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Behind a Steve Jobs Keynote
Shree writes "The Guardian has an article about what it takes to prepare that smooth Steve Jobs-style keynote. When Steve launches iPhoto and says 'here we have 5000 or so photos', he actually means here we have 5000 or so carefully picked photos ... " From the article: "Objectively, Apple Computer is a mid-sized company with a tiny share of its primary market. Apple Macintoshes are only rarely seen in corporate environments, and most software companies don't even offer Apple-compatible versions of their products. To put it another way, Apple is just bit larger than Cadbury-Schweppes and about the same size as Nike or Marks and Spencer in terms of annual sales. Such comparisons come up short in trying to describe Apple's place in the world of business, because they leave out a key factor: Steve Jobs."
The power of Steve Jobs is that he is able to get people to notice what he's doing. Part of that includes his large following of people who hang on his every word. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that he works very hard to maintain the effortless appearance of his public persona in order to maintain that following.
Apple makes great products, sometimes jumping into market segments that have other businesses with a head start, makes them slick and easy to use, then markets the hell out of them. The iPod wasn't the first portable mp3 player, but it put the product on the map. If next week's keynote unveils a media-centered Mac Mini with DVR features, it won't be the first such creature (Microsoft's been trying to break into that segment for a while, and Bill Gates just demoed similar features in Vista), but I guarantee that Jobs will unveil products that are much closer to market, and that the proportional effect on Apple's sales will be tremendous...
-JMP
People who use Macs picture themselves as a blend of geek and artist. A shiny, beautiful piece of equipment that is easy to use and gets the job done is like a little slice of heaven to them. So when Steve Jobs does his dog and pony show, everyone laps it up.
The difference between Macs and clothing or books is that the personal computer industry, being the interface between pop-culture and the mysterious world of high tech, gets more press and money thrown at it than most other industries. So when there's a new marketing effort it gets picked up by more of the world than similar efforts in other industries.
This isn't to say Steve Jobs doesn't deserve credit for being good at what he does, but I don't think he's particularly unique in his approach or methods.
"...To put it another way, Apple is just bit larger than Cadbury-Schweppes and about the same size as Nike or Marks and Spencer in terms of annual sales..." Apple influences IT market as much as AMD or Intel do. Sometimes even more.
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The things that impressed me most about the article were the apparent commitment to excellence that Steve Jobs has; His hands-on, detail-oriented, perfectionistic level of involvement; and the demi-god status he appears to receive from his employees. That's why he's so successful, IMHO.
I think describing Steve Jobs as a rock star of the business world is fairly accurate. People forget that no matter how much technology changes or how many articles talk about the evolving nature our society, people are still primarily influenced by their reactions to others as individuals. For whatever reason, Jobs captivates those around him. He demands a reaction, and it is frequently visceral. What's more, is that he is able to make it work for him instead of against him (we all knew people in high school who had, to some degree, this type of personabut for whatever reason, it was their greatest handicap). It's the kind of thing that other CEO's, though they may be more financially successful than Jobs, are frequently jealous of.
Just my 2 cents.
Jobs knows how to show a product to enhance the consumer's understanding. Example, I went to Sandisk's site yesterday to check out their upcoming mp3 players. The site does a horrible job letting the consumer know things like size (Apple shows the tiny Nano in someone's hand), I have to read a all the text (not that I mind reading, but the impact is not the same). Jobs, and his helpers, know how to deliver a pithy, and flashy message.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
When Steve Jobs speaks he shows enthusiasm for Apple and the products, which is expected of someone in his position. What makes his keynotes so notable is the way he invites the audience and the faithful to join in his enthusiasm, as if all are participants rather than customers.
Have you ever given a public speech? It is FAR better to speak from a detailed outline than read something word for word.
Of course, this means you have to know what the hell you're talking about. It seems like the only serious problem was the teleprompter and lack of a stage director. There is absolutely no excuse for the lack of a physical backup for the prompter OR for a competent stage director for a coordinated presentation.
Well, the Marks and Spencer quote may not mean much to Americans - but that quote *was* from the article - which was from the website of a UK newspaper. I do not think the UK has yet got to the point where all articles are written with an eye to being fully understood in the US, they still have hints of local flavour (and spelling ;-)
And, as a result, they don't look like idiots when plugging in a scanner BSOD's their box in front of a couple of thousand people ;)
That all said, even non-fanboys have to admit that there is something about an apple keynote that is a bit different than what the rest of the industry has. You don't see people actually "excited" about a Microsoft event (or really, any computer related event).
The vast majority are actually quite boring and to be completely honest, I think the only "excited" people at these events are those getting free food, swag or the latest copy of vs.net and a xp pro CD.
I'm not saying that the events aren't informative, and I'm not advocating that people turn release events and conventions into E3, but it would be nice if some events tried to be a bit more like apple.
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There's public speaking and then there's show biz. An actor doesn't memorize an outline of a script. He memorizes the script. Jobs is all show biz. He's not up there giving a speech. He performs. I guess you gotta see it with your own eyes.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
- smoke
- mirrors
- reality distortion machine
- black mock turtle necks
- Steve practicing saying "It's insanely great!" and "...and it's available immediately!"
Hey, hey, hey, I love Apple as much as the next guy, but you have to admit Steve is quite the showman (salesperson).fak3r.com
I imagine that Jobs knows pretty much where Apple is going to be in 90 days/180 days/a year. I don't think that he has such a unique vision - it is just that he has a vision. From reading the article, it seems like the guy knew exactly what he wanted from the presentation, no matter how unreasonable it seemed.
You know, if a Linux company had half the focus of a Steve Jobs and had a clear vision they would sweep the market (k/ubuntu is getting getting better each day). So many FOSS-based companies seem very passive to me when it comes to defining their product.
Ummm.... Ok apparently I can't make fun :-) of /.
/.'s a great site and you're right the discussion here is valuable (outside of any ID flamewars, they're getting boring ;-).
/. got scooped on this story.
/.
/. could use subscribers to help editors choose what story submissions should be posted. Note: I'm not a subscriber, but that would be a great perk to add to /.
/. has some competition for technology stories. I RTFA from a digg posting, so from that perspective this story was behind, but obviously I'm now involved in the discussion here.
Don't get me wrong
But there's room for improvement too. My earlier comment basicaly was to indicate that
Digg has good points and bad points, just like
Slashdots REALLY strong point is the discussion attached to the stories.
Diggs strong point is there story submission and (effectively) story moderation system. Slashdot need to work on getting stories posted faster and eliminating dupes (notably dups are a digg problem too). Perhaps
Digg of course, needs to competely revamp its comment system since as you have said, it blows.
All in all
All I really want is for both sites to engage in friendly competition to make each other better, so I'll have two great sites to frequent instead of just one.
so true, and so sad. digg gets good stories, and they make it to the fron page faster than /., but the comments are totally worthless because they're not threaded, and thus no real coversations ensue, and thus few actually bother to comment or read the comments.
/.'s do, or if /.'s stories were user-moderated the way digg is.
/. editors' hangup on having control anyway? I guess that's the only way they can ensure Roland Piquepaille, **BeatlesBeatles, Sterling Allan, and whomever else pays to get on /. actually get what they want...
Imagine if digg's comments worked the way
What's the
alas, even if the stories are lame, the discussions are usually interesting enough to keep me coming back. It would be nice to see a site that lived up to potential, though...
You can only get 'scooped' on a story if you're a reporter, i.e. you're writing your own stories. Otherwise, you see, we'd have to say that the Guardian scooped everyone. They had the story first. But that's because they actually had a writer write the thing, and Slashdot/Fark/Digg/whoever are just news aggregators (and discussion groups) that provide links to the story.
News aggregators, however, can only be accused of being "too slow". Is Slashdot "too slow"? Well, the story is dates yesterday, and the story isn't so old as to be irrelevant or out-of-date, so I'd say no. Insofar as it's a news aggregator, since I got the story in a timely fashion, I don't see room for complaints. That someone else got to the story slightly faster is far less important to me than a) whether I got the story, and b) quality of the user-experience of the news aggregator.
I used to be convinced that there are two sides to every question, but I'm not so sure anymore....
The way market share was calculated the last time I looked at the market research numbers a couple of years ago, Apple's market share for desktops and laptops was calculated against the sum total of all other windows OS brands.
At the time Apple was #1 by a good margin in laptops and in the top-5 for desktops. Yet their market share was always referred to as "miniscule."
I still don't understand why no one's bothered to mention this from the media side.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Along with your Steve Jobs profile, you paint a picture of an elitist, which is presicely where I believe he wants Apple Computer at. I think he perceives an Apple Computer to be an experience worthy of the cost, any cost; better than anything else by leaps and bounds, and worth the time and effort to make it so. He wants an Apple computer to equate to a Bentley automobile or some other ultra-luxurious item.
What you didn't hit upon is that there actually are people in the market that will pay (up the nose) for so-called "ultra-luxury" items. The same folks that pay $10,000 for a platinum-plated bathroom sink may just very well see Apple computers as that type item for their computing need--if only by appearance and price alone. While I have in no way gone out to actually see if higher income brackets prefer Apple computers to others, I do know off-the-cuff that an awful lot of famous people tend to have them (Actors, Musicians, etc)--and probably for the status/fashion appeal as well as the functionality.
Whether that approach it is right or wrong for the Apple Computer, Inc. and its stock holders is up for grabs, but the "image" he has built for his company has no doubt been reinforced by his self-promotion and mangement style. And I think that 5% market is exactly what he intended.
-brain
Consider this example: The original iMac had no floppy drive and used USB ports instead of ADB.
An oft cited example, but I think a more crucial one was the use of 802.11b in the original iBook. That has also spread wildly.
One could argue that Jobs is good at spotting successful trends early, and directs his hardware development accordingly, rather than dictating the direction of the market, but who cares? Often technology you see in Macs today you see in PCs in 2 years.
That said, there's been a number of mis-steps, too, usually the tech that was developed in house at Apple eg FireWire. Disappointing that they don't even include it on their new iPods--does make one wonder if it's going away. Fewer and fewer peripherals bother to support it at all, now, in favor of USB 2.0. BlueTooth is another example--while widely supported on Macs, it just still kinda sucks when trying to find and use a non-Apple BT product. That trend has yet to take off.
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$tar -xvf
For the physical product, yes they are overpriced. For the sheer 'it just works' factor and the support, it's fair.
iPod and iTunes just work. iPhoto plays nice with both of them. They all integrate perfectly with OS X, which runs like a charm on my Mac Mini. The whole thing is displayed in perfect colour on a monitor which needed no configuration, and is controlled by a well designed and manufactured keyboard and mouse. This "it just works" is what you pay for. As for iPods playing more formats, some people aren't bothered by being able to play 101 formats of music on the train. AAC and MP3 work well enough for my music I want to listen to on a regular basis, OGG doesn't feature much in an environment trying to avoid format wars.
Next in line for this ease of use is Windows. Windows Media and it's swathes of music players works after a fashion, but is nowhere near as intuitive or reliable as Apple's solution. Drivers are mostly solid, but problems aren't dealt with elegantly at all. OS integration with things such as media is getting better but isn't there yet (Although the beta shows that it's well on the way for Vista).
Then there's Linux and Co. coming last in the ease of use charts. Improving, but ultimately a cobbled together set of individual components. I know this is the entire idea, and I love working with Linux for many tasks, but the fact it is just a set of loosely connected pieces with no unification (Where should config files live, for example?) relates to its free status. You aren't having to pay anybody to keep it together.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
Hate to tell you this, but you're wrong on two points here:
1. My figures are based on ACTUAL SALES FIGURES from 2005. They are not 2 years old, nor are they limited to the United States (which people commonly get confused about--Apple's U.S. market share is higher than it's overall worldwide share).
2. Your figures are based on INTERNET TRAFFIC. That tells you what percentage of people browsing the internet are using a particular operating system, not what percentage of computers sold that quarter were made by a particular company.
Now, your figures would be more closely attuned to Apple's installed base, which is just fine, but that includes all computers currently in use, not new computer sold in a particular time period, which is what market share refers to.
Asking someone to die because he likes Steve Jobs seems a little extreme, no?
Wozniak has come and gone, primarily because he made enough at Apple to live for the rest of his life in comfort. That was his motivation, and so he did it and now he's a schoolteacher. I can sympathise. Making high-tech products is a tough job. A lot of people who make their pile get sick of their tough jobs with little social interaction and go on to someone else. I'd consider JWZ to be another excellent example. He made his pile at Netscape, and he created the DNA Lounge, which I'm sure gives him as much of a social life as anyone would want.
Steve is a different type of guy. His single goal is to make Great Products. I don't think he's personally even that interested in selling them at a profit. The profit is means to an end, so he can make still more Great Products.
I'm typing this on a 17" PowerBook running MacOS X right now, and I can tell you, it is a Great Product. That's why I'm an Apple customer. Steve Jobs guides the technical people and makes sure they aspire to greatness instead of mediocrity.
I know in my own mind, as a technical person, how easy it is to say "Hey, this is good enough, let's go on to the next thing" instead of "Hold it, it's not great yet, let's do this and make it best in the world." I try to be my own goad, to make sure my product is the best. But it's hard and that's because Steve's role is hard, and necessary, in any company that wants to truly aspire to greatness, instead of creating stuff that's "just OK".
So few people make great products, because most people are willing to settle for lousy ones, like Windows or cheap PCs. But for those who love great products, and can afford them, it's Steve we have to thank, because he had the strength to demand only the best from technical people, including Wozniak.
D
Microsoft doesn't need to include anything from NeXT anymore. They've already used it. Hmm.. an object oriented framework for applications? Microsoft has that now. X's in the right hand corner to close windows... done. (not next specific, but one of the oldest oses i've used with it) Good networking capabilities... done. (well its not exactly bsd sockets.. but it works and offers some interop with protocols) WWW support. What do i mean by this? The FIRST web browser was written on a NeXT machine by TimBL. done. TextEdit is a lot like Wordpad wouldn't you say? Which is a lot like Write. done. The ability to run two apps simultaneously without crashing.. done. (well usually.. if its an engineering app thats another story) I don't feel like going on with this.
.. oh wait. Parts of OSX remind me of OS/2 Warp 4 but you don't see me bitching at apple from robbing IBM. I don't even know who stole from who sometimes. Windows Vista is designed to catch MS up to apple's multimedia push from the last 5 years. Bill gates is counting on the new features to curb sales in large markets with apple stores. Apple is gaining customers in those markets. 45 minutes way there is an apple store and a dell both a few stores apart. Can you guess which one is busy? Its not the dell both. Quite a few people compare the machines and then you see them come out with apple bags or iBook boxes. Part of it is the operating system features. Remember when you got your first pc? If you were like me, you bought it on software that it came with. Hell I got a packard bell. The only thing about packard bell machines I can say is 1. they had a good software package, 2. they could run NT4 and OS/2 warp 3 well and 3. it lasted 7 years (gave to my mom). Software sells machines.. and i wanted an apple then but couldn't afford it. The IBM or Nec machines had nothing but windows on them. Microsoft needs this release. Most praised linux distros on slashdot are the bloated ones with 8000 programs that do the same thing. Why? People like software and consider it a feature. Its why ubuntu or redhat are talked about more than gentoo and debian.
All graphical systems have components stolen from others. Apple steals from microsoft and microsoft steals from apple. KDE steals from both and both steal back. Gnome copies everyone else and
If Windows Vista fails, its the beginning to the end of the MS monopoly. Consumers don't care what OS they run, just people like us do. Its like buying a toyota vs a ford. Who cares. Different under the hood, but it still gets to from point a to point b (or website a to website b). This multimedia approach is why that 5% is important because it effected Microsoft and it will effect Linux distros as more multimedia will be required for home and business adoption of the software.
The interesting thing is that windows vista will force people to buy new pcs to get it. No upgrades this time. Unless you're a gamer, you don't have a video card that can run it. Apple's switch to intel hit at a great time. People have to rebuy computers and it could mean a big market share switch for apple, Microsoft, and/or the linux community if everyone plays their cards right.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
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.GIF and .JPG files to see if they are really WMF files, and, if they are, will execute any code in them!!! It's amazing.
I stand by what I said in my parent comment.
I sold computers that came with Microsoft's first product, Microsoft Basic, which Bill Gates had a hand in writing. The sloppiness of Windows XP is identical to the sloppiness in Microsoft Basic. Both are, in my opinion, products in which the level of sloppiness is finely tuned so that it doesn't interfere too much with sales. Bill Gates set the tone for Microsoft products: They are not really finished when they are released.
It amazes me how weak-minded people are concerning public relations. Bill Gates makes billions of dollars making products so sloppy that they waste the time of millions of people worldwide. Then he gives back a little of that money, and instantly the abuses are forgotten.
Super-rich people like philanthropy because it helps them feel superior. They can spend a lot of time with people who are very happy with what they are doing, and who never voice disagreement. Giving away their husband's money is the pasttime of the wives of super-rich men everywhere.
Yes, it is good that there is money available to solve major world problems. But we should not stop realizing that Microsoft has cost tens of billions of dollars just in viruses for vulnerabilities of kinds that don't exist anywhere else in the world of software.
This week's vulnerability is an example. Graphics in Windows MetaFile format (WMF) are allowed to execute code!!! Yes, graphics files. You should be safe with other formats? No. Windows operating systems check
You state the the assumption that there are many people who could do what Steve is doing is plainly incorrect because the US can not find a compelling candidate for president. That's flawed logic - the problem may be with the system we use for selecting candidates and not with the pool of candidates. I believe that to be the case. I think there are many men and women who could make a very good president - certainly far better than either Bush or Kerry.
I'm also not willing to follow your logic that Steve Jobs is a giant among insects - which seems to be your claim.
Finally if the influence of personality of the CEO on the organization as a whole is well documented than I am generally interesed in reading more about it. I'm not interested in hearing people try to tell me that Bill Gates is a tyrant out for world domination - especially if those same people are telling me that deep down Steve Jobs just wants to deliver quality products. Those are not people - those are caricatures.
In my day to day experience the people I meet are neither angels nor demons - and I could not categorize myself or anyone I know accurately in a short one or two line synopsis. And yet people continue to act as though public personalities - about whom we know the least - are some how fundamentally easier to know and understand than our own neighbors and co-workers.
Lives and people and the world in general are more complex than that.
-stormin
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