eMerging Media

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

1997: Jobs wows Macromedia conference crowd

I feel fortunate to have been at this conference and see Steve Jobs give the keynote speech. This was after Steve's returns to Apple in 1996 and before it's huge run of successes with the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Apple was still struggling at the time, but Steve was still enigmatic as ever, and it was standing room crowd only to hear him speak.

San Francisco - Acting Apple CEO Steve Jobs today got an enthusiastic welcome from multimedia enthusiasts at this week's Macromedia Users Conference here, where he hinted that he was considering a permanent spot at the top of the company's org chart.

During his keynote address, Jobs received standing ovations as he showed off the capabilities of QuickTime 3.0 and played reruns of Apple's "Think Different" TV spot, which debuted this month.

Jobs demonstrated a beta version of QuickTime VR Authoring Studio, a tool for creating virtual-reality environments.

During a question-and-answer session following his address, Jobs was asked what users could do to help the company. His response: "Upgrade that Mac.' Jobs also used the forum to solicit customer feedback. "We're reading every single e-mail," he said. "Tell us what's wrong."

When asked whether he might decide to occupy the position of Apple CEO permanently, Jobs said he would consider it during an upcoming Hawaiian vacation.

Attendees leaving the event said they found his message reassuring. "Jobs is the best thing that's happened to Apple in the past 10 years," said David Jaworski, president and CEO of Provident Ventures Interactive Inc. of Bellevue, Wash. "I hope he takes the CEO spot permanently."

Jobs wows Macromedia conference crowd - ZDNet