Steve Jobs introduces the "Digital Hub" strategy at Macworld 2001

On January 9, 2001, Steve Jobs gave one of his greatest Macworld keynote presentations. The main topics included the original version of Mac OS X, the original SuperDrive and the original widescreen PowerBook G4.

But perhaps the most profound was the introduction of the "Digital Hub" concept in which the Mac would evolve into becoming the center of the digital lifestyle of the 21st century. It has been the subject of much discussion by Steve and his substitutes when talking about the Mac ever since. This definitely the beginning of something huge.

iMovie had already been around since 1999 and Steve introduced the original versions of iTunes and iDVD at this keynote. Interesting to note that in the second part of this video Steve refers to iTunes as "iMusic" - perhaps a code name during production?

It's amazing that as soon as Steve started on this topic everyone was spellbound and there was no applause from the audience for a good 11-12 minutes, quite possibly the longest gap between applauses in Stevenote history.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Steve
• Jobs
• Apple
• Computer
• Inc.
• 2001
• Macworld
• San
• Francisco
• Moscone
• West
• Center
• iTunes
• iMovie
• iDVD
• iPhoto
• GarageBand
• iWeb
• Digital
• Hub
• Mac
• OS

[mariusmyk]

I must say, Mr. Jobs was amazingly precise in his prediction!

[zenopopovici]

Marker Felt ... no Comic Sans

[ariw2003net]

@alexzz1234 Kinda true. I think really what happened was that Apple won the digital lifestyle market and is moving on to newer markets. iCloud is pretty unrelated to the strategy Jobs describes in this video - but, of course, they still make and support products like iMovie, GarageBand, etc.

Really what sparked the change is that like Jobs said, at the time, the PC wasn't dying. Now it is, and Apple is at the forefront of the post-PC era.

[alexzz1234]

I can't believe 10 years later he discarded this strategy for the iCloud strategy (which is a lot easier)

[shnunk1]

"they don't have enough horsepower."

Say that to a 1.0 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM cellphone.

[MCGeest]

Hmm this wasn't very Nostradamus actually. Of course the PC wasn't dying but anyone who said that was a bit of an idiot frankly. And yes I remember 2001.

But frankly the last 10 years the PC has not been defined by the hub but by the web just like the 5 years before. Looking at this, this was probably more of an Apple strategy (unique strength, in being a holistic company) with a bit of wishful thinking that accidentally also struck them absolute gold (Ipod).

[pabloww]

This man knew exactly what he was talking about

RIP Steve =/

[rkukentertainment]

2011 I'm thinking 'is the PC waining'

[CheeseLoverBob]

1:22 - the first monkey is really cute