Assorted Afflatuses

Today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off Apple's annual developer's conference in San Francisco, California with what was ostensibly an hour and thirty minute demonstration of Apple's next major OS release, Mac OS X Leopard. But nowhere in the presentation did I see anything substantial that Mr. Jobs had not announced at the 2006 developer's conference where he famously proclaimed that Apple had some "top secret" features that it could not reveal at that time.

So what happened to those so-called "secret features"? Theoretically Apple could add more functionality to its operating system between now and its release in October. But Apple calls the product that Mr. Jobs demonstrated today a "near final" release of the software, which implies that Apple engineers will not add any substantial functionality between today and the final release of Leopard in October.

This disappoints me. Since January, Apple has done almost nothing but promote the iPhone. Admittedly, they refreshed some hardware and released a nice upgrade to Final Cut Studio, but otherwise, it has been all iPhone, all the time. Most of their consumer software -- iLife, iWork, Final Cut Express HD and Logic Express -- has not been updated for almost 18 months. And the last significant refresh of their hardware was the Mac mini's introduction in January 2005. The Mac Pro still makes use of an enclosure that has remained more or less unchanged since its release four years ago in June 2003.

I have seen enough of the iPhone. It clearly has some innovative features, though I will reserve final judgement until I can actually hold and use one. Unless the iPhone really knocks my socks off on June 29, I intend to purchase a Nokia E61i.

Hopefully the two percent decline in Apple's share price that followed Mr. Jobs' presentation will wake management up to the fact that they did not live up to their promise. Certainly, Leopard looks interesting, and I will gladly shell out $129 to buy a copy come October. But I do feel a little let down by the fact that Mr. Jobs did not unveil anything particularly amazing that really warranted his "top secret" label.