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As I’m sure you’ve heard, Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday, and expectations are very high. Now that Apple has announced they will no longer be attending the Macworld expo, this is likely to become their premiere event to a non-press audience. Swirling around the web are lots of WWDC rumors guessing what Apple will do and anticipating with excitement the possible hardware announcement, but I want to spend a little time discussing what WWDC is really all about: Operating Systems.

It’s all about the OS

WWDC’s keynote has become in the last 10 years a platform for Apple to make announcements for all sorts of things, and it is likely to contain some surprises this year as well. However, it’s just the tip of the iceberg for WWDC, and it’s what you can’t see underneath that is some of the best stuff at the event. Keep in mind that this is a developer’s conference, and attendance is limited. Therefore, the entire conference is geared towards the people who make the applications for your Apple device that you love so much, and for the second year in a row, it’s a sellout. This means, unlike Macworld, this is not a product showcase, but a chance for some of the greatest minds of these platforms to get together and get a look under the hood of what is coming.

If you take a quick peak at WWDC’s conference schedule, you will quickly realize that almost all of the sessions are completely focused on the operating systems, only talking about the hardware when it interacts with the software that runs it. This year, like last year, there are two different but related operating systems to highlight. For the iPhone, we have the much anticipated release of iPhone OS 3.0 and for the Mac we have the much more quietly expected Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard). Both of these will be important releases that will likely occur soon after WWDC, if not at the conference itself. At the very least, we expect to find out more about when to expect these releases. Now, let’s look more critically into these releases and why they are important.

iPhone OS 3.0

iPhone OS 3.0, despite its name, will be the new OS for both the iPhone and the iPod touch, and will be available sometime this summer. This release brings some much anticipated features to the iPhone, including copy and paste, stereo Bluetooth, multimedia messaging (MMS), peer to peer (P2P) communication with nearby iPhone users and universal search. All of these features will be available to the current generation of iPhones, while features like MMS and stereo bluetooth are not expected to work with the first generation iPhone.

This is an important release for the iPhone OS not just for the features it will bring, but also for the maturity of the platform. Many see this release of the OS as the one that will finally fulfill the expectations for the original iPhone. Think of it as if iPhone OS 1.0 was the infant, 2.0 was the gangly teenage years, and 3.0 will finally be a mature, sophisticated adult. There will be a little flash on the surface, but the real substance will be underneath, as developers will now have more access to the resources the iPhone possesses.

Apps today live in a bubble. They can interact with things outside their bubble, but only in very limited ways. The bubble isn’t bursting, but it is getting a lot bigger. With 3.0, developers will be able to work more with Google Maps and the iPod multimedia library, and directly interface with hardware attached in the dock port (and possibly over bluetooth, as well). This means you could finally have an alarm on your iPhone that can use your iPod music as an alarm, not just the ringtones you have created. Or, an app that helps you find a local restaurant could have the map in the app instead of forcing you to switch out to the Maps app to see where it is. You may also get the chance to see all sorts of great (and probably not so great) hardware accessories that interact with your iPhone in some very cool ways. Suddenly, your iPhone can become the central hub for even more activity.

The question that needs to be asked here is, “Why?” Why has it taken so long for Apple to allow this kind of interaction? Isn’t this the sort of thing that computers and even mobile devices have always done? I can’t answer those questions authoritatively, but I can speculate on why I think it has taken so long. Apple’s answer to similar questions has always been that they limit things either because of stability, security or both. While this answer may be frustrating to the consumer, limiting for the sake of security and/or stability are core to Apple’s success with the iPhone as they evaluate where the iPhone is going and what it is doing. Ultimately, it is in the best interest of the consumer for Apple to be very intentional in their choices (albeit slow).

Coming soon, another piece will detail the smartphone’s evolution and its future, but for now, let’s just say that many smartphones that came before the iPhone were useful, but troublesome. If you wanted your smartphone to work like it did out of the box, you needed to leave it with the software that came with it out of the box. Sometimes, even then, it would still take a lot of time to make it do what you wanted it to do. Similarly, when Apple released the iPhone, that’s the way it worked. But they intended all along for Apps to be written and downloaded, starting first with only Apple approved Apps be on the device. With the release of “teen OS” 2.0, they allowed Apps to be written but highly restricted them to prevent third party apps from destabilizing the phone. For a mobile platform like the iPhone to succeed, it needed and needs to be as bulletproof and user-friendly as it can be. Smartphones had rarely appealed to the average consumer in the past because they were not easy to use. A consumer device needs to be—first and foremost—a stable, secure and reliable device that is easy to use and does not intimidate those who are attempting to use it.

So, iPhone OS 3.0 will usher in new features for the developer as well as the consumer, and it will finally unleash even more potential from the phone. This helps the platform to be more stable, secure and reliable. It also helps everyone—including consumers, press and developers—understand how Apple expects the platform to be used in the future. So, instead of throwing it at us all at once, we receive it in small, un-intimidating doses that are much easier to swallow. At the same time, Apple gets the chance to refine these systems even more to make sure they work correctly. In the end, with each step, Apple refines and reveals another piece of the puzzle, building the base to test things they ultimately want to do with the iPhone. Now they have the base and they will leverage that base to take the platform to even higher heights.

Check back with us tomorrow as we take a look at the importance of Mac OS X v10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).