Steve Jobs was famous for the speeches he gave introducing new products.
In fact, I’d say that if there was a single moment that captured his transformation from mere mortal to legend, it’s the moment when he first introduced the world to the Macintosh.
He pulled the machine out of a zippered bag, turned it on, and instead of the familiar monochromatic command prompt (pictured below), the computer seemed to come to life in a montage of graphics and applications.
It was the first mainstream demonstration of the graphical user interface: an operating system and applications suite that could be used by anybody, with no training or background in computers.
It would become the prototype on which every major operating system since would be modeled. The significance of the event could not be overstated, nor could it be contained.
Everyone in the auditorium knew that the world would never be the same after that moment.
But the show wasn’t over.
With the crowd already in a frenzy, Steve pulled the ultimate career-making rabbit out of his hat when his creation spoke for itself, literally, in a synthesized voice.
An entire generation still remembers those first words:
“Hello I am Macintosh, and boy is it great to get out of that bag.”
After a few more words from this living machine, the camera panned back up to its creator, who didn’t say another word for the next minute.
He didn’t say anything because he couldn’t. The noise from the crowd was far too much. And even if he could speak, there was nothing left to be said.
The camera simply stayed on 29-year-old Steve, periodically cutting to the crowd, then back to him, as he smiled and took in the adulation, absorbing it to morph into something more than just human.
The blurry image below captures that exact moment.
It still gives me chills watching that 32-year-old footage. You can’t stage that sort of thing.
Abe Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt Could Have Taken Lessons From This Guy
If you’re Steve Jobs, however, you can repeat it. And that’s exactly what he did 23 years after the birth of the Macintosh, when he introduced the iPhone at the 2007 Macworld convention.
He started that speech with the following sentences:
In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry.
In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry.
Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class.
The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.
Now, for a man who can’t so much as hiccup without a thousand people giving him a standing ovation, this was already a pretty momentous announcement.
So when he repeated the list of three revolutionary new products, the applause just continued.
An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator.
And then he repeated it again, with the applause dying down a bit.
And then finally, he started to repeat it again… only now, with the help of the graphics on the screen behind him, people were starting to get it.
On the final repetition, he only got through two of the three items when the crowd, like a single, massive organism, caught on.
It wasn’t three new devices. It was just one. The iPhone.
Stay on top of the hottest investment ideas before they hit Wall Street. Sign up for the Wealth Daily newsletter below. You’ll also get our free three part report, “After Apple: The Next Big Thing in Consumer Electronics“.
Evolution is Constant and Ongoing. Revolution Happens in an Instant.
It was probably the best product introduction I’d ever seen in my life, including his own first, career-making speech 23 years prior.
Just like the Macintosh, the iPhone changed the cell phone industry. Suddenly, everything else was obsolete.
Blackberry quickly faded, the flip phone went the way of the dodo, and every major cell phone producer in the world scrambled to emulate this new benchmark.
Before, people texted, called, and sometimes checked email. The cell phone was an accessory.
After, with the emergence of the smartphone app market, people were simply never out of touch.
Today, we almost don’t notice the effects that our iPhones or iPhone-inspired smartphones have on the world. They’re too integrated into our lives for us to make a clear distinction anymore.
They’re more like extensions of our bodies than “devices.”
That’s how massive of an impact the iPhone helped make.
We’re Due for the Next Big Thing… But Where is It?
Since that quantum leap, however, progress has done what progress usually does after a major breakthrough: it’s stagnated.
In the eight and a half years since the first iPhone, they’ve gotten faster, smarter, capable of storing far more data, and capable of taking far better pictures and videos.
But that quantum leap moment — the kind we witnessed when the Mac was born and again 23 years later when the iPhone came around — that’s been eluding us.
Incremental changes like better cameras or higher storage capacity don’t disrupt industries. They merely keep sales going as consumers are compulsively driven to have the latest model.
Every year we get an improved iPhone. Every two years, the design is overhauled entirely. Same as the flip phones of the early 2000s, everything is steadily evolving.
So where is this extinction-level event that will turn today’s smartphone into tomorrow’s Nokia?
Well, as a few industry insiders know, that product is already here.
And if you thought that the transition from flip phone to iPhone was a big deal, just wait until you see what the next generation will bring.
This technology won’t just change the form of personal communication; it will change the experience altogether.
And yes, a few years from now, we’ll all be looking back at our current iPhones and Samsungs and wondering… How did I ever survive with such a primitive, limited device?
Steve Jobs isn’t around anymore to be making his famous keynote addresses… However, the technology I’m talking about is already well on the way to widespread commercialization.
My colleague, Jason Stutman, has been following the development of this revolutionary new consumer tech and has recently published the most detailed report on this innovation and on the markets it’s going to drive in the years to come.
It’s a fascinating advancement that will leave you inspired to wonder and imagine how society will evolve around it.
Fortune favors the bold,
Alex Koyfman
Check us out on YouTube!His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Energy and Capital. To learn more about Alex, click here.
