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MacWorld Expo Report, Part II
Yesterday, I reported on the Jobs keynote and his ability to expand his reality field to encompass and entire ballroom. Today, do people still feel energized by his talk? Some were still pumped just to a part of the show, gasping and oo'ing and enjoying the melodrama of it all, but the next day there was a collective vibe of "well, was that it?". This is not to say that they were disappointed by it, but they perhaps wanted something more. The rumors had been flying for months about a flat screen iMac, and since that was what Apple brought forward, it was going to been seen as an evolutional, and thus anti-climactic, step, even if it was daringly packaged.
Many noted that they were expecting a speed bump for the G4 towers, but with Seybold coming up in February, many expect Apple to announce their tower update then to a more professional audience.
At the Tuesday keynote "The Power of X", Phil Shiller and Avie Tevanian talked about OS X and what it means to apple and to the future of the Macintosh platform. Apple is stressing how stable and crash proof OS X is and what this can means to the "Apple Faithful". They discussed the kernel, the media layers, security and the user interface and how it all works together. What they've done with their BSD derived core is really impressive. As part of the keynote, Tweak Films showed off an OS X based deep ocean wave visualization app that they assert they ported from Unix in weeks, with significant functionality gains.
The show floor itself was bouncy fun. For me it was a nice change from the austerity of a Linux exposition and it's focus on sheer functionality, capability and commerce. Large exhibitors included Alias|WaveFront, Adobe (not having anyone at this conference arrested, I noted), FileMaker pro, Microsoft and a number of other software development houses. As I walked the floor, I made a mental note of applications that were available for both Windows and the Macintosh. The reality is that there isn't much that is specifically for the Mac intosh, with the obvious exception of the hardware from apple, with all the vendors one ends up asking, what is unique here?
What Apple has that is unique, and sadly Windows and Linux both lack, is cohesion. Everyone with devices and software for the Mac seem to work so well with each other and the OS. We should strive to emulate that cohesion whenever practical for open source software. Before, the apple story was cohesion without stability or power. Now, with BSD at it's core, you can bet that Apple will be able to attack Windows, SUN and Linux on the power front. A year from now it will be interesting to see how many people are running apache to serve pages from their Apple machines, and I will be unsurprised if someone is giving an apache serving presentation at the next Apple WWDC.
Please note that I have posted some pictures of my trip to MacWorld, with some pictures of the new iMac and of the keynote.
DOBBS: Apple Computer today launching its flagship desktop computer, the iMac, Apple hoping the new product line will lead it out of a slump in the computer industry. The original iMac produced three years ago helped to revitalize the company. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled this new lines of computers at the annual Mac World gathering in San Francisco, and he joins us from there now. Steve, good to have you with us.
STEVE JOBS, CEO, APPLE COMPUTER: Good to be here.
DOBBS: The reception, there's been a lot of talk about the new product line. The fact of the matter is, you've got another winner on your hands?
JOBS: Well, we'll find out soon enough. We just launched it today, so we'll see the orders start to stream in over the next month and we're hopeful.
DOBBS: Now, there were also a number of people looking for the G5 introduction, some other products as well and some disappointed about that. When do we see that?
JOBS: Well, you know, we introduced an all new iMac which is a huge seller for us.
DOBBS: Right.
JOBS: We introduced the new I-book today and anew digital hub application called I-photo, which is sort of the missing link in digital photography. You can't do everything in one day, so we'll just have to wait for that one.
DOBBS: Give us a sense of when.
JOBS: You know, we can't talk about unannounced products, but.
DOBBS: All right. I know a number of people watching you and following you very carefully were, hopefully were looking for that product introduction. One of the things that you have to struggle with at Apple, and despite the fact you've done a terrific job since you came back, driving the company ahead, restoring its stock price. Your stock is up almost what, 60 percent over the past year.
The fact is, you're still locked at five percent of the market. Are you going to be able to break Apple out of that? Because you get ringing endorsements for the innovation in products, for the new marketing and everything else, but still you're at five percent. When do we see the breakout?
JOBS: Well, I'd say a few things. Number one, our share of the personal computer market is larger than either Mercedes or BMW's share of the automotive market. So just to put that in perspective.
DOBBS: Sure.
JOBS: But one of the things we're doing to increase our market share is we've actually opened 27 retail stores in the U.S. And what's interesting, is those stores, those 27 stores in the month of December alone had 800,000 visitors and 40 percent of the customers that bought a computer at our stores didn't own Mac when they bought it.
So, I think we're starting to see a little bit of optimism about that, and I think we're going to really focus on that in the next year or two to try to get our market share up a little bit.
DOBBS: Well, as you try to drive that share of market, at the same time you're in an industry caught in a recession and a tough recession. Do you see the computer industry, the PC industry itself recovering anytime soon?
JOBS: Well, you know right now the winners are going to be the survivors.
DOBBS: Right.
JOBS: Because it's a pretty tough industry right now.
DOBBS: Yes. JOBS: But yes, I think what we're focused on right now is that we see the next great age of personal computing coming, and that is where the personal computer becomes the digital hub for all these other cool little digital devices we have, like digital camcorders or digital cameras.
DOBBS: Right.
JOBS: DVD players, et cetera, and we're doing a lot of work in that area, and we're getting a lot of good feedback.
DOBBS: OK, well Steve Jobs, as always, it is good to have you here and much continued success.
JOBS: I have to show you one thing before I leave, Lou.
DOBBS: Do we have time?
JOBS: Check this out.
DOBBS: If you can show it to us in two seconds in two seconds.
Oh, that's cool. I will admit that's cool, Steve.
JOBS: Thanks.
DOBBS: Designed, I understand, inspired by the sunflower?
JOBS: We want to keep the flat screen flat.
DOBBS: You got it. Well again, all the very best Steve.
JOBS: Thanks.
DOBBS: Keep promoting -- Steve Jobs.
JOBS: Wait, I'm not finished you fat fuck. The new imac is also inspired by large breasted women.
DOBBS: Shut up you turtle-neck-wearing hippie. I thought you just liked little boys anyway.
JOBS: Fuck off pig. Isn't it time for your six martini lunch?
DOBBS: Ironically I ate an entire roasted pig for lunch today. You smoke a lot of marijuana don't you, Steve?
JOBS: Hell yeah, dude. It inspires me to open up my mind and let the karma flow. I do alot of TM too. It roxors.
DOBBS: TM? Ah yes, transcendental meditation. I can imagine you running around with your fairy friends. You must drop acid, too. I used to do that back in my younger days. Oh, the stories I could tell.
JOBS: Lou, I love acid. I didn't get to where I am today by ignoring the health benefits of regular acid trips.
DOBBS: So Steve how did you really come up the with iMac.
JOBS: Alright Lou, just don't eat me. Ha-ha-ha, mind if I smoke...
DOBBS: Go ahead.
JOBS: I dreamed of the new imac while I was having a wonderful acid trip. Jonathan Ive and I went out the the desert and we ate peyote and this awesome acid. While I was smoking some weed to take the edge off I had this wonderful vision. I had a pair of dragon wings and I was flying through a canyon when a distant mesa began to transform into a giant breast. I could smell the colors. It was just like when I had discovered Aqua. Then the giant breast erupted in a explosion of milk that glomed into a giant LCD. Then I realized my purpose for being here on Earth. I must make a new imac. Then Jon and I had sex.
DOBBS: Well, that's a great story Steve. Thanks for being with us today.
JOBS: Anytime, want a hit?
DOBBS: Yeah, thanks. And now, let's turn to Wolf Blitzer for the very latest. His show begins in just a few minutes. Wolf, tell us what's up.
***
"Feel free to make any improvements on this transcript." vm
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get jiggy w/ ayn rand!
or perhaps short memory.
Apple *bought* the UCSD Pascal system, which had a UI, and which ran on a variety of microcomputers, and which (until Apple bought it) was for all intents and purposes open source. This was the late 70's, BUB. Remember turtle graphics? No you don't because you were still in diapers.
Apple took UCSD Pascal and ported it to the Lisa then Mac and further developed the UI using ideas copied from Xerox PARC and SUN Windows -- back when SUN stood for Stanford University, where the first models were developed.
So Apple isn't quite the innovator you're making them out to be. PARC was definitely there first, not Apple, and SUN at least had a real operating system under the hood-- BSD.
And sorry, but Linux' the UI is X windows, developed at MIT well before Microsloth was out of *its* DOS diapers.
Of course, the problem is that most *children* didn't have access to the first Macs, or the first Suns, or machines running on the OS's theirs were derived from--UCSD Pascal and Berkley Standard Distribution. Which MAC has finally come around to with OS/X. :-)