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.
diego , everybody know that it is steve@mac.com :p
The Macworld ‘97-keynote is absolutely amazing. It must’ve been such an overwhelming experience for the attendants. “I come to you at the turn of the tide”, as another bearded fellow once said…
Steve Jobs real email is meant to be sj@mac.com, steve@mac.com is just a fake one he uses at keynote demos.
Which Love Pshedelico video did you use? I’m a big fan of the band (and recently just got their live DVD)
Don’t you guys remember by the 80’s, when Steve Jobs would walk around w/those executives, dressed in a suit. And I have a video of the first Macintosh presentation that Jobs was dressed in a suit w/a bow tie!
thanks, I don´t believe he answers me, but I´ll try it jeje.
diego – Steve answers a surprising amount of his e-mail, so maybe…
Why does everyone hate the Dalmatian and Flower Power iMacs so much? I think they’re kinda funky… It’s like the iBooks being only available in white nowadays. Sure, I bought one and I love it and it’s different from all other laptops, but I’d still prefer a candy-coloured one.
In fact it also reminds me of the Mac-community hating the brushed-metal interface in OS X. When I was a die-hard windows user and first saw QuickTime with brushed metal I thought it was amazing, still do kinda… The aesthetics that have replaced the old, interesting ones (the iBook becoming white, iLife becoming un-brushed metal, etc) are great and all and look more refined, but they seem to disregard the truly adventurous sense of Mac products pre-iPod…
Roman- I can´t hate anything Apple did, do or will do, but each time have his style, and always Cupertino leads that style.
I fell in love at thirteen when my music teacher used by first time a Mac, in Spain was more much difficult to see one than in USA, so I swore myself I shouldn´t die without buy anyone of this incredible machines.
It´s true that before they have their charm, but I think all Apple does it´s amazing, now is the White time, created by Apple, take a look the rest of the computing companies, all of them copy this idea, Creative over all. What will be the following revolutionary idea from Cupertino?
I´m gonna send a email to Steve, I already tell you if I´ve got some reply.
Mike, give I regards from you to Steve…? Be calm, It´s a joke!