Apple WWDC 2017 and its impact on Asia with Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies & Techpinions joined us in a two part conversation on post Google I/O & Apple WWDC 2017 and its impact to Asia. In the second part of our conversation, we discussed the major announcements from Apple WWDC 2017 and how their focus on Homepod, AR Kit and hardware will influence their roadmap going forward. We also examined whether WeChat in China can bypass the two major mobile operating systems: iOS and Android in the road ahead.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Ben Bajarin (@benbajarin, LinkedIn, Techpinions profile) from Creative Strategies and Techpinions.
  • Apple WWDC 2017 [0:51]
    • What are the key announcements in Apple WWDC this year? [0:51]
    • Why has Apple chosen to target the Homepod in the sound speakers space and downplaying the Siri component? [6:16]
    • Given that the complaints from the Apple base on the Mac Pros, they have beefed up their iMacs, macbook pros and related PCs, do you see a strategic shift from Apple in how they differentiate the iPad and PCs? [8:34]
    • IOS 11 seemed to focus on making the iPad more macOS like with files and drag and drop, where do you see Apple’s direction with the iPad go? [11:22] 
    • What’s Apple AR and VR roadmap heading in 2017? [13:10]
    • There seem to be less opening up to new areas but doubling down in both Apple WWDC and Google I/O this year, does that mean that they will totally focus on their competitive advantages instead of focusing on what the other side do best, for example, there is a lack of Apple talking about Siri but putting a lot more on hardware this year? [17:30]
    • Given that Apple has focused on China in the past few years with the WWDC events, where does a messaging app such as the Wechat ecosystem sits in iOS and Android and will it be able to bypass both mobile operating systems: iOS and Android? [20:01]

Editor’s note: We experience some recording difficulties coming from Skype lately not just for this one, hence if the quality is not so good, our apologies in advance. 

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.