds around four percent of the global marketshare. But with a new operating system called El Capitan, we might just see Apple destroy the desktop market when it gets released later this year.
App Store grows by billions
There have, in fact, been over 100-billion app downloads since 2007. That’s a heck of a lot more than the initial 500 apps Apple started out with when it first introduced the iPhone seven years ago, with over 1.5-million apps available today. Sure Candy Crush probably takes up to half of the overall market share, but hey, it’s a massive milestone still.
Unlike with the boastful figures we saw with Yosemite, there were no direct punches thrown at Google Play’s performance. It’s safe to assume that the two are neck in neck.
Apple Pay crosses the pond in full force
Apple’s VP of Internet Services Jennifer Bailey walked the hungry crowd of developers through the company’s mobile payments service, Apple Pay. The Android Pay competitor is announced to be making its way to 250 000 contactless payment terminals in the UK this year — its first expansion outside the US.
Unfortunately, Bailey didn’t present any figures around Apple Pay’s performance since its launch. If Cook’s word is anything to go by though, it’s deemed “successful” with over 1 million sign-ups within first the first three days of launch last year.
Just last week, Google introduced Android Pay with an array of different partners on board from Domino’s Pizza to JetBlue Airways and Coca Cola. Both Google and Apple’s mobile payments services can be integrated with apps.
Apple Music steps up to the plate
Since it was launched in 2003, Apple’s iTunes has always been seen as some sort of badass revolutionary within the global music industry — finding a legitimate (and profitable) way of buying music online in the digital age. That’s until the US$8-billion worth music streaming service Spotify sauntered along, quickly becoming the next big thing.
In any case, Apple is fighting back on this front too. With over 30 million songs, I should add. Similar to that of Pandora and Spotify, playlists can be curated according to the listener’s activity while also having access to an offline mode.
The service will put you back US$9.99 per month or US$14.99 per month for the family edition.
On top of this, Apple’s also got its own fully-fledged, walking, talking live radio station called Beats 1. Because Apple. The online station will be 24/7 and anchored by DJ’s based in the US and the UK.
For more Apple news and see how it happened, check out Gearburn’s coverage for all things geekery.
