jobs wanders from his script
January 2007
Having been warned by an apologetic Macworld employee
that the queue for Steve Jobs’ Keynote would start to
form between 4am and 5am, I dutifully turned out of
my pit at an ungodly hour in order to hear the Big
Man speak. Unlike the vast majority of attendees, I
was more interested in seeing how Jobs delivered his
talk than what he delivered.
With more than 350 people standing in line in front of me, and the same number of people jumping to the front of the queue with expensive priority passes, there was never going to be any guarantee that I would actually get into the auditorium. Thanksfully, the organisers had booked a huge conference hall this year.
Although I found myself towards the back of the hall, two terrific high resolution screens helped to bring Jobs to life. Watching him perform on stage was fascinating. Unlike the CEO of Microsoft, Jobs maintained an even tone and tempo throughout the keynote. I thought that the summary of product features at the end of each new product announcement were somewhat tedious, and I got the sense that he really did feel the need to justify the high price tag of Apple’s latest invention, but other than that (and the obligatory publicity puffs from big cheeses at Cingular and Yahoo) it was all pretty good stuff. Eric Schmidt was the one guest speaker who brought something interesting to the table.
At one point, Jobs suffered a minor technical glitch that allowed him time to wander from the script and tell a little Wozniak story. We all knew the tale, but it was great to hear it from the horse’s mouth, and told in such affectionate terms. (Wozniak is apparently still on the Apple payroll - taking the lowest salary of any employee - but there was sadly no sign of him at the Expo today.)
Oh, and everything they are saying about the iPhone’s svelte appearance is true. And then some. Just a pity that it isn’t shipping with integral GPS.
With more than 350 people standing in line in front of me, and the same number of people jumping to the front of the queue with expensive priority passes, there was never going to be any guarantee that I would actually get into the auditorium. Thanksfully, the organisers had booked a huge conference hall this year.
Although I found myself towards the back of the hall, two terrific high resolution screens helped to bring Jobs to life. Watching him perform on stage was fascinating. Unlike the CEO of Microsoft, Jobs maintained an even tone and tempo throughout the keynote. I thought that the summary of product features at the end of each new product announcement were somewhat tedious, and I got the sense that he really did feel the need to justify the high price tag of Apple’s latest invention, but other than that (and the obligatory publicity puffs from big cheeses at Cingular and Yahoo) it was all pretty good stuff. Eric Schmidt was the one guest speaker who brought something interesting to the table.
At one point, Jobs suffered a minor technical glitch that allowed him time to wander from the script and tell a little Wozniak story. We all knew the tale, but it was great to hear it from the horse’s mouth, and told in such affectionate terms. (Wozniak is apparently still on the Apple payroll - taking the lowest salary of any employee - but there was sadly no sign of him at the Expo today.)
Oh, and everything they are saying about the iPhone’s svelte appearance is true. And then some. Just a pity that it isn’t shipping with integral GPS.