Apple’s iOS 6 gets Facebook integration and in-app content purchases

Grappling blearily with jet-lag, Music Ally is in San Francisco today for the kick-off of Apple’s WWDC conference. The focus was on the upcoming iOS 6 software for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, as well as on Mac laptops and OS X software.

Music angles? There were a couple. Apple has finally resolved its complicated relationship with Facebook, integrating the social network into iOS 6, but also into its iTunes Store.

This means people will be able to Like albums and songs (as well as apps, TV shows and films) from their iOS device or (presumably) within the iTunes Store. Unsurprisingly, Ping didn’t get a mention.

Also potentially important: an iOS 6 feature called ‘in-app content purchases’. It was quickly mentioned towards the end of the keynote, but as far as we can tell, it means iOS apps will be able to sell music and other iTunes content within the app, rather than having to push people out to the separate iTunes Store app.

This could be a big deal for music apps, not least because putting this within the app itself should mean labels can see exactly how many sales their artist apps have generated, rather than just clicks through to the iTunes Store.

Otherwise, it was a mixture of whizzy new MacBooks, a lovely-looking Maps app in iOS 6, smarter Siri voice recognition software, and other improvements without a direct music angle.

There were some good stats though. Apple now has more than 400m registered iTunes/App Store user accounts, all with credit card details attached. 30bn apps have been downloaded from the App Store, generating $5bn of revenues for developers.

Apple’s iCloud service has 125m registered users too, although no figure was given for the paid iTunes Match element. The company did say it has sold more than 365m iOS devices.

For a full, chronological rundown of what was announced during the keynote, see our liveblog on The Appside. Oh, and watch this very-funny introduction delivered by Siri, including a couple of jabs at Android/Samsung.

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