Whither Liberal Arts? The Missing iPad Story: “There are no stories, and there are no humans. It’s clever yet abstract, remarking upon what has happened, without a vision for what is now possible. That’s the thing about stories: the best storytellers – like Jobs – are so compelling because they have vision. They see what we don’t see, and they can’t be more excited to tell us about just that.
Does Apple still have vision? Yesterday’s presentation did not, and I wonder just how costly last year’s departure might have been.”
(Via stratechery.com.)
Great article, as always, from Ben Thomson. But a couple of things that strike me:
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There were way more products to be announced during this Keynote than there used to be, because the product cycles of so many products have been shifted to October every year. (I still feel like this is a weird strategy, but it seems to be working, so I won’t question it too much.) But having more products to announce necessitates a more rushed pace, I think. Less time to talk story.
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Tim Cook seems to prefer shorter, rather than longer, Keynotes. No parade of third-party demos from unpolished third-party execs or long recaps of past announcements from months ago. Just short updates and recaps, followed by announcement after announcement, machine-gun style. That’s different from Jobs, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. There were many occasions during Jobs Keynotes where I wished I could fast-forward through the “boring” parts.
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Cook is much more willing, and maybe anxious even, to hand over the mic to his underlings. I think that’s a great thing. We’re getting to see the Apple execs shine more than ever before. Phil Schiller, who used to be a court jester to Jobs, is now charming and funny in his own right. Federighi and Cue are competing over who can make the most self-deprecating jokes, and it’s all good fun. I think it helps present Apple as a team, rather than a one-man band, and that helps sell the products. It’s part of Apple’s story, if not the story of a particular product, and it does give Apple as a company a more human touch. [1]
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Scott Forstall may have been enthusiastic and emotional, but to me he always came off as completely insincere. Maybe that’s unfair, and I know a lot of Apple nerds will disagree with me. But I always found him to be a terrible presenter. Especially in contrast to Jobs, who was naturally emotional and gifted, it always felt like Forstall was trying too hard. I have massive respect for his work on the original iOS. But I also think Apple Keynotes are way better off without him.
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The Jony Ive situation is what it is. He clearly doesn’t like to be on stage, so Cook, always wanting to show as much of the team as possible, plays too many Ive videos to compensate. I agree, again, with Thompson, that iOS 7 is in many ways less usable than its predecessor. But it’s a work in progress. Those of us who design software for a living figured it would take some time for even a genius like Ive to master it. The hockey puck mouse may be a good analogy, but the hardware has come a long way since then, and Ive’s software design will, too.
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I agree that third-party apps are a huge part of the iPad story. As a developer, it also pained me to have Cook not even mention the names of any of the apps being used in that video. Then again, I can’t say I wanted to watch a parade of developers showing off their apps one after another, either. It almost never played well, the many times Jobs did it. I don’t think Apple cares a whole lot about the developer community at this point, so I think it’s better they don’t pretend they do.
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Cook isn’t as good at Jobs at conveying emotion on stage. His personality is such that when he tries to say something heartfelt and sincere, he just can’t sell it like Jobs could. When Jobs talked about the loftier ideas and how Apple was improving people’s lives, with tears welling in his eyes, we believed him. We sensed his emotion. With Cook, not so much. The few times he’s tried, it came off as prepared and nervous to me. I wasn’t able to connect with him the same way. So personally, I prefer it when he doesn’t try to get emotional. He has vision, but he doesn’t wear it on his sleeve. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
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The most uncomfortable part of any Cook Keynote is the end. The part where we’re expecting him to be Jobs. But Cook will find his own way to wrap up the show, and we’ll learn to let go of that expectation eventually. The rest of the new format is already well on its way to being on target.
No, we’ll never see the presentation panache of a Steve Jobs at Apple as long as Tim Cook is at the helm. But I don’t think that means Apple has lost its vision. Just it’s charismatic co-founder.
- I can’t wait to see Angela Ahrendts on that stage. While I don’t recall Apple bringing out its Retail SVP to talk during a Keynote in the past, I think Ahrendts would be more than happy to change that. There’s usually a retail update at the beginning of the presentation, anyway, and it sure wouldn’t hurt for Apple to have a woman on that stage, if even for a few minutes. (The number one complaint I get from the women in my life when watching these presentations is “Where are the women?”). And from what I gather, Ahrendts doesn’t have Ive’s stage fright problem, either. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see her up there next year. ↩
