Steve enters from backstage and welcomes the audience to MacWorld 2008. He says that there are big plans for the day, but first he wants to provide numbers. His focus topics are the adoption rates for iPhone and Leopard, as well as quick notes on iTunes, iPod, and Mac sales.
Steve then apologizes, saying that there is nothing as big as the iPhone this year, but he thinks a lot of smaller revolutionary changes are happening that will hopefully make this year exciting as well.
Mac Nano
Steve mentions the iPod Nano, calling it the best-selling music device in history. He then reminds us that the Nano used to be Mini and brings up the existence of the Mac Mini. Steve then unveils the Mac Nano, a redesigned Mac Mini that is approximately half the height of its predecessor and in an anodized aluminum shell to match recent design changes in the Apple lineup.
The Mac Nano will come in two flavors, 2.0 GHz and 2.2 GHz (using current Santa Rosa chips), each of which comes standard with a 32 GB solid-state drive. Build-to-order options will include a 64 GB solid-state drive, as well as the option to instead use a conventional hard drive, with sizes up to 160 GB, all 5400 rpm.
On sale: TODAY. Shipping: FEBRUARY.
Mac Pro
Steve then says that sometimes bigger is better, and brings up the Mac Pro, lauding it as the best workstation on the market. Steve then introduces the new Penryn chipset, praising Intel for its innovation. He then introduces a redesigned Mac Pro. (There is no final image present in this draft Keynote). Steve brags that the Mac Pro was the first mainstream computer to feature eight cores, and says its time to bring that into everyones hands.
The new Mac Pro comes with dual 2.8 GHz Penryn Xeons standard, with build-to-order options for 3.0 GHz and 3.2 GHz. Standard RAM is bumped to 2 GB, standard hard drive to 320 GB. Standard graphics card is now 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, with other graphics cards build-to-order.
Steve then reveals a final new feature: the Mac Pro is the first Mac to feature a high-definition optical drive, a Blu-ray drive for $400, BTO.
On sale: TODAY. Shipping: TODAY.
MacBook Pro
Also an update for our mobile professionals. Steve introduces the new MacBook Pro, built off of the mobile version of the same Penryn chipset used in the Mac Pro.
Clockspeeds upped to 2.4 GHz/2.6 GHz. 17 MacBook Pro gets LED backlighting. 15 MacBook Pro gets a resolution upgrade option BTO similar to the 17. Still using the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, but video RAM upgraded to 256 MB/512 MB.
New option: black anodized aluminum, like the iPod Classic, due to the high demand of the BlackBook.
ON SALE: TODAY. Shipping: FEBRUARY.
New Accessories
Steve then lines up the three Mac desktops and points to their now common aluminum shells, then points out the white plastic Mighty Mouse. Quickly introduces the new aluminum Mighty Mouse, which is slightly slimmer than its predecessor and gets an extra 10% battery life.
On sale: TODAY. Shipping: TODAY.
Updated Cinema Displays
Steve calls the Apple monitors the most gorgeous displays on the market, but then lines up the iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro. Points to the lack of an iSight camera on the Cinema Display. All Cinema Displays now include a 2 MP iSight camera. Resolutions and other specs stay the same, but backlighting changed over to LED.
New prices:
20: $399.
23: $599.
30: $1,249.
On sale: TODAY. Shipping: TODAY.
Steve then pretends to wrap up the speech, then does his usual...
One More Thing...
Grid illustration using keynote. Across the top: Compact, Consumer, Professional. Across the bottom: Portable, Desktop. Steve then illustrates how their current five offerings (including the Mac Nano) fill in five of the six spots. Steve points out the missing hole and brings up the 12 PowerBook G4.
Said that the 12 MacBook Pro was sort of like the PowerBook G5--everyone wanted it, but it was never meant to happen. Instead, Apple is entering the market with the MacBook Nano, the smallest and lightest Mac laptop ever produced.
This new ultra-portable will come with a 13 LED-backlit screen with 1280x800 resolution. It will come in two flavors, using 1.6 GHz and 1.8 GHz low-voltage Core 2 Duos each. The lower-end will feature a 32 GB SSD, the higher- a 64 GB. Neither will use optical drives and will rely on integrated graphics.
Steve will also reveal that they will be capable of getting up to 10 hours battery life. The two models will retail for $1,499 and $1,999, respectively.
On sale: TODAY. Shipping: TODAY.
The keynote address concludes.
