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_Refurbished_

macrumors 68020
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Mar 23, 2007
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After keynotes I tend to watch older keynotes for fun, specifically ones with Jobs. This has been discussed, but I feel after this most recent keynote, it's more prevalent than ever that things just aren't the same. I can barely stomach some of these awful presentations. The "magic" that made Apple keynotes so amazing is now replaced with rehearsed, cliched praise that we hear year after year.

I realized this while watching the popular YouTube video "Steve Jobs Pissed Off Moments". Watching that video made me realize what's truly missing: passion. Real, true passion. Jobs had it in spades, whereas Cook has it in stocks. Jony Ive has that same passion, but it's become cliche. Ive also doesn't enjoy public speaking, so he's not able to explain products to the masses (except in pre-made videos).

After watching the "Steve Jobs Pissed Off Moments" video I realized how different Apple has become over the past five or so years, and how much I miss the days when people like Forstall were part of the company. Craig F and Phil S are the only two executives that have an iota of that passion that made Apple what it is today.

Hopefully, when Tim Cook retires, a more passionate (yet good) CEO takes his place. The flame is slowly burning out.
 
They need to hire better writers. Some gags would be nice. Yet what we got are these wooden business guys gushing about electronics. Not a lot of fun.

note: It think the term 'electronics' is probably antiquated :D
 
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They are selling products like crazy. 1st trillion dollar company. Why the hell would they want to make it fun. Keep doing what your doing if it’s working. Fun or not, they are selling products at a fast rate. What every company wants. With all those fascinating stats, they’re doing something right.
 
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The multitude of early leaks doesn't help, either.

Yep, that’s the problem. Jobs blew as much smoke up Apple’s backside as anyone does now. But he didn’t have to deal with the litany of leaks.

These days, we hardly learn anything new from the keynote, other than how much we have to spend. So of course it’s not going to be as exciting.
 
There are only so many ways he can say “this is the best iPhone we’ve ever made.” Yea Tim I hope it is or you should probably cancel they presentation.
 
Memory bias. Go back and dig out old macrumors threads right after old Jobs keynotes. The vast majority of them were angry about how much the keynote sucked. It’s like when people now argue that everyone knew the iPhone 1 was going to be a huge hit.... no it wasn’t because I still remember spending 6 months right here arguing in flame war threads.
 
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I think the issue is not so much with Tim (presentation-wise, as a CEO he is very so-so) but with Apple having nothing exciting to talk about. Yay, a new iPhone, it's the same as the last one, 15% faster and 30% more expensive.

Basically the issue can be seen in Piter Tiel's "zero to one" innovation book: Apple used to do this a lot by introducing new products that (even raw at launch) were true innovation: iPhone, iPad, ipod, MacBook Air and so on l

Nowadays, it's mostly "1 to N" innovation, ie iterations of existing products. IPhone with more power, MacBook with more power and thinner, iMac with more power (Pro) and so on. Doesn't really excite that much than something fundamentally new.
 
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I think the issue is not so much with Tim (presentation-wise, as a CEO he is very so-so) but with Apple having nothing exciting to talk about. Yay, a new iPhone, it's the same as the last one, 15% faster and 30% more expensive.

Basically the issue can be seen in Piter Tiel's "zero to one" innovation book: Apple used to do this a lot by introducing new products that (even raw at launch) were true innovation: iPhone, iPad, ipod, MacBook Air and so on l

Nowadays, it's mostly "1 to N" innovation, ie iterations of existing products. IPhone with more power, MacBook with more power and thinner, iMac with more power (Pro) and so on. Doesn't really excite that much than something fundamentally new.

Nowadays, even their zero to one innovations aren't exciting because they're followed by waits of months (sometimes years, i'm looking at you, Airpower) before the product is in your hands.

My first Mac was a macbook air, complete with the bleeding-edge-price 64GB SSD. They shipped a smidge over 2 weeks after they announced. Now that's exciting... and enough to give people a rose-tinted view when they look back. People complaining about how expensive the MBPs are nowadays? The 64GB SSD was a $999 BTO upgrade.
 
Steve Jobs was more than Apple, he was the visionary that saw tech and wanted to get it out into customers hands to change their perspective of technology and also their life.

They have no one like him now, hence we still have the rounded edged iPhone XS Max etc which effectively is spawned from the old iPhone 6 design which is milked year on year. Even good old Phil and Craig look less confident these days, I really don’t think they believe in the product as they once did with Steve at the helm.
 
I think the issue is not so much with Tim (presentation-wise, as a CEO he is very so-so) but with Apple having nothing exciting to talk about. Yay, a new iPhone, it's the same as the last one, 15% faster and 30% more expensive.

Basically the issue can be seen in Piter Tiel's "zero to one" innovation book: Apple used to do this a lot by introducing new products that (even raw at launch) were true innovation: iPhone, iPad, ipod, MacBook Air and so on l

Nowadays, it's mostly "1 to N" innovation, ie iterations of existing products. IPhone with more power, MacBook with more power and thinner, iMac with more power (Pro) and so on. Doesn't really excite that much than something fundamentally new.

I agree. At the same time there doesn't seem to be a push for finding new things to make. Jobs had probably good business sense there whereas current Apple plays it very safe. They are no longer the company that almost went under but the top tech company in the world.
 
My problem with the presentations are not so much the leaks - I can avoid those if I want to, and so can everyone else. Stop going to Mac rumor sites 3 months up to the presentation.

My problem is that they are exactly the same. Every. Single. Time, now:
- Cook doing some praise on how big and awesome Apple is. Graphs showing iPhone rules. Customer satisfaction.
- The same people doing the same product run throughs again and again, speaking about how this years screen is soooo much better than last years screen. And processor. And camera. And Emojis. And design. And whatever.
- Several advertisements to repeat what they just said. And always in Ivy-voice.
- Random talks by developers, even though the apps are in most cases complete gimmicks. Never something substantial anymore.
- Finish with Cook talking again on how awesome Apple is.

And it annoys the crap out of me that they manage to put so many people on that stage which are clearly not up for presenting in front of such a large audience. A presentation is SO much better when done by people who are confident in front of people, and not reading from a teleprompter.
 
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My problem with the presentations are not so much the leaks - I can avoid those if I want to, and so can everyone else. Stop going to Mac rumor sites 3 months up to the presentation.

My problem is that they are exactly the same. Every. Single. Time, now:
- Cook doing some praise on how big and awesome Apple is. Graphs showing iPhone rules. Customer satisfaction.
- The same people doing the same product run throughs again and again, speaking about how this years screen is soooo much better than last years screen. And processor. And camera. And Emojis. And design. And whatever.
- Several advertisements to repeat what they just said. And always in Ivy-voice.
- Random talks by developers, even though the apps are in most cases complete gimmicks. Never something substantial anymore.
- Finish with Cook talking again on how awesome Apple is.

And it annoys the crap out of me that they manage to put so many people on that stage which are clearly not up for presenting in front of such a large audience. A presentation is SO much better when done by people who are confident in front of people, and not reading from a teleprompter.
Exactly. It’s all very cookie cutter these days. It’s robotic with a corny script that we see over and over.

When Jobs was doing it, it didn’t “seem” rehearsed. It seemed very natural. The woman presenter in the middle of the keynote was AWFUL. I could have gone up there unrehearsed and done better. I felt like I was watching a bad E3 Xbox Keynote.
 
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Spot on. I just watched it from end to end for the first time. What a bunch of actors. It is so staged and stiff. So over produced with the cutaway videos and that STUPID British voice over trying to make the pitch sound sophisticated. Apple so needs a new ad campaign or marketing firm.
 
Over the past few years, it has certainly become too repetitive. Presentation layout is the same, everything they say is pretty much the same year-over-year, and they just can't surprise anyone anymore. Even looking at Phil Schiller, I swear even he looks bored presenting the new iPhones. Phil used to be energetic, fun, and was able to get the crowd hyped. Now, he just goes feature over feature and waits for the few fake applauses.

I feel like they don't go through a thoughtful process of how they need to present the story of each product. Presenting the Xr was an absolute failure in my opinion. The Xr is supposed to be the high-volume iPhone, so they actually should've started with the Xr first, and show how it's even "better" than last year's iPhone X but at $250 cheaper, then go into the Xs and Xs Max as the "pro" options who need something even better than the Xr.

I love Apple. I've seen it go through so many changes, but at this point, the executives in charge aren't as enthused to take a leap and prefer to just milk whatever existing tech they have in the supply chain. It's sad.
 
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The multitude of early leaks doesn't help, either.

This is a massive understatement and you’re correct. One of the key elements of the Keynote was always surprises, and every year it’s seemingly gets ruined towards August with major leaks for products. And I think those who were going in with anticipation of what to expect, already know, therefore they have the mindset that they don’t care as much because of something that doesn’t appeal to them because of the leaks.
 
Apple magic is way gone.

I decided that this was my last keynote to watch live.
I really have better things to do then watch these boring stuff.
Ah well, I made dinner and had some other conversation too during that time too.
So time wasn’t totally wasted ;)

Boring uninspiring people at Apple today.
Boring CEO.
Boring uninteresting presentations, gaming on iPhone. No I’m not 15 yrs anymore.
Not as stressed as last keynote, but boring, boring.
I’ve outgrown these stuff, I guess.
RIP Steve. It was revolutionary stuff going on then.

Well, maybe neither Apple’s or Tim’s fault.
Time have its passing, things change.

RIP keynotes. There’s 5 minutes wrap ups.
Or just checking website for the changes :)
 
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If you took the words: excited, beautiful, remarkable, amazing, and incredible out of the English language, Phil's presentation would be about 2 minutes long. During his presentation on just the iPhone Xs and Max, I counted 19 times where he used the word incredible. Now that truly is 'incredible'.
 
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