Weeks notes on the Keynote

David Weeks’ 2007 Macworld Expo keynote thoughts and observations.

Unlike previous years, the Keynote address was held in Moscone West. The process for lining up and getting in was rather disorganized.

Waiting in line to ascend the escalator, you can hear German, Italian, French, Spanish, and Japanese.

Predominant facial hair style: goatee.
Predominant head hair style: shaved.
Age range; all over the scale, but more older (50+) than you’d expect.
Plenty of hip/scruffy dressers, but also plenty of European suits.

There was the usual scrum to get up the escalators…”40 crushed to death in Macworld keynote entrance.”

Late start…after 0915.

James Brown “I Feel Good” intro music playing while the crowd enters.

On the left side of the hall is a -massive- lineup of TV cameras. Plenty of talking heads doing standups block traffic in the aisles..

The hoi-polloi are seated too far back to see who’s in the best front row seats. Al Gore? Robin Williams?

Jobs enters to applause.

Jobs notes the James Brown music; a nice touch.
Steve:

“We’re Making history together today.”

“One year ago we announced the switch to Intel processors… And would complete the switch to Intel in 12 months. We did it in 7 months. Smoothest ever in the industry.”

“Thanks to Intel for help, 3rd party developers, users who bought them.”

“Over 1/2 Macs sold now go to switchers.”

Apple’s ad spoofing PC’s upgrading to Vista gets a big round of applause.

In a surprising move to many, Jobs says that this is it for Macintosh discussion today. “We’ll talk about lots of other stuff.”

iPod/iTunes

To date, Apple has sold over 2 billion songs. It took 3 years to sell the first billion. The second billion song sales took only 10 months.

Currently, the iTunes Music Store is selling 5 million songs per day. That’s 58 songs per second.

Apple is now the 4th biggest music reseller, as it has just passed Amazon.

There are now 350 TV shows for sales on iTunes. 50 million shows sold to date.

Movies

Apple has sold 1.3 million movies in the first four months of movie sales.

Steve announces a new movie partner: Paramount. With the addition of Paramount’s library the number of movies for sale goes from 100 to over 250.

Zune…zune…zune

Zune got 2% share in November, its rollout month. In that month, iPod had a 62% market share, and all others 36%.

Steve talks about product code-names. iTV is now Apple TV. He jokes that he’ll probably get the name wrong several times during the keynote (and he does).

“Enjoy your media on your big screen TV. Buy content from iTunes. Wirelessly send content from Mac/PC to your big screen TV.”

Some specifications: On the back, there is AC power, USB 2, Ethernet, WiFi 802.11b+g+n draft, HDMI, Component video, and audio.

Apple TV needs no power brick. It handles 720p HiDef. Inside is a 40 GB drive that can store up to 50 hours of video. Intel chip inside (naturally).

Apple TV Works with video, music, and photos. Auto sync from one computer for storage on HD. Stream from up to 5 computers.

Jobs does demo. Trailers movies, TV shows, music, then photos.

He seems a bit less excited than I’d expect. Is he tired, or is he holding back for later?

Phil Schiller brings his MacBook. Jobs switches Apple TV input sources to have Phil’s laptop. Video streams perfectly from Phil’s laptop to the Apple TV.

Price: $299 shipping in February taking orders today.

“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for 2.5 years.”

You can hear a pin drop…

The crowd is silent; the attendees know this is the Big Thing.

In 1984 Apple introduced Macintosh, in the 2001, the iPod.

In 2007 Apple will introduce three revolutionary products.

(Slide)
Wide screen iPod with touch controls.
Mobile phone
Internet communications device

Jobs takes a looong pause. It dawns on the crowd that the spinning slide means this is all one device…all one device! Crowd loves it!

iPhone: Apple reinvents the phone

On screen appears a slide of an iPod with old style dial wheel glued on the front. -Big laugh- from the crowd.

Jobs: Cell phones are not smart but sort of easy to use. Smartphones are smart and not easy to use. iPhone will be smart -and- easy to use.

The user interface has taken years of R and D.

Current smartphones focus on keyboard and buttons for all uses. Buttons and controls cannot change.

Jobs is getting revved up. He’s hitting his stride; the Reality Distortion Field is throbbing.

Using a bit-mapped screen fixes the button problem.

What about a pointing device?

iPhone has one giant screen. No stylus. Your fingers are the pointing device.

“Multi-touch” is the iPhone interface. It’s the most accurate touch interface. Multi-Touch supports gestures, and multi-finger touches.

Software

Current phone software is baby strength.

iPhone runs OS X! iPhone has desktop class apps and networking. It is 5 years ahead of other smartphone.

iPhone syncs media and data via iTunes. It has a 3.5″ diagonal screen with 160 ppi resolution.

One button, only one button… A Home button.

The case is only 11.6 mm thick. That’s thinner than any other smartphone.

iPhone includes 2 Megapixel camera.
The front of the case has a Proximity sensor which turns off the screen when the phone is in use. iPhone has an ambient light sensor, and an accelerometer to detect if portrait or landscape display is appropriate.

Movies can display in regular or wide screen.

Phone

“The Killer app is making calls.”

It’s hard on most phones, and users usually have to dial them. “That’s so last century.”

iPhone uses your Address Book contacts extensively.

Visual voicemail is a brand new capability: You can see all your voicemails in a list, then pick one directly and not have to listen to the preceding voicemails in the order they were received.

iPhone is Quad band GSM + Edge.

WiFi and Bluetooth 2.

Naturally, a calendar like iCal.

Steve runs another phone demo.

Touch keypad for dialing and SMS

Photo mode auto portrait vs regular detection.

You do “the pinch” to zoom photos. You can slide your fingers together or apart to zoom in or out on photos.

Photos can easily be set as main screen wallpaper.

iPhone is an Internet communications device.

Full HTML email for IMAP or POP3.

Full Safari web browser

Google maps

Widgets

WiFi and Edge auto switching without network management

This is another biggie:
Iphone includes Yahoo free push IMAP email to iPhone customers. “Push” means you don’t have to check email; it arrives by itself on the iPhone.

Email applications automatically parses out phone numbers in an email…just click a number in email to dial the number.

Safari shows the whole page, not a periscope view. This is not your father’s WAP browser. Just double tap to zoom in on part of the web page.. Scroll with fingers.

iPhone supports multiple pages open at once.

Google maps are easily available. Google satellite images as well as maps.

Eric Schmift Google CEO appears.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang appears.

More demos

Iphone accessories:
Earbuds with in-line microphone.
Bluetooth headset that auto pairs with iPhone.

Battery life 5 hours of talk time. 16 hours audio only.

Apple has already filed 200 patents for iPhone technology.

Price?????? A smartphone plus iPod costs $499.

IPhone 4 GB $499

8 GB $599.

Shipping in June. Groan. Big groan. Steve talks about necessary FCC approval, and how he wants to announce the iPhone, not the FCC.

Cingular is the partner. The Cingular CEO talks. Apple and Cingular have a multi-year exclusive agreement.

Blah blah blah…The Cingular CEO is not a compelling speaker like Steve. H even has to read from note cards! Yahoo CEO Yang was better.

Apple wants 1% phone market share in 2008.

Finally, Apple Computer will today become Apple, Inc.

After two songs from John Mayer, Steve wrpas it up with no “oh, one more thing.”

I’ll follow up soon with my thoughts on what this Keynote means.