---
title: "Thoughts on Steve Jobs’ Macworld Keynote"
date: 2006-01-11
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# Thoughts on Steve Jobs’ Macworld Keynote

I’m not usually an Apple fanboy, but I decided to check out Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote this year. The webcast was [provided by Apple](https://web.archive.org/web/20090118060153/http://macworld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/mw/index.html) (nb: they force you to download the latest iTunes + Quicktime in order to watch it). Steve wowed us with some big numbers, including impressive iPod figures. Apple sold 14m ipods last quarter, a figure which was met with rapturous applause and wonderment from the Macworld audience. Steve then announced that Apple has sold 42 million ipods in total now – 32m of which were sold in the 2005 calendar year.

The iTunes figures are equally impressive. 850 songs in itunes, 3m downloaded per day, a staggering 83% market share. All of this elicited more rapturous applause from the faithful – and a curious bird-like peep of “wooo!” from Steve. The numbers didn’t stop there. 8m videos (tv shows) sold since their introduction in October 05, baby!

![ipoddrip](https://web.archive.org/web/20090118060153im_/http://static.flickr.com/3/3358647_f20c25572c_m.jpg) Apple fans line up to get their fix from an iPod Drip – [photo by andyi](https://web.archive.org/web/20090118060153/http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyi/3358647/)

The most interesting announcements for me were:

- iLife 06 – described by Steve as a “giant new release”
- Photocasting – “podcasting for photos”. It automatically uploads photo albums from a .mac account. People can subscribe to photo albums, so that whenever there’s a change they download it automatically. It uses “industry standard” rss.
- The new 6th app in the iLife suite is iWeb, which is basically a blogging tool for Apple. iWeb allows Mac users to build a website “in a few minutes” with media from other iLife apps – like photos, podcasts, movies. Steve described it as “rich media to share with all of your family”.

At that point my connection to the webcast went kaput, but once again [Engadget](https://web.archive.org/web/20090118060153/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/10/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-macworld-2006) has all the details – great job at both CES and Macworld, weblogsinc!

While I’m not a Mac user at present (I was last year), it’s obvious to me that Apple is making big strides at making the Mac a powerful and simple media creation tool for everyday people. I’m particularly impressed with the iLife suite, which now includes the blog-like iWeb. I don’t need to remind you how important the read/write, two-way Web is to me, so I must admit I emitted one or two bird-like peeps of “wooo!” myself during Jobs’ presentation.

Also Apple’s ipod/itunes numbers are truly impressive. Apple would love it if the new iLife/iWeb functionality, unveiled at Macworld today, helped them gain similar momentum with PC sales. Wouldn’t that make for an interesting 2006 – if Apple PC sales numbers skyrocketed in the same year that Microsoft releases its new Vista OS?

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/latest_sns_numb.php))*