This year I made an experiment. I wouldn’t read any WWDC/iOS leaks and rumours posts — especially if they were about the new design aesthetics of iOS 7. Somehow I felt Apple wasn’t exciting anymore and I wanted to see if I could prove myself wrong.

So there I was yesterday, eagerly streaming the WWDC Keynote and trying to understand my reactions about Apple’s new products based on different factors like competition, Apple itself, Ive’s track record, and more. Paradoxically, there was no “Is this the way Steve would do it?” — I didn’t expect such a response in the first place. Steve is gone, his legacy is here, but it’s up to us to move forward.

Apple is exciting again — that’s my WWDC take-away. Exciting not in a Google-esque sense, but in a more profound way. I still love Glass and appreciate Google’s moonshots but Android is, even now, behind iOS and if it weren’t for data —Google Now— and the contextualization of it, it’d be even more. Apple made it clear that it’s the only dominant player when it comes to amazing hardware and software. “Can’t innovate any more, my ass.”

Not only dominant but also the only skilled enough when it comes to design, aesthetics, details, performance and meaning. If you read between the lines Apple doesn’t try after all to compete with Google. It’s clear, now, that Cupertino is by far better on everything (sans the web infrastructure—we’re getting there) compared to Mountain View. Still a trailblazer.

Apple is different.