iOS 8 and OS X10.10 – breakthrough or a copy?

It’s halfway through the Worldwide Developers Conference and Apple have already surprised the social media users with its announcements. Some feel quiet excited about updates, but others are rather disappointed with a lack of new devices’ launch. Nevertheless, the most anticipated and trending are new operating systems: for mobile devices – iOS 8 and for Mac computers – OS X10.10 Yosemite. Both were mentioned jointly in over 33k entries on social media platforms within two days.

New operating system appealed to the huge audience, however WWDC 2014 failed in some areas. The most common reason of disappointment of social media users was the lack of new iPhone 6 and iWatch introduction. Others accused Apple of copying from other companies (Android, Blackberry). Sill positive opinions about Apple and WWDC exceed negative ones.

Results

Number of mentions on 3rd of June in relation to the previous day decreased by 20%. People generated much more contents before the start of the conference.

The most popular source of mentions was Twitter. Its users generated over 25k mentions related to WWDC 2014.

As we mentioned before, social media users express rather positive attitude to WWDC and Apple. However, negative opinions are no exception. The chart below presents a proportion between positive (71%) and negative (29%) opinions. Negative opinions concern lack of  new Apple devices and hardware implementation as well as copying ideas from others.

New operating system is definitely the story number one on the conference. It was mentioned (within two days of WWDC) over 10 000 times, which constitutes over 30% of all entries related to WWDC. Second most trendng subject during event is HealthKit – a mobile application that can collect and analyze users health data. The graph below depicts the list of the most popular announcements with number of mentions.

Sample mentions:

Apple WWDC in a few hours. … Will iphone 6 and iwatch be launch??? OMG omg OMG

— Keane;) (@ItsJustKeane) czerwiec 2, 2014

Apple demo at #WWDC shows how easily the new Safari facilitates content theft from photographers. Great. — William Beem (@wbeem) czerwiec 2, 2014

#Apple sure knows how to #wow a croud!! A call to #drdre during #wwdc. How nice!

— Shlomo Bright (@shlomotion) czerwiec 3, 2014

#WWDC #iOS8: cool new keyboard but what about new emojis? — Natalie Venuto (@natalievenuto) czerwiec 2, 2014

Our Senior iOS developer @frosty is already queuing for WWDC: RT It’s 3am and I’m in the queue. What am I doing?! pic.twitter.com/XNOa9XDmPI”

— Mubaloo (@Mubaloo) czerwiec 2, 2014

Some cool things @Apple didn’t mention about the new IOS 8 at WWDC 2014!! http://t.co/b7CnKHMb1A #Apple #IOS8 #FutureTech #WWDC14 — Conor Brennan (@Conor_B99) czerwiec 2, 2014

*Reads WWDC Keynote Summary* Swift sounds cool. But looks like I’m buying a pebble and an Amazon TV thing.

— Rob Donoghue (@rdonoghue) czerwiec 2, 2014

Actually, I’m always excited by OS updates so bring it on! #Yosemite #iOS8 #WWDC — Mike Simpson (@wordsrmagic2me) czerwiec 2, 2014

Apple did a great job for copying BlackBerry 10’s Quick reply feature. #BlackBerry10 #iOS8 #WWDC

— Harry Minhas (@harrym20) czerwiec 2, 2014

Also, good stuff on the WWDC keynote. Looks like we’re storing stuff in the cloud rather than on a decent local filesystem. — Mike Arvela (@mieky) czerwiec 2, 2014

Shock. No new iPhone/MacBook/iMac/Mac Mini (!!) — it was a Developer’s Conference. #wwdc

— Lucas ✩ (@LucasWeatherby) czerwiec 2, 2014

iCopycats?? “@KenSua: Active Notifications for #iOS8 looks a lot like Instant Previews for @BlackBerry 10. #WWDC2014” — Moh (@ss_jarumi) czerwiec 2, 2014

When @Tim_Cook mentioned #Android during the #WWDC keynote, i realized that when you play catch up, you compare yourself with the best.

— Ali Tweel (@AliTweel) czerwiec 3, 2014

Apple Store is still open. So no new hardware then? #WWDC

— Paul Wong (@cismo) czerwiec 2, 2014

#wwdc #wwdc14 #keynote it’s amazing how much time apple spent designing a trash can 😉 #irony #macpro

— Jarek Rencz (@jrencz) czerwiec 2, 2014

Conclusions

• General attitudes towards WWDC in social media are positive.
• Number of mentions as well as estimated social media reach dropped on the second day of the conference.
• iOS 8 and OS X10.10 are the most popular announcements from WWDC in social media.
• People are not satisfied that Apple haven’t released iPhone 6, iWatch nor any hardware.
• Other negative comments include accusations of copying solutions and technologies from other companies.