Editorial

Posted on 15 May 2006 at 11:35

 

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Has Apple's number one man lost his magical touch or is he the perfect performer and a master of manipulation?

Have you seen that video of Apple boss Steve Jobs presenting to Cupertino City Council? If you haven't, jump onto www.youtube.com and search the words 'steve jobs council', without the quotes. He's up before the city dignitaries, outlining his plans for Apple's smart new campus just up the road from its current HQ.

Go watch it now; we'll wait until you're done...

Finished? It's an interesting piece of footage, isn't it? Not so much for what he says, but for the way he says it.

Jobs' twice-yearly keynotes, at which he launches Apple's forthcoming range of software and Macs, are known almost as much for their presenter's smooth, effortless presentation as they are for the shiny kit they debut. It's a polished performance, and it doesn't take much Googling to turn up stories of how he'll threaten product managers with pulling their kit from the billing if they don't perform their role in the Jobs' stage show with a confidence every bit as sure as that of their boss.

But in that video, as he presents his plans to the Cupertino city officials, he looks nervous, and poorly-prepared. It's almost as though he's kowtowing, and begging that they indulge his whim. You could almost believe he'd lost his magical touch.

Yet I don't think that's the case at all. Watching that video, I am more convinced than ever that Jobs' skill is in knowing exactly how he should pitch any message to get his own way. He knows how these councillors expect someone to act when up before them, and he conforms, while at the same time reminding them that he oversees a wildly successful company, which just happens to be their single biggest tax payer, too.

It's the same skill he uses when presenting recycled ideas as some great new innovation, such as cycling through active applications with command-tab (control-tab does the same thing on a PC) or putting Widgets on our desktop (Konfabulator was there several years earlier). And when he does, we all believe him without question.

Perhaps that fabled reality distortion field is real after all. Perhaps next time he's up on stage, and we're following the QuickTime stream, he'll stare straight into the camera and demand, 'Look into my eyes. Not around my eyes, into my eyes. 3... 2... 1... And you're under. The new Power Mac is the fastest computer on the planet.'

Who could ever doubt him?

Author: Nik Rawlinson