Market share changes for Apple are taking care of themselves, and would have anyway even if Jobs hadn't made this change, which will just accelerate them. Who knows how much, but it will be in the right direction.
But the main thing I found striking about Jobs' keynote compared to most others I've seen is how sharply focussed and unambiguous a message Apple delivered, and how prepared they were, all of which acted together to make the audience walk out believing this big change is in fact almost no change at all.
This transition will be seamless; four things need to be done to make it happen; Apple has already done three of them, not as sub-alpha demo's but as near-products; the most important of those three we've been doing in secret for five years; the fourth piece is up to you developers, not up to us; but we've already got in place a complex but easy-to-use development system that allows you to compile your application for both architectures into a single executable file just by checking a box; we've already got a factory cranking out cheap Intel-Mac machines by the thousands; and to help you do your part, all of this will be made available to you STARTING TODAY. And in case you won't or can't do your part as effectively as we've done ours, we've got that covered too (with an emulator, the only aspect I didn't care for :-).
Now that is unheard of in my experience.
Microsoft is famous for having Bill Gates get up before a crowded room to demo some "cool" pre-garbage software that's due out 3 years from now. It always BSOD's or hangs six times during the demo, causing Gates to hug himself and start rocking back and forth while the soon-to-be-screamed-at demo geek types away frantically. I've been in the audience a dozen times to see it. I don't attend those things any more, but I'd bet they're running the same drill with Longhorn today.
Sun? Well you know how they do that stuff. Extraordinary Gentlemen come out and spew slogans, insults, obfuscation and self-congratulations for a couple of hours, and that's about it. Lunch, everybody.
Jobs got in a zinger or two, of course, but his message was clear as a bell. It wasn't the computer exec PR-speak one usually hears at these things. It was substantive and simple: Our end is done. Pick it up in the lobby on your way out. What's taking you so long, developers?
There was some showmanship and exaggeration, but not enough to detract in any important way.
It reminded me of the major difference between McNealy and Jobs. Both are smart guys and capable corporate managers. Jobs is a product visionary. McNealy isn't. Jobs never gets lost. McNealy does.
--QS |
