10 thoughts on “Apple, backstage at the start of the WWDC keynote”

1. At the risk of sounding like an “Apple is doomed!” meme, I miss Steve Jobs at the keynotes. He had an ability to sound unrehearsed and at ease. Though he also overused words like “magical” and other superlatives, he felt original. This last WWDC was devoid of that kind of feeling: executives that are too stiff (Tim Cook), too goofy (Craig Federighi and Eddie Cue), too excited-to-be-there (Susan Prescott), too out-of-his-league (Jimmy Iovine), or too bored (Drake).

   Jennifer Bailey was good, and oddly I really like Kevin Lynch: he gives off a feeling that though he struggles with his level of ease, that his belief in what he presented felt sincere and from the heart, lacking marketing gloss. I liked that.

   But I miss Steve Jobs at these events.

2. People saw this if they watched on Apple TV too

3. My take was completely the opposite for some. Bailey totally sounded like memorized reading of a script with not a lot of actual feeling. In contrast, Susan Prescott sounded much more sincere and enthusiastic, and being excited to be there is pretty much a given, c’mon. Kevin Lynch instantly makes me think of Richard Hendricks in Silicon Valley but not entirely negative I guess. Yes, the Music part was a disaster, Eddie is Eddie, but I enjoy Craig. Tim feels like a genuine, well-meaning, tries hard but will never be entirely cool father figure. Of course not as inspiring, intense, or well rehearsed as Steve Jobs, but who can claim that?

   The best act though, wasn’t even at the official keynote. Listen to the live Talk Show with John Gruber where Phil Schiller gets on stage for a live unscripted interview, or wait until the video gets published at daringfireball.net.

4. The only person I couldn’t take on stage was Iovine. The rest all seemed reasonable comfortable, with varying but all acceptable tradeoffs between humor and professionalism.

5. Or even the video stream in a browser. Hell, that first day I restarted my Mac a couple times. Each time that tab reloaded it started the video again. I watched the intro each time before stopping it.

6. It was included in the Keynote stream when I watched it in the evening and I enjoyed that version better because it had the audience reactions in it.

7. I guess, unlike most people, I try to focus on what is being announced vs who is doing the announcement. As a (pretty good) public speaker myself, I recognize it terrifies the vast majority of people and even those it doesn’t aren’t necessarily natural at it.

   I don’t care who tells me about The Cool Stuff as long as there is Cool Stuff. 🙂

8. The comedy bit was cute, slick, high-budget, and about twice as long as it needed to be. Two minutes would’ve been plenty and not diluted the laughs. Editors are your friend.

9. Remember how nervous Craig Federighi was in the beginning? Jimmy Iovine was quite passionate when he wasn’t struggling with the cue cards. Glad I don’t have to get up there and talk.

10. You may try to focus on it, but there are still those two elements. You’ve been around long enough, Shawn, I expect you remember a time when the sense of pride in your choice of computer was questioned by the bulk of people out there. The Steve Jobs keynote was our chance to not just get excited for new product, but to feel good about using Apple, by association. It’s not logical, it’s emotional.

    The need to feel that pride by association is no longer as pressing, so it’s not as psychologically important as it was back then. But though some keynotes or product announcements are better than others and some are worse, I find myself cringing a lot even at the good ones, because it feels so much more like an act than it used to. Apple presentations feel just like I always imagine other tech presentations to feel: too marketed.