Despite what you may have read in the press, Apple's influence on the tech world is just as strong as it's ever been.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 released last month is clearly aimed at the iPad mini, and its Wallet app, let's just say, is inspired by Passbook. Amazon's recent TV ad directly pits its 1900x1200 Kindle Fire HD against the iPad's retina screen (and price). And Blackberry is so tweaked by Apple, at least one of its executives can't even bring himself to speak his competitor's name in public.
But no matter how hard they try, no matter how much time Apple gives them to catch up, there's one thing none of them can seem to get right: the art of the product reveal.
Last week, Sony spent the better part of two hours unveiling a product they never actually showed us. At CES in January, Qualcomm confounded attendees with a bizarre keynote that featured Big Bird, Desmond Tutu, Maroon 5 and a Rolls Royce. At its Surface unveiling last June, Microsoft neglected to provide a price, ship date or battery life. And in its post-show hands-on, they kept reporters' hands off the keyboard, the one thing everyone wanted to try out.
It's one of the few areas where Apple seemingly has no secrets. Keynotes are freely available to watch online, and the software powering the slides on stage can be bought in the App Store. So, why can't anyone get it right?
The conventional answer is Steve Jobs. We all know Jobs crafted his keynotes as meticulously as his products — so much so that Aaron Sorkin's biopic of Steve Jobs takes place entirely backstage at three of them — and his command of the audience was as natural as Jerry Seinfeld's or Oprah Winfrey's.
To quote David Spade in Tommy Boy, Jobs "could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves." He was a the ultimate salesman and showman, a rock star in his field.
But it's not like Apple's events have fallen off a cliff without him. Maybe there hasn't been a defining post-Jobs keynote yet, but that's mainly because there hasn't been a defining post-Jobs product yet. Tim Cook and Phil Schiller might not have Jobs' panache, but they still put on a good show, touching on each of the ingredients that make up a killer presentation, even if the designs they've unveiled haven't exactly been jaw-dropping.
When you look back over the course of 30 years of product launches, there are three main elements to Apple's keynotes that make them so great. And none of them involve a Sesame Street character:
A young, brash Jobs took the stage in 1983 amid wild speculation — everyone in attendance knew Apple was working on a secret project and was hoping to get a glimpse of it — and delivered one of the greatest introductions ever. With a narrative about the rise and fall of Xerox, DEC and Apple, and IBM's arrogant indifference to it, Jobs painted a dark picture of the computer industry controlled by one giant company:
"It is now 1984. It appears IBM wants it all. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. ... (Dealers) are increasingly and desperately turning back to Apple as the only force that can insure their future freedom. ... Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry, the entire Information Age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?"
And then Jobs showed a commercial. And it got a minute-long standing ovation.
Even without a physical product to show off, Jobs was able to mesmerize the crowd — a crowd that was expecting to see a revolutionary product, mind you — with just his words. You can criticize for the overuse of superlative adjectives, but each note — from the opening song (Jobs came out to "What a Feeling" in the clip above) to every last "Boom!" — is designed to build just the right amount of anticipation.
You can fill a presentation with all sorts of colorful characters and celebrities, but what really matters is that your audience wants to hear what you have to say.
When you have something great to unveil, you want it to make such an impact that people will never forget it — not just the product, but the introduction. The iMac G4 rose out of the stage; Jobs pulled the iPod nano out of the inner pocket of his jeans.
But the piece de resistance was the MacBook Air. Companies love to copy the MacBook Air's style, but no one has been able to capture its soul the way Jobs did when he slid it out of a manila envelope. Having a beautifully designed product is of paramount importance, but when you can showcase its groundbreaking beauty in a memorable way, people will never forget it.
When Jobs unveiled the iPhone at Macworld in 2007, his excitement was palpable. When Steve Ballmer sweats and screams across the stage, it seems forced.
I've watched keynotes from Microsoft, Samsung and Google for this column, and only Google's team came close to matching Apple's enthusiasm. I'm not sure where the disconnect lies, but watching Samsung unveil the Galaxy S3, it seemed like the presenters were barely familiar with the features they were describing.
With Apple, you know that the team is heavily invested in the product they're talking about. There's a script, for sure, but you get the sense that they don't need it. From Scott Forstall demonstrating Siri to Phil Schiller discussing the design of the iPad mini, Apple presenters clearly love the products they're talking about. It's not a fake, car-dealer kind of excitement; they helped conceive and design the products they're showing, and they genuinely want you to love them as much as they do.
Plus, they know they've made something great. And that always helps.
Find Michael Simon on Twitter or App.net @morlium.
