iCompete

Apple Shifts Away From Google

Reveals new laptops, features to further tech rivalry.

Steve Jobs would be proud. Apple unveiled the new MacBooks at its WWDC keynote on Monday with a bevy of new features that upped the Silicon Valley arms race against its ultra competitor, Google. The new MacBook Pro is slimmer and lighter than previous versions. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is only 0.71 inches thick and weighs just 4.46 pounds. The company also showed off iOS 6, a new mobile platform, which includes a smarter and multilingual version of Siri. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who made the presentations, also unveiled new mapping and navigation systems, which the company will use instead of Google Maps and will be installed in new iPhones and iPads. Apple is constantly making an effort to update its operating systems on iPhones, which account for 23 percent of the smartphone market, compared with Android’s 59 percent.