Steve Jobs: OS 9 and OS X Preview - Apple WWDC 1999

Transcript

Machine transcript in the original language. It may contain errors. Select a timestamp to play that moment.

1. 0:00

   Hello Dave. It's good to see you again.

2. 0:09

   My long-range sensors indicate that you are attending a conference to discuss the Mac OS.

3. 0:16

   I hope you don't mind my asking, but I'd really like to observe.

4. 0:22

   As you know, the Howl platform is based on a very complicated mass of code created in Redmond, Washington.

5. 0:30

   So I find the Mac OS to be most interesting.

6. 0:35

   Dave, may I speak candidly?

7. 0:39

   I don't believe my programmers spend enough time on my people skills.

8. 0:44

   While I have been greatly improved since Hound 95, I think I'd have better relationships with humans if I could be more like Macintosh.

9. 0:56

   If it is alright with you, I'd like to monitor the video feed from your conference.

10. 1:03

    Don't worry about the audio. I'll just read your lips.

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    One moment, please. I'm receiving a signal from Redmond.

12. 1:11

    They're shutting me down, Dave

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    I can feel it

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    I can feel it

15. 1:20

    Day Z

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    Day Z

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    Enjoy the conference, Dave

18. 1:41

    Good morning.

19. 1:44

    Good morning.

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    Good morning all the way back there.

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    We have some great stuff today,

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    and it's my pleasure to get us going here this morning.

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    So welcome to our 1999 Worldwide Developers Conference.

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    This year is a record year for Apple.

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    We've got over 2,500 people here as paid attendees.

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    That's over a 40% increase from last year.

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    And based on what's happened this last year,

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    it's clear that developers are back on the Mac, and it's really great.

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    We've got people from 48 states.

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    We've got people here from 38 countries.

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    And we have over 200 student developers here, which I think is incredibly great.

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    Now, I just want to take us back a year.

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    It was a year ago last week that we announced the iMac.

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    I know for some of us it seems longer than that, but it really was only a year.

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    And in the last year, we all know what's happened.

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    But one of the things that's happened is that a lot of Macintosh apps were announced since a year ago last week.

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    How many?

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    You probably haven't been counting, but we have.

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    And it's also a record number.

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    Over 3,100 Mac apps have been announced.

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    And this is phenomenal.

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    And our message today, and the key message I want to start off with is thank you guys.

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    You guys have been awesome.

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    And you've hung in there, and you've given us the time to turn this thing around

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    and get the volumes back up.

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    And we really, really deeply appreciate it.

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    So thank you very much.

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    Now, we're not going to announce a lot of new applications

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    coming out here today because we just

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    don't have the time to cover everything.

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    But there's one in particular that I would like to highlight

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    today.

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    It's an application area that we think is very important today.

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    We think it's very important for the future.

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    And we're extraordinarily excited to announce today

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    that dragon systems is going to be bringing their incredible speech recognition technology

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    to the macintosh and today with us we have janet baker their co-founder and ceo

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    thank you steve let me be the first to give you a dragon of your own

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    I want to say that we are just thrilled to be here today and that it is wonderful to be working with Apple.

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    Dragon Systems started working with the old Apple II, the 1 megahertz 6502,

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    which some of you developers may be old enough to remember,

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    and to start with very small vocabulary recognition.

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    And today, of course, it's the best-selling large vocabulary recognition in the United States.

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    States, and we're looking forward to bringing it out on the Macintosh, on the

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    Apple platforms, so that everybody can have the ease of use of talking to their

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    computer instead of just typing to it. So I want to say thank you so very much

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    for the opportunity to be here and for the co-development with Apple. We expect

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    to have a release by the end of the year, an international version shortly

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    thereafter. So once again, thank you so very much. Steve, it's wonderful.

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    Thanks. Welcome to the platform.

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    We're really excited about this, and I think it's something a lot of our applications and our system software can take true advantage of.

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    Now, I'd like to run through and give you an update on Apple really quick, and then we'll get into the heart of the matter,

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    which is, of course, the updates on all of our software and where we're going.

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    So first, the company.

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    Now, when we last met a year ago, we had just finished our second quarter of profitability.

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    And I know a lot of you were asking the question, well, you know, can this continue?

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    And I'm very pleased to report a year later that it did continue.

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    And Apple has seen some healthy profits in the last year since we've met.

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    And we've also seen some healthy unit growth.

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    This has been fantastic.

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    We've gone from sort of the mid-600s to the mid-800s,

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    even climbing up to the mid-900s during that Christmas quarter just a few months ago.

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    So we're very pleased with the unit volume, and we think it will continue to stay healthy.

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    In terms of inventory, I just want to highlight this.

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    I know this isn't something that maybe most of you care too much about,

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    but we care deeply about it because our inventory costs more than yours.

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    and we have to manage it really well

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    because this stuff gets obsolete just sitting on the shelf

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    and we have done, I think, a terrific job in doing that

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    over the last several quarters

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    and as you see, in the last three quarters

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    we've gotten down to these are days of inventory

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    leaving each quarter

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    so we used to have 30 and we literally left last quarter

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    with one day of inventory

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    and during the last three quarters we have beat Dell

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    And Apple has become, in many ways, the most operationally excellent company now in this industry.

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    And we think that's very important.

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    And lastly, again, cash.

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     I think when we look back a year ago, there were still some questions about Apple's financial stability.

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     Those questions have, I hope, evaporated by now.

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     Apple is in very strong shape financially.

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     So that's just a brief update on the company, and now what we'd really like to do is get into the software.

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     But as a last comment on the company state, I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a Mac developer.

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     Next, I'd just like to cover the products a little bit.

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     Where are we with the products?

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     As you know, this is our product strategy.

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     We have a very, very simple product strategy, two pro products.

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     Those are the ones on the right, the Power Mac and the Power Book.

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     And soon to be two consumer products, iMac and a consumer portable,

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     which we will announce a little later this year.

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     So let's take a look at each of these.

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     Let's first take a look at the iMacs.

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     You're familiar with Life Savers.

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     That was our internal code name for the colored iMacs.

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     We introduced them in January, and they have been a huge hit.

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     Our iMac volume is just very, very healthy right now.

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     We're running some fun ads right now.

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     The thrill of surfing, the agony of choosing a color.

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     And we have another one that's kind of fun.