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."

Comments

Not surprising. That's what Jobs does.

[jmp_nyc]

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

Comparison with Nike and M&S is specious

[Snamh Da Ean]

It is a strange comparison because, even though revenue may be in the same ballpark figure as these other companies, they are not growing as quickly as Apple has done since it launched the iPod, and while Apple may be medium sized now, it is steadily getting larger. It is also well known to anyone aged 16-30 - how many American readers know what product M&S sells, or what its famous for.

I also don't understand why he appears to suggest that announcements made by the CEOs of other companies are scrutinised by brokers and other analysts. It was interesting to see all the work that goes into Jobs' presentations, but I think the author of the article was over-egging the importance of these presentations by attempting to diminish the size of Apple's importance and comparing the impact of the announcements to those made by other similarly sized companies. A bit dishonest I feel

It's the industry, folks

[JamminBen]

Steve Jobs doesn't do anything that anyone else in his position wouldn't do. The reason he's such a personality and driving force is because he sells awesome gadgets to the exact people who want them. Jobs is like Ralph Lauren or Steven King. He gives his people (customers) what they want and has a personality to boot.

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.

Showmanship and Attention to Detail

[Ohreally_factor]

None of this scrupulous preparation should be a surprise, coming from Jobs. He's always had a flair for the dramatic, and he knows how to achieve it. Contrast it with the disastrous keynote given by Gil Amelio:

There were bad omens from the beginning. Instead of having a speech laid out word for word, Amelio would speak from a detailed outline. According to Amelio, his writer (whose identity has yet to be revealed) was behind schedule and making excuses. Revisions continued to be made up until show time.

To make matters worse, the TelePrompTer malfunctioned, garbling most of the text that had been loaded on it.

The other presenters did not fare so well either. Nobody had told them where they would enter the stage or how to stand so the cameras could pick them up.

Because of the malfunctioning TelePrompTer, Amelio had to ad lib the order of appearances and ended up inadvertently snubbing Muhammad Ali. What was scheduled to last for 1-1/2 hours droned on to 3 full hours, ruining the finale of Steve Wozniak appearing with Steve Jobs.

Macworld San Francisco was a disaster, and Amelio was in the middle of it. The press had a field day with his poor performance, spawning a new term in Apple parlance, a droneathon. Amelio was embarrassed by his performance and took the blame for it. Only later was it revealed that he was largely a victim of the mistakes of others.

Source: 500 Days at the Helm: The Rise and Fall of Gil Amelio by Tom Hormby

the show's worth it

[escay]

honestly a steve jobs' show is as exciting as an episode of Desperate Housewives (though no cleavage is involved) - it's not the dull drone of a corporate talk. it's quite fun to watch and i regularly watch all of his addresses - can't wait for his MacExpo keynote! no wonder a lot of work goes into it - who can forget the priceless moment where he pulled out the ipod nano out of his coin pocket in his jeans!that's good stuff...

a mac-head by any other name....

[thatshortkid]

funny how the guy that wrote the very pro-steve and pro-apple piece is named mike evangelist.

can't make this stuff up......

Steve Jobs spoke unto me

[Dystopian Rebel]

And my myopia, plantar fascitis, and unibrow were cured!

I know why he's famous....

[wandazulu]

...because if there is anyone in the industry who could be described as an oracle to what the future holds, he's it. But more than just predicting it, he directs the company to make it. The NeXT machine heralded the future back in 1988....Unix-based, security-focused OS with a great GUI and awesome development tools. Did he actually write any of it? No, but unlike another operating system (*cough* Linux) that has awesome tech but remains a bit ... unfocused ... and an operating system that seems focused on the wrong things (*cough* Windows) Steve Jobs had/has a clear vision of what he wanted, and where things should go. And frankly, whether you like him as a person or not, he seems to have been pretty much correct.

Consider this example: The original iMac had no floppy drive and used USB ports instead of ADB. People *howled*, but time has proven him right...the iMac did more to jumpstart widespread adoption of USB than anything else (I had two PCs that had USB ports that went to the junkyard without ever having been used). On top of everything else, I'm sure companies did a good business for awhile selling ADB-to-USB converters and USB-based floppy drives.

Jobs is the only guy who has the cajones to risk alienating everyone to push the tech world further, and the world always catches up. *That* is why he is deservedly famous.

BTW, contrast this to Wozniak who is also decidely famous, but as the wizard who made it all work. It's too bad the two of them didn't collaborate on more things...maybe those warp drives wouldn't be so far off after all...

Re:Great Story

[Slashcrap]

This story has been on digg TWICE already. /.'s a little slow on the uptake here.

Yes it has hasn't it? And I am going to demonstrate the reason why most of us don't give a shit for your Digg advocacy by reposting some of the intelligent and insightful comments from the discussion :

Nick says, "lets not forget, He is a sociel engineing king, he knows how to say anything and wont say it unless he knows it will stick"

Matthew says, "I posted this yesterday: http://digg.com/apple/Behind_the_magic_curtain"

Dickyducky says, "God!"

Fudgebrown says, ":-("

The rest of them are variation on Digg or No Digg. And the thing is I'm not even trying to make the users look retarded. Those were pretty much the best comments.

So yeah, Digg may well have posted this before. But how long did you spend reading the discussion? I am assuming it wasn't long because personally spending more than 5 minutes on Digg makes me want to exterminate the entire human race.

Re:Really

[Seriocomical]

"The average Asian OEM PC maker sells more computers then Apple. OBVIOUSLY these companies know what consumers want. Apple ( or rather, Steve Jobs ) does not. Apple firmly wants to remain in a niche market, or at least, Steve Jobs does."

It's not necessarily so bad to be a niche player. To draw an analogy to the auto industry, Porsche, Ferrari and BMW could be described as niche players who do not sell nearly as many vehicles as the GMs or Fords but are nevertheless financially successful and famous worldwide for building high quality, exciting and desirable products. The world of cars would be much less interesting if poorly-designed, shoddily-made, mass-market gas-guzzlers were all that was on offer. Similarly, the computer world is better off for having Apple and its products available as a choice, even if they might not alwawys be the cheapest or most widely-used ones on the market.