YashLabs

Hot on the heels of Google’s I/O 2010 aimed at Developers, Apple is set to launch its Worldwide Developer Conference tomorrow.

Here is what to expect or pay special attention to:

1. iPad

The North American and now International launch of the iPad is bound to make an appearance at the WWDC 2010. Expect to hear preliminary numbers on how the iPad is selling on the international markets.

The device paves the way for expectations about User Interface for the decade and beyond, and one day, the mouse and the desktop PC in their current form will feel archaic.

I expect a corporate call for Developers to support HTML5 and the H.264 video codec.

2. iPhone HD

The leaked iPhone 4G device should be unveiled at WWDC 2010, with the following

a. A front-facing video camera, which will help in video-conferencing
b. Swappable micro-SD storage
c. Fast ARM-based processor probably emerging from the it buyout of Intrinsity, which is an ARMH licensee, and who know how to combine ARM cores into low-power, high-speed multi-core system-on-a-chip devices.

3. Apple Gianduja

This is Apple’s replacement to Flash, and has been under development for more than a year already. It will enable Rich Internet Application Development using Apple’s own existing stable of Development Tools.

It is entirely likely that Gianduja will wow developers and end-users worldwide and will also be specially easy to use by developers to implement Web interfaces for transactional websites or applications.

On the other hand, expect the FTC or the DOJ to have a deeper look at Apple’s blockade against Adobe’s Flash technology for the iPhone and the iPad in the wake of this technology being launched because of possible anti-competitive practices.

Apple and Steve Jobs‘ view of what competition means is totally skewed and irrational these days as the CEO accuses Google of entering their turf of the Telephony market while they wouldn’t go into search, thereby conveniently forgetting the turf of so many traditional phone and mobile phone companies that Apple tread upon: Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Research In Motion to name a few.

4. Apple’s TV & Music initiatives

Apple bought out Lala which streamed music to subscribers but shut down the services. As written about previously on YashLabs, I expect the Lala technology to resurface within iTunes in the cloud, and to stream to mobile devices like the iPad, the iPhones/iPod Touches and Apple TV.

With Google’s own announcement of Google TV, backed by a cluster of high-profile suppliers and partners like Sony, Logitech, Adobe and Dish Networks, I expect Apple to retaliate with new offerings of AppleTV, including a new pricing of a $99 device and possibly new partnerships or services from TV/Movie content providers.

5. Other devices and services?

Apple has been rather quiet about their new iMac and Macbook products. Maybe they will be talked about, but I have low expectations that they will be in the limelight. Apple does have amazing and new technologies for Developers that the latter should care about like GrandCentralDispatch and OpenCL though.

Their main competitor in the new era is Google and the latter bought out a secretive startup called AgniLux and who probably know how to optimize ARM cores by interconnecting them high-speed (with light I believe). This positions Google is a new space for optimizing high-speed and low cost servers.

I don’t think Apple will announce anything server-related for now although they do have a server version of Snow Leopard, the reason being that the chose iPhone O.S. for the ARM-based iPad instead of Snow Leopard. They will, therefore have to wait till they can optimize the operating system for ARM chips until they announce that type of offering.

There could be new iPod Touches with cameras, but Apple may wait for other conferences to announce them.