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| Architosh Staff ([email protected]) |
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Steve Jobs' Keynote Address at Seybold: Highlights
Today's Seybold Keynote was as big a day for Apple! The company announced stunning new computer's based on the new G4 PowerPC processor with AltiVec. In addition, Steve Jobs, iCEO of Apple, surprised the audience with his last minute introduction of the new Apple Cinema Display, a 22" beauty that in some ways resembles the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. Other highlights are covered below in the order in which they happened in the keynote: Apple's Status as a Company "Seven profitable quarters in a row", is what Jobs noted. Apple is now one of the best fit companies in the industry, holding a record in inventory control with inventory levels now measured in the hours -- not days -- as at rivals Dell and Gateway. Apple's inventory is precisely 15 hours. Compaq is at 28 days, Dell at 6 and Gateway at 9 days. Apple leads the industry. Apple now has over $3 Billion in cash and has very little debt. In addition, the company's margins are by far the healthiest in the industry, up around 27 percent. Jobs also noted that Gap Inc. CEO Drexler (is it Michael?) was added to the board of directors in the last quarter and he brings with him a wealth of experience targeting the youth market (precisely where Apple is aiming the iBook). QuickTime 4 QuickTime is very important to Apple. Jobs noted that Apple virtually invented multimedia in the computer market and that QuickTime is an important strategy for them. Jobs then did the same presentation as at Macworld Expo NY, covering such topics as QuickTime TV (QTV) and its partnering with, and investing in, Akamai. Exciting news was the added addition of Warner Bros. Records, and a second music content provider which, unfortunately we missed the name of. (caught a blip in the streaming content). Mac OS 9.0 Mac OS 9.0 is going to be a really good update to the OS. Over 50 new features have been added or improved upon. Steve Jobs noted that Mac OS 9 is sort of unofficially dubbed the "your Internet co-pilot" operating system. This means the upgrade is highly focused on the Internet and there are some really cool technologies.
Phil Schiller, VP, at Apple demoed the voiceprint security features trying to break-in to Steve's workspace. It didn't work. Steve then came over and it worked. This voiceprint technology is really cool -- and of course, it optional as well. AppleScript with native TCP/IP support for Internet collaboration is going to revolutionize the meaning of working over the Net. Truly awesome stuff. The Four Quadrant Square & iBook With all four product groups shipping Apple is running on all cylinders. This is definitely going to help them financially as each product sector is covered with unique products that address that market segment. Apple's clarity is paying off. The iBook is a wholly new type of computer. As Jobs noted, previously this consumer laptop market was served by shipping yesterdays hot business systems to the consumer market. This just doesn't cut it. Apple asked, "what does this market need?" and built the iBook around that market need, creating the iBook with the latest technologies. The iBook pre-sales have already numbered over 140,000 since its introduction -- and that doesn't include Japan, where small laptops like the iBook rule the market. Jobs noted the iBook will sell well in Japan. The iBook will begin shipping in mid September, Jobs mentioned. New G4 Notes on the new G4 are already covered on a different page. Apple Cinema Display One of the most beautiful looking items Apple has ever produced is this revolutionary display. Jobs claims the new 22 inch Apple Cinema Display is the "world's largest LCD display ever brought to market" and one with astounding display qualities. The letterbox display has a maximum resolution of 1600x1024 in letterbox proportions for DVD movie watching in up to 16 million colors. The display is fully digitally driven (unlike any other display Apple has ever made) by the G4 processor's special graphic display capabilities. The Apple Cinema Display is powered by a special ATI RAGE 128 graphics component and only ships with the new 450 and 500 MHz G4 models. The Apple Cinema Display is a going to be a constrained item but at a price of $3999 not a lot of people will be standing in line to get one -- though when you see it you'll definitely want one, no matter what you can afford! New Commercials Steve Jobs showed four commercials. Two were the favorite iBook commercials shown at Macworld Expo NY (according to the clapo-meter, we clapped our hands for our favorites at Expo, four commercials for the new iBook were shown total). The third was for the new AirPort wireless hub, shown also Macworld Expo. The new commercial was for the new G4 Power Macintosh. A brief description of that ad is at the end of our G4 notes. To get a look at all these goodies go over to Apple.com
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