Jobs recaps announcements and asks Apple employees to stand for a round of applause.
Jobs looks at market share. Says that the high-end flash market (31%) is something Apple's wants to go after. (About 7% is disk-based MP3 players that "we are eliminating with the current iPod.") Jobs then discusses the economics of high-end flash MP3 players, noting that it costs a lot and has hard-to-use navigation. Apple introduces iPod Mini with 4GB of storage (1000 songs) for $249. It is about 2/3 the size of the original iPod. Half-an-inch thick. Same interface/LCD ("patent pending"). Buttons located on solid-state scroll week. Uses the same iPod connector. Supports FireWire and USB 2.0 (both can charges). Includes both cables, belt-clip, and arm band. Available in silver, gold, blue, pink, and green. Runs on Mac or PC. Due next month (February) in the US and April worldwide.
Last up for today: iPod. Last quarter Apple sold 730,000 iPods last quarter, surpassing the 2 million mark since it was introduced 2 years ago. Jobs shows exponential sales curve. Market share data show a 31% in units and 55% in revenue for last October/November, making the iPod the No. 1 MP3 player in the world. Jobs says he expects December data to be even higher. Apple updates the low-end iPod with a new 15GB drive (for the same price). Apple also debuts new headphones available today for $39. Jobs shows new iPod ad to audience.
Jobs ends demo, talks pricing. Looks for similar products and pricing on Windows platform. Costs over $300 and don't even work together as a suite. Apple will sell the suite for $49 and free with every new Mac. "It's like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life--when you're not a work. Will be available on January 16. Companion products: JamPack ($99) includes over 100 more instruments, 2000 more loops, 15 guitar amps, more presets, and other enhancements. Apple will be offering entry-level M-Audio 49-key MIDI keyboard for $99 at Apple Store and retail stores. Jobs shows promotional video of new products.
Apple announces fifth application for iLife 04. GarageBand is a new pro-quality music tool. Can mix 64 tracks, play over 50 software instruments, 1000 professional audio loops, record live audio performances, over 200 pro-quality audio effects, etc. Built SoundTrack directly into GarageBand. Jobs invites pop star John Mayer on stage to demo GarageBand. Mayer plays music on USB/MIDI keyboard connected directly to the Mac. Different instruments demoed. Mayer/Jobs show live recording, live effects on music, and other studio
features. It includes half a dozen different guitar amps, which both Jobs/Mayer demo together. Mayer says he is very impressed with this stuff and would have "locked himself in his room forever" with this software [and his Mac] when he was young and practicing the guitar.
Time Check: 10:30 am PT
Apple launches iDVD 4, which includes enhanced menus, enhanced slide shows, navigation maps, 20 new Hollywood themes, Pro-quality encoding (for better video quality), and up to 2 hours of recording on a single DVD. Education customers also requested that burning/archiving be enabled on a separate machine with a SuperDrive. Jobs demos iDVD 4 features, including new transitions, music playlists, etc.
Apple launches iMovie 4, which allows users to trim clips directly in the timeline, has new/enhanced titles, offers import of iSight video, and includes improved sharing and audio scrubbing. iMovie 4 offers single step compression, transfer to site, etc. for easy publishing on the Web.
Apple launches iLife 04, after it was introduced over year ago. "Microsoft Office for the rest of your life." Includes currrent version of iTunes 4.2. iPhoto 4 now supports up to 25,000 photos with "zero waiting." Apple also added smart albums, time-based organization, improved previews, new effects, Rendezvous photo sharing. "Guess what? No copyright issues with sharing photos." Jobs demos new features, including time-based organization, smart albums, photo ratings, etc. New preview feature displays quick toolbar over photo during slideshow for rating, deleting, rotating, etc. Jobs also demos playlists for slideshows and Rendezvous photo sharing (after buying song from iTMS). iPhoto print/order available in Japan in February and in Europe in March.
Time check: 10:00 am PT
Jobs talks about upcoming Pepsi promotion. Kicks off Feb 1 with a Superbowl commerical: Pepsi will offer 100 million free legal songs.
Apple is adding Billboard Charts (including historical charts) to the iTunes Music Store. Apple is adding 12,000 classic tracks to the iTMS. Apple now has over 500,000 songs available for download today, making iTunes the largest online music store in the world.
Jobs talks iTunes. Apple has sold over 30 million songs. Apple is getting close to 1.9 million/week to reach 100 million songs/year rate. Apple is No. 1 in songs and revenues in the music industry with 70% marketshare. ("Feels good to be over the 5% mark.") Apple has sold over 50,000 audio books and 100,000 gift certificates. Top user spent over $25,000 at iTMS.
Apple introduces the G5 Xserve. ("Cooling these things was no easy task.") DDR400 RAM; up to 8GB. 3 independent SATA drive channels and hot pluggable drives. Ship with Panther Server and an unlimited client license. Three models available in February. Pricing starts at $2,999 (single 2HGz) and $3,999 (dual 2GHz). The computing node version is $2,999. Apple also updates the Xserve RAID, the Xserve companion product with up to 3.5TB of storage, SFP connectors, on-the-fly RAID expansion. Compatible with various different operating systems.
Jobs talks about the G5 processor and Virginia Tech SuperComputer, who wanted "the first" 1,100 dual-2GHz Power Mac G5s. ("We pissed off a few people" getting them the first ones.") Cost them only $5.2 million and sending ripples through Supercomputer world. Jobs shows Virginia Tech Supercomputer video. It uses Infiniband networking; it took less than 3 weeks to assemble. Now in the top 3 Supercomputers. First academic machine to break the 10 teraflop barrier. The entire system runs on Mac OS X. Jobs says he expects to see a few more [Supercomputers] popping up hear and there.
Microsoft also announced a "Technology Guarantee", which offers a free upgrade to Office 2004 to any new purchase (after Jan. 6) of Microsoft Office v.X. The product is expected to ship "in the Spring."
Jobs invites Microsoft General Manager on stage. Debuts Office 2004 for Macintosh with several Mac-first features. MS shows some Office 2004 features, including Word notebook view, which looks like a notebook and offers integration with Entourage. Also demonstrates audio notes feature in Word and new page layout view in Excel for easy print adjustments. New "Project Center" in Entourage can track information (contacts, notes, clippings, scrapbooks, mail items) in a central place. Project Center also offers sharing (to a central server) of files, contacts, and other information with few clicks.
Jobs announces new version of Final Cut Express 2.0. Demoed by Apple's Richard Kerris. Features real-time filters and effects (from Final Cut Pro 4). It will be $99 upgrade; the full version $299 and is available now.
"We made it. The transition [to Mac OS X] is now over." There are 10,000 native Mac OS X apps.
Apple has over 9.3 million active Mac OS X users. Approaching 40% of all Macs. Apple expects to reach 10 million users this quarter.
Panther is fourth major release of Mac OS X. "We're ahead of everyone else. Microsoft is copying us again." Jobs reviews Panther features, including new Finder, iChat AV, Fast User Switching, etc.
Apple working on some "incredible" new products this year. It will be a great 20th anniversary. Apple will offer 20th Anniversary poster at Apple booth.
Jobs shows "1984" commercial. First commercial and was only shown once on paid television.
Apple was the first to bring 32-bit computing back then; now the first to bring 64-bit computing.
Jobs says that it got a lot of software developers interested, including Microsoft.
Jobs announces that Mac came out 20 years ago this year. "Literally, a decade ahead of anything else. It was the computer for the rest of us."
9:06 am PT. Keynote begins with over 60,000 viewers via QuickTime. In over 100 different countries.