Steve Jobs' annual Macworld keynote starts in just over 30 minutes and I can't wait. It's almost a cliche at this point to say that Jobs' is a master presenter and is an expert at revealing the latest and greatest Apple products to a highly primed audience. The entire Apple experience from a selling point-of-view is geared towards creating a sense of urgency and anticipation around products that are well hyped, yes, but are solid pieces of understated perfection.
Event the Apple.com homepage has been sporting this cheeky tease since New Year's Day:
But I think it goes beyond just Jobs' abilities as a stage presenter. It's really the entire Apple mechanism at work that amazes me. Apple is able to create whole product divisions in secret then reveal them on the day of the show. And a lot of times, the entire production line is already established. With a majority of their new products, Jobs doesn't say they will be available at some point in the future. No, he usually ends the announcement with a carefully timed and dramatic "...and these products are available... today!"
The whole effort is so coordinated. It happens with such precision, around 30 minutes before a major release, the Apple.com store will go dark like this:
Then, as soon as the show is over, the store will come back online with the new product(s) proudly showcased on the homepage. Amazing.
The ability to maintain secrecy across the entire product line (and even involving third-party suppliers to Apple) is amazing. It really creates a mystique, a sense of the theater, a sense of customer loyalty and anticipation that is second-to-none. I was speaking with a coworker yesterday about that idea, and we couldn't name one other company that had that sort of vibe surrounding it. Any company would kill for that sort of mania around its new product releases. The closest we could come up with were sports teams. I think that's a fair assessment. I've got an Apple sticker on my car window. I don't see people running out to the parking lot to slap a Vista sticker on the back window of their Civic.
At any rate, the keynote starts soon and we will learn what is new for 2007. There's a lot of talk about the rumored "iPhone" but I'm not that excited by that. I have a phone. But, a true Apple-driven home theater? Now that would get my attention.
John Gruber has his list of predictions here. And if you're eager to stay on top of the announcements as they happen, here is a list of sites that will be live-blogging the keynote.
I usually watch the MacRumorsLive site for my updates.
UPDATE: ok, scratch what I said earlier. I am excited by the iPhone and I do want one. Today, please. Thank you Steve Job and your RDF, you've done it again.
Powered by Movable Type 3.31 | Hosting by Dreamhost
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License
All content is ©2003-2007 Steve Smart
