On time, Jobs also launched Apple newest workstation at the Apple WWDC developers’ conference in San Francisco, and outlined specs for the company’s first Intel-based Xserve servers, slated for released in October.
A good part of the show was also devoted to bashing OS rival Microsoft Corp, in line with Apple’s current TV campaign in which a staid businessman representing a Windows machine is routinely out-performed and out-cooled by his hipper-looking Mac counterpart.
While regularly pausing for applause, hollers and whistles, Jobs outlined how Cupertino, California-based Apple had stolen market share from Windows-based machines during the past six months and how it plans to maintain that momentum.
Last quarter was the best Mac quarter ever, he said. Even better was growth rate was dramatically faster than the rest of the industry, which means we’re gaining market share.
He noted that Apple’s notebook market share had more than doubled from January to June to 12%. At this point, the thousands-strong crowd of developers roared with approval.
Indeed, this year’s WWDC is the company’s largest ever, and Jobs boasted Apple now has 750,000 registered devs for the Mac.
However, disappointment could be heard among the hundreds of devs milling about after the event. A chief complaint was that even though Jobs outlined several new notable features for Leopard, there were no surprises or new Mac Book Pro announcements at the conference’s keynote.
Investors, who were still reeling from Apple’s stock option probe developing into a potential scandal, seemed to share some of those devs’ feelings. Apple stock fell 1.6% to close at $67.21 on the Nasdaq on the day of the conference.
But while Leopard may hit the stores slightly later than originally expected, the delay may serve Apple well given that Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Vista OS, slated for release in January, seems to already mimic various Mac OS X features.
Our friends up north spent more than $5bn on R&D – yet these days all they try to do is copy Google and Apple, Jobs said. So I guess it’s a good example of how money isn’t everything.
Jobs pointed out that Apple had launched five new OS versions during the past five years, compared to the perpetually delayed Vista OS, formerly known as Longhorn.
Apple SVP of software engineering Bertrand Serlet showed several screen shots of how several Vista beta features are similar to earlier Mac OS X programs. For us, it is features from our past. Features we’ve had in Tiger, since the beginning of OS X, Serlet said.
He held no punches in mocking Vista’s major innovations that trailed OS X’s. In comparing similar-looking screens of Apple’s iCal calendar app to Windows Vista Calendar, Serlet noted, They even tried to compete with color scheme and didn’t get that quite right.
Serlet went so far as to show an image of a gaudy Elvis impersonator and said, If you can’t innovate, I guess you imitate, but it’s never quite as good. The crowd was audibly delighted.
Apple’s clear message was that Leopard’s delay likely helps Apple differentiate from Vista.
Jobs and other company execs outlined 10 new features of Leopard. Notable among them was an automatic back up and recovery tool called Time Machine.
Everything is backed up, including all types of files, folders and software updates, Apple VP of platform experience Scott Forestall said, which means we can restore everything. So, if your hard drive dies, you can put a new hard drive in your machine and be right back to where you were before.
Files also can be restored a la carte. The data, which can be backed up to another hard drive or server, is displayed as a 3D filing system, which can be automatically searched and clicked through. Windows XP has a feature that enables users to return to an earlier state of operation.
Another new feature, called Spaces, lets users create separate spaces for various applications and quickly move from one to the other. A four-screen partition can also be created, in which apps can be moved around.
Apple also is revamping mail by adding notes and To Do features. And Leopard will boast support for both 64- and 32-bit applications.
While Jobs gave just a rough sketch of Leopard, SVP of product marketing Phil Schiller outlined the specs of the new Mac Pro workstation. The PowerMac successor is powered by two dual-core Xeon chipset from Intel Corp and promises up to be up to three times more power efficient than the G5, according to Schiller.
The Mac Pro’s quad-core Xeon power performed as much as 2 times faster than the G5, with a 1.6x floating-point performance advantage, according to SPECint_rate2000 specs, provided by Schiller. For everyday applications, the Mac Pro promises faster performance ranging from 1.4x to 1.8x, he said. The new machine also has four hard drive bays and up to 2 terabytes of internal storage. Apple has increased the front I/O and added a second optical drive bay, all of which drew hoots of approval from the delegates.
Apple is offering the machine at a standard configuration but users can choose configurations built to order.
Schiller said the machine would be cheaper than its counterparts from Dell Inc: A Mac Pro with two 2.66GHz dual-core Zeons, 1GH 667MHz FB-DIMM would cost $2,499 compared to Dell’s Precision 690 with similar features priced at $3,448, he said.
Not only is it twice as fast and with better features, it’s $800 less expensive, Schiller claimed. It wasn’t completely clear whether it was a genuine apples-to-apples comparison.
Apple also announced its new Xserve server, also built on two Intel Xeons, offered at either 2GHz, 2.66GHz or 3GHz speeds. The Xserver promises to be 5.4 times faster than the G5 dual-core, according to Schiller. On a floating point average, that works out to 3.7 times faster.
New features include redundant power, as much as 2.25 terabytes of storage and remote management software. Compared to the Dell 1950, a 2Ghz Xserver offers five times the performance and costs $2,999 – or $1,000 less, Schiller claimed.
Jobs was quick to note that with Xserver, Apple will complete its transition to Intel microprocessors from PowerPC microprocessors, ending an 11-year relationship with IBM.
