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OS X Mountain Lion was announced today. But where was the event?
Normally, new versions of OS X are announced to developers at the Apple WWDC. This time, Apple delivered its keynote in separate presentations to individual writers & journalists.
John Gruber said that the presentation was as polished as any Apple event, even though he was the only person receiving the presentation. (Daring Fireball)
But he, like the rest of us, was surprised with Apple’s new announcement method. He asked Phil Schiller why they didn’t hold an event.
Schiller’s response: We’re doing things a bit differently now.
The logic behind the announcement without the event
Gruber:
“…My gut feeling though, is this. Apple didn’t want to hold an event to announce Mountain Lion because those press events are precious. They just used one for the iBooks/education thing, and they’re almost certainly on the cusp of holding a major one for the iPad. They don’t want to wait to release the Mountain Lion preview because they want to give Mac developers months of time to adopt new APIs and to help Apple shake out bugs. So: an announcement without an event. But they don’t want Mountain Lion to go unheralded.” (Daring Fireball)
Mountain Lion didn’t get a special event because that would make other events less special.
Apple doesn’t need an event any more to get publicity.
Mountain Lion lit up the internet as soon as the news broke.
The lack of an event doesn’t mean that Mountain Lion isn’t special. It’s a worthy update to OS X.
The seemingly little features will make a big difference.
In particular, iCloud and AirPlay will make a big difference for me. (See also: posts about AirPlay)
Features:
Sharing (“Share Sheets”)
