So maybe Wall Street isn’t terribly impressed with the announcements at Apple’s WWDC. But that doesn’t mean nothing significant was offered. It happens to be the reverse. As expected, Apple is taking the Snow Leopard route with El Capitan and iOS 9 offering up operating system upgrades that focus on improvements in user experience and performance. This means that the features are more in the area of refinements than, on the surface at least, major enhancements.

Although that’s not quite true, at least when it comes to the iPad.

Faced with declining sales, Apple has gone to work to make the iPad more useful for productivity, and encourage you to upgrade to a new model. It all comes down to the enhanced multitasking with a Split View mode that allows you to position two apps side by side. Yes, Apple is already being attacked for borrowing the Split Screen feature found on Samsung smartphones and tablets, but there are only so many ways you can put apps side-by-side that make sense.

Regardless, among the new multitasking enhancements, Split Screen only works on the iPad Air 2 and the refreshed models arriving this fall that may include a larger iPad. So if you want to take advantage of this feature, and I expect it will be popular if it works smoothly and reliably, buy a new iPad. I presume this is because of the CPU and RAM requirements for putting live apps side by side, although the critics will pounce on Apple for restricting this tentpole feature to exactly one model, at least when they aren’t crying copycat.

Of course, the enhanced Siri is also being attacked because of its similarity to Google Now. Again, I presume Apple’s customers want a more accurate and more proactive Siri, so Apple is delivering it without the privacy concerns occasioned by using a Google service.

Split View will also appear on OS X El Capitan, as part of the full-screen mode. But wasn’t that something already present in Windows? Yes indeed, but having a side-by-side view is still a good idea from a productivity standpoint, and it’s not that Microsoft hasn’t borrowed some OS X tentpole features for Windows 10. Consider virtual desktops, shades of Spaces, or a task management screen reminiscent of Mission Control. Fact is that Apple, Google and Microsoft are highly influenced by one another. The important thing is whether a feature makes sense and is well done. And it doesn’t violate someone’s intellectual property.

But some tech writers are gong way overboard. So I read a piece claiming that El Capitan has acquired a “host” of features from Windows, but it appears to focus strictly on side-by-side. The theory goes that Apple is looking to Windows to solve the iPad problem, but what about Samsung? Said problem is supposed to be mostly about the fact that iPad owners aren’t upgrading, but Apple isn’t breaking down those figures other than to say it’s part of the problem. Obviously wanting to take advantage of new features will help, but making the product more of a productivity tool will separate it from all those consumption devices that pretend to be iPad competitors.

How any of that impacts iPad sales remains to be seen. After all, the promise of a new feature, with a reality several months away from being realized, may not have an immediate impact. But if it accompanies the release of new models this fall, with a major marketing push, maybe things will change for the better. At least Apple has made what appears to be a positive effort to make the iPad a more compelling product.

Now when it comes to all those articles about what Apple copied and where, I saw yet another today listing several items. I don’t dispute them so far as it goes, but how many articles do you see listing the features that Google, Microsoft or even Samsung assumed from Apple? It works both ways, and shouldn’t there be similar lists?

No matter. It does seem that Apple made sensible improvements to OS X and iOS. Getting better performance with easier usability, plus more battery life on an iPhone or an iPad, is certainly worth the upgrade. That El Capitan and iOS 9 both work on the very same hardware as their predecessors means that the same user base can upgrade. I am also pleased that Apple has managed to substantially cut the size of the iOS update to make it easier for folks to install without syncing with iTunes. The size of the iOS 8 update — although it got smaller later on — was a huge impediment for many.

As to the rest of the announcements, producing a major upgrade for the WatchOS software so quickly means there’s a huge commitment to have it run in top form for the critical holiday season. I’d care more if I had an Apple Watch.

And I really don’t have a whole lot of interest in Apple Music. Perhaps this ages me, but I prefer to buy music. I want to know that I will still have that music if or when a service is no longer available, or I have other priorities for the monthly payment. Apple’s critics are saying there’s not a whole lot that’s new here, but the customers will decide if it meets their needs, and whether the Beats Music “advantage” represented a worthwhile investment, aside from those fancy headphones.

If you were hoping to learn about Apple’s rumored subscription TV service, or the next Apple TV during the WWDC, you’ll have to keep waiting. Apple had other priorities. As predicted in the rumor sites, it was very much about enhancing the reliability and performance of OS X and iOS, with fewer gee-whiz features. Apple calls it experience and performance, but that’s a good thing.

It also takes us to OS 10.11 El Capitan. I’m not enamored of the name, but I was less in favor of OS X Yosemite, mostly because it reminded me not of a California landmark but an annoying cartoon character. In any case, Apple appears to be taking a smart approach to the OS X and iOS updates this year, although the critics won’t stop reminding you about features supposedly cribbed from Android and Windows. They also don’t use as many words to discuss the features Google and Microsoft “borrowed” from Apple.

In any case, despite the claim about the great response to OS X Yosemite during the keynote, in fact it received 2.5 stars at the App Store, which his decidedly middling. True, people with problems are more apt to complain, but Yosemite had some serious bugs that have not, thus far at any rate, been completely fixed. But there is a 10.10.4 under construction that may address that notorious Wi-Fi bug. We’ll have to see.

In any case, El Capitan promises some surprising improvements, such as the claim that apps will launch up to 1.4 times as fast, and that apps will switch up to twice as fast. Now I haven’t seen any serious slowdowns with most app launches since I’ve gone all SSD; most apps launch pretty quick. But Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress still drag, so the promised improvement, if realized in the final release, will be significant.

One key component of the announced performance boost appears to be Metal, the graphics enhancement that debuted last year with iOS 7. It’s going to be significant, since Adobe promises to deliver Metal support to their apps, and claims that the After Effects video editing app delivered an improvement of eight times in rendering performance. This is a huge deal, and will put apps that support this technology way ahead of their Windows counterparts.

Mission Control, which is being borrowed for Windows 10, gains a Split View option for the full-screen view, which, as the name implies, puts the app windows side by side and thus appears at first glance to be similar to a feature already available at Windows with an Apple slant. El Capitan also includes enhancements to Spotlight, Safari, Mail, Photos and other apps. The Maps app gains the public transit info that’s also being rolled out in iOS 9.

Both El Capitan and iOS 9 appear to support the very same hardware as their predecessors, so your Apple gear gets another lease on life with the promise of improved performance and reliability. Indeed, with iOS 9, Apple is claiming up to one hour additional battery life. Even better, the installation will be substantially smaller than iOS 8, thus making it easier to upgrade space-challenged iPhones and iPads.

iOS 9 inherits the public transit improvements in Maps, and also gains a new system font, San Francisco, instead of Helvetica Neue. The font is already being used on the Apple Watch. It’s superficially similar to Helvetica but appears to be more readable, and that will address one of the criticisms leveled against Apple after the move from Lucinda Grande to Helvetica Neue.

Among the improvements, Passport becomes Wallet, Siri becomes more powerful and thus becomes a better competitor to Google Now. By far the most significant improvement is the arrival of the long-rumored Split View option for recent iPads. It’s similar to the way it’s done with El Capitan, and the critics will remind us that Samsung has already introduced such a feature on some of their Android gear. But Apple is reserving Split View to iPads with enough processor power to handle the two app scheme without suffering a speed bump.

More important, this will help cement the iPad’s role as a productivity device, and some suggest it may also pave the way for a larger-screened iPad Pro later this year. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see if sales are impacted in any noticeable way.

Apple is also making a huge push to encourage Android switchers with the new Move to iOS app, which will allow users of Google’s platform to transform much of their data, including contacts, messages, and music without DRM, and be able to switch to similar apps on the iOS platform. If it works as promised, the job migrating to an iPhone or iPad will be far easier.

As usual, the new operating systems will roll out this fall. Developers are getting betas now, and the public betas will arrive in July. Developers will also appreciate the fact that all the programs are being rolled into one, meaning a single $99 fee now gets you access to all the prereleases.

In a surprising move, Apple not only announced a major update to Swift, its new programming language, but made it open source and available for Linux developers. So Apple’s walled garden is loosening, and Linux developers will be able to deliver OS X versions of their apps too if they choose to expand their markets.

WatchOS 2 was announced, with support for native apps, third-party complications (the extra elements you see on a watch face), and other goodies. Apple is moving fast to get rid of the early release glitches.

The other prediction that came true was the announcement of Apple Music. The Beats name is reduced to an always-on radio station called Beats 1. The new service debuts on June 30 for iOS and the Mac, with Apple TV, Windows and, believe it or not, Android versions coming this fall. Price is in keeping with the market at $9.99 a month for a single user, and $14.99 a month for up to six users.

The huge promised advantage for Apple Music, acquired when Apple bought Beats Music, is the use of live curation of musical playlists. Will Apple’s marketing muscle beat Spotify? Good question, but that probably won’t be known until after the service is rolled out to all the supported platforms.

Overall, I’m happy to see Apple focus on smart features and better performance, and I am optimistic about trying out the betas for El Capitan and iOS 9.

It’s fair to say that the TV makers are confronting a dilemma. Picture quality continues to improve, and prices for standard sets with 1080p screen resolutions are going down, so profits are slim. Although some models are still available with 3D, it’s yesterday’s news except for the multiplex. 3D in the home hasn’t done terribly well. Being forced to wear glasses for two hours in the theatre is one thing, and people still do that for some films. But having to do it in the home is just plain awkward.

Besides, what happens if you don’t have enough glasses on hand to accommodate family and friends? Do those left out just sit there and endure a distorted image so a few can enjoy the questionable benefits of 3D? I’m just asking the question, but the TV makers have already given their answer. They attempted to extend 3D into the home, and the venture failed. Maybe when there’s a successful technology that doesn’t require glasses, they’ll try again. But right now they’re busy with 4K.

4K is also referred to as Ultra HD, although there may be technical niceties that make them potentially different. Roughly speaking it means four times as many pixels, thus yielding a sharper image. That sounds promising on the surface, particularly if you recall the difference between a regular display and a Retina display on your computer or mobile device. Or standard definition and HD. It’s night and day, right?

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Before I get started, let me say that I have no idea whatever whether Apple will introduce a new Apple TV set-top box next week? The invitation to the WWDC implies they will based on the illustration, but published reports say it’s not yet ready. Meantime, if you can’t wait, the 2012 model, at $69, is a pretty good deal. You can always hope that, whatever interface refinements Apple might devise, they will be available for older models.

But this week there’s a breathless story claiming that Apple TV has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past year, or at least the share of paid TV streaming. The figures, based on data from Adobe Digital Index, claims streaming TV has climbed some 282% in the last year. This clearly augers well for cord cutters, particularly the news that Apple doubled its share.

Or at least that’s the story that’s being printed and reprinted without critical comment.

But what does Adobe have to do with stats from an Apple device, or any set-top streamer? Well, it seems these numbers are strictly based on authentications for premium channel apps, such as HBO Go. There’s also a claim that Mac use is lower, because fewer people streamed video content on it, which is a dumb assertion. Obviously one uses a personal computer for other purposes aside from watching TV shows.

As you see, the numbers are extremely limited and don’t tell us very much even within those limitations. So an authentication means that a user connects via the set-top box or smart TV interface. It doesn’t represent what shows are streamed or how long that channel or network is being watched. Obviously, the content company knows that from their internal figures, but it’s not a part of the data from Adobe.

More to the point, it doesn’t include such streaming networks as Amazon Prime, Hulu or even Netflix. And it certainly doesn’t include the content you stream from iTunes, whether it’s music, movies or TV shows. Indeed, a large number of people might be binging on a new show on Netflix, such as the forthcoming Sense8, which premiers on the day this article is being posted. But Adobe’s very limited numbers won’t include any such data.

In short, the numbers obviously cannot be applied to determining how many people are cord cutting, their preferences, what devices they watch or, except for the subset covered in Adobe’s numbers, what channel they are watching. So why take them so seriously?

But even if Netflix and similar services were included, what about set-top boxes that include exclusive content, such as an Apple TV?

Now this doesn’t mean there’s no cord cutting phenomenon, or that cable and satellite companies aren’t finding it more difficult to keep customers and sign up new ones. Their growth, such as it is, is almost always based on price increases. The rush to merge among cable and satellite companies clearly indicates they don’t believe their current business plans are workable. If they become larger, they will be able to negotiate better deals with the entertainment companies, so maybe we’ll have fewer instances of blackouts, when the lack of a contract means channels are pulled from a service for a while.

The latest merger proposal reportedly being worked on involves Dish Network and T-Mobile. Dish is already trying to reach cord cutters with Sling TV, which is largely a slimmed down TV service with fewer channels, a lower price, and cloud-based distribution. Forgetting how it’s transmitted, you really don’t get much of anything that’s different from a basic Dish package.

While doing better after breaking the traditional subsidized mobile handset model, T-Mobile still has its limits, particularly when it comes to the scope of its network. While it’s competitive in the big cities, smaller towns may have little or no service. Into the mix comes Dish with billions of dollars worth of wireless contracts but no network. Putting these two together seems to make sense.

What doesn’t make as much sense is the suggestion that the combination of the two services might somehow impact the success of Apple’s expected subscription TV venture. I fail to see how any of it would prevent Apple from reaching T-Mobile customers on its wireless network, since they couldn’t block the service. Don’t forget those new net neutrality rules and, besides, even though the FCC’s proposal is locked up in the courts for a while, it’s not that wired and wireless broadband companies will pull any sneaky stunts while the issues are still being litigated.

In any case, I remain curious about the next Apple TV — whenever it goes on sale — and Apple’s plans for conquering the living room. Offering something similar to current cord cutting schemes with an Apple label on them won’t do it. Apple needs to make the user experience simple, uncluttered by needless extra steps to watch the shows you want. It’s still a mess when you turn on the tube and try to move beyond watching a handful of channels on the cable box. There don’t seem to be any bright ideas to solve such problems, which means that, once again, it’s up to Apple to sort things out.