Apple apparently has plans to officially unveil the latest version of its mobile operating system -- iOS -- on June 5th of this year, as part of its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event to be held in the city of San Jose in California. For those still not familiar with WWDC, it is a developer-centric conference held annually by the tech giant, and it has, on numerous occasions, served as its venue for introducing new software products. Apart from a new version of iOS, Apple fans can also expect new developments regarding the macOS, watchOS, and tvOS during this year’s WWDC.
As for those looking forward to this year’s WWDC event in order to hear some fresh news regarding Apple’s hardware products, they may be disappointed. As a developer focused conference, the WWDC has always been about software updates. But considering how the software side of mobile has gained prominence in the last few quarters (aided by increasing popularity of artificial intelligence driven digital assistants such as Apple’s own Siri, Google’s Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa), consumers now are more excited than ever to see what software can deliver in terms of enhancing the overall experience of the modern mobile user.
Also, a new version of iOS should also drum up more excitement among Apple’s fans who are already expecting a special year from the company. 2017 happens to be the year in which the iPhone (quite undisputedly, the tech giant’s most popular and most successful product ever) turns ten years old. And it is not just Apple’s fans who are affected -- Apple’s rivals will also be waiting to see how this year’s iPhone offerings will influence the entire global smartphone industry.
As for Apple, it may be mostly business as usual for the company for now. But according to some reports, the phone maker is making some rather interesting moves as of late. As reported by Reuters, Apple is said to be planning to start manufacturing iPhone SE units in India. The talk is that Apple will take full advantage of a contract mobile manufacturer in Bengaluru, a city that already hosts a design and development center owned by Apple. Another rumor has circulated that Wistron Corp (a Taiwan based manufacturer) is also opening a factory in the same city in order to manufacture iPhone devices.
India would be a good target for Apple, on account of the country being considered by many industry watchers as the fastest growing smartphone market in the world right now. But the iPhone maker has had a challenging time trying to penetrate the Indian mobile market in past years. There is a good reason for this -- as an emerging mobile market, Indian consumers normally prefer more affordable Android devices (like those from Chinese phone makers). iPhones are not cheap, but the iPhone SE is certainly a lot less expensive than the other models, and aggressively pushing this particular iPhone to the Indian masses could pay handsome dividends for Apple this year.
