It’s absolutely fascinating to watch Steve Jobs deliver the 2001 keynote speech introducing the iPod for the first time.
In structure it’s the same as the modern-day keynotes (and yes, we have to contrast 2001 with “modern day”) but the audience is smaller and more subdued, and even Jobs’ own enthusiasm is lower. He’s reviewing a marketing analysis for shareholders, not announcing a new product to the world.
You can almost tell that even Apple itself had no idea how far the iPod would really take them.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Reminds me of the kinetoscope of Horace Wonder’s pitch those many years ago.
“Everyone eats bread, so the bread market isn’t going away anytime soon. There are basically three ways to eat bread: gnawing, tearing and slicing. We’re going after the slicing market segment. Our bread will be pre-sliced … using fire wire, which I invented.”