San Francisco – Apple CEO Steve Jobs opened his keynote address at Macworld 2008 on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 telling the crowd that there were four items he wanted to talk about: Leopard, iPhone, and iTunes. What Steve Jobs really talked about was a new backup appliance that works with Leopard’s Time Machine, called Time Capsule. He also talked about the Macbook Air, a new laptop. For iPhone updates he discussed maps with location and the release of SDK, for iTunes he announced iTunes Movie Rentals,
New Products, Updates and Services
#1 Macbook Air
*New Ultraportable Laptop
According to Steve Jobs, the Macbook Air is 0.76 – 0.16-inches thin. This is the announcement that Mac users were most hopeful for: an ultra-portable notebook. The Macbook Air features a full-size keyboard, and according to Jobs, “it’s the world’s thinnest notebook.”
#2 Free iPhone Software Updates
*Software Updates*
People who use the iPhone have been anxiously awaiting these two new iPhone updates. These free iPhone software updates are available today for free, Steve Jobs said. The new iPhone features include:
Maps with location.
SMS more than one person.
The ability to create up to nine home screens.
He also noted the much-anticipated, and correctly predicted release of SDK in February. SDK allows people to write their own iPhone applications.
Steve Jobs stated that Apple will be working with Google and Skyhook wireless.
#3 iTunes Movie Rentals
*New Apple Service*
The iTunes Movie Rentals service is another well-predicted announcement from Steve Jobs at Macworld. The new iTunes Movie Rental service will launch today. Steve Jobs said there will be free software updates available for iPhiones, iPods and iTunes, which will support the new service.
What was originally not known was how many studios would actually be participating in the service. According to Steve Jobs, the following major movie studios are on board:
Fox
Lions Gate
MGM
Miramax
Paramount
Sony
Touchstone
Walt Disney
Universal
WB
According to Steve Jobs, the new iTunes Movie Rentals will launch with 1 thousand films by the end of February. These movies can be viewed on the iPhone, iPods, Macs, and even on PCs.
The iTiunes Movie Rental service has pricing that is very competitive with cable’s on demand services.
According to the Apple CEO, “To rent a library title will cost $2.99 — new release? $3.99.” The 24-hour viewing rule is also similar to the standard on-demand rules of cable companies.
#4 Time Capsule
*New Apple Product *
One new product Steve Jobs mentioned was Time Capsule. Time Capsule is a companion product to Time Machine, which enables wireless back up of a notebook. According to Jobs, the Time Capsule backup appliance will be available in 500GB and sell for $299. The other version of Time Capsule will be a 1TB model and retail for $499. Time Capsule is scheduled to ship in February
#5 iPod Touch Updates
*Software Updates*
Five new features are being added to the iPod Touch, Steve Jobs said in his keynote address. These five new features are:
maps
mail
notes
stocks
weather
According to Steve Jobs, these new upgrades for existing iPod touch users will cost $20. Other Touch iPods will now have these five features built in.
#6 Apple TV goes HD
Another prediction was kicked around before the keynote speech: HD for the Apple TV. Apple has made it easy to now rent movies directly to the Apple TV, in DVD quality or HD.
#7 Mac Office for 2008
It was no surprise that Steve Jobs also went on to mention Mac Office for 2008. Steve Jobs also noted that Mac Office for 2008
“is the last big app to go native on Intel.”
Apple Sales Information
During his keynote address at Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs also mentioned some sales figures for different Apple products:
iPhone Sales:
According to Steve Jobs in his keynote speech, Apple has been selling about 20 thousand iPhones per day.
iTunes Movie Sales:
Steve Jobs said that they have sold $7 million in movies. No timeframe was given, only that this figure is too low, which prompted them to launch iTunes Movie rentals.
Leopard Sales:
Steve Jobs told that crowd that the sales of the latest Mac OS operating system, Leopard was the “most successful release of Mac OS X ever.” In its first three months, 5 million copies were sold.
About the Keynote Address and Macworld Expo
CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, during his keynote address at Macworld 2008 on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Steve Job’s much-anticipated Macworld Expo keynote speech occurred at Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 9am PST. Last year’s big announcement at Macworld. turned out to be the iPhone.
The 23rd Macworld Expo began on January 14, 2008 and ends on January 18, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Traditionally, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils new products and technology during his keynote address.
Sources
Apple.com, Steve Jobs Keynote Speech
c/net News, news coverage
Macworld Conference & Expo, http://www.macworldexpo.com
