In February of 2001, Steve gave the keynote presentation at the Macworld Expo in Tokyo. I was there to do the demo of the new version of Final Cut Pro. Although not nearly as stressful as preparing for my first keynote demo the month before, I was highly stressed nonetheless.
Of course all the demo material we had used then was re-evalutated and in many cases replaced with videos and photos produced in Japan. I ended up with some interesting footage from a music video from a Japanese group called ‘Love Psychedelico’ to use in my demo. Thankfully the setup and rehearsals went smoothly; not totally surprising as the show was largely a repeat of the San Francisco keynote.
Beyond the changes to the demo material, there were two notable changes from the January show. First, Steve introduced the Flower Power and Dalmation iMacs during this keynote. The reception was lukewarm, but it was hard to tell if that was the typical Japanese reserve, or something else. Second, and much more shocking, was Steve’s wardrobe.
I don’t think anyone in the Apple team knew about this in advance, so when he came out on stage we were all just as surprised as the audience. Steve was wearing a suit!
In case you’ve only ever seen Steve in his ‘uniform’, here’s a short clip from that unusual day (QuickTime-Sorenson format).
UPDATE – high demand for this little clip was clobbering my server, so I changed the format and moved it to a different host. Hopefully that will help.
In hindsight, I think Steve looking all ‘businesslike’ in that tailored suit made the iMacs look even more ridiculous.
And THAT is a beautiful pen… sigh.
He just doesn’t look right in a suit
I think we’ve all got used to what he normally wears
Can those old keynotes be found somewhere on the web? I’d love to sit down a rainy sunday afternoon and watch these wonderful keynotes and just feel the beating of the wings of history…
Jesper, you can find some working links here:
http://www.apfelwiki.de/wiki/Main/SteveNotes
Is that Steve?
What plugin is that? It’s apparently not installed on my computer, as it doesn’t display in either FF or IE.
It is in MPEG-4 format. It may require the latest Quicktime to play.
I remember that day! I’ve always wondered what on earth possessed Steve to wear an absolutely awful looking suit (did he sleep in it?) and not shave. It was definitely Steve at the worst I’ve ever seen him.
Aloha
Yeah, that’s right. I’d forgotten. The white tie. What the hell? Who’s wedding was Steve going after the keynote? Japanese only wear white ties for weddings.
Aloha
Strange, I have the latest version of Quicktime, and other in-browser videos (such as Apple movie trailers) play just fine.
At least he didn’t use any white chrysanthemum images. This is restricted to the Japanese royalty and it would have been a major faux pas. Believe me, I know . . . used to work for a non-profit organization and when the Emperor and Empress was on a state visit, a stop at the organization’s headquarters was planned and we had to create some sort of publicity piece. We used an image of that flower but fortunately someone discovered mistake and we were able to get another flower image substituted. Whew …
Moral of the story – have someone on the staff who at least knows where to check up on the Japanese culture when it comes to symbolism.
I’m guessing he lost a bet. Mike – Is Steve a gamblin’ man?
I have to say, that German site with keynotes is absolutely amazing. Just saw the keynote where Bill Gates appears via direct satellite link (just after Steve annouced that MS bought $150m shares in Apple). The reaction from the crowd is priceless. Look for the Macworld ‘97 keynote.
jesper, visit
http://homepage.mac.com/nlecuona/Movies/iMovieTheater56.html
here you´ll find real steve jobs with ER Noah Wyle actor , who played him on Pirates of Silicon Valley (this is posted at writersblocklive.com/part-89 too)
apfelwiki is a great site, it´s in my favourites bar, but it´s a pity some link don´t work
Steve looks another person…. is he really?
Like I was looking for Steve Jobs keynotes, and google reported me this site, I didn´t stop for read the autor of this page, and I´ve just to do it now, so Mike, you must understand I do an impossible, obliged question and surely never requested answer:
CAN YOU TELL ME THE STEVE JOBS EMAIL?
jajaja if you want, of course
Regards from spain again