Jobs At Macworld: Apple Driving Digital Lifestyle

In a keynote speech on Wednesday at the Macworld New York expo here, Jobs officially took the wraps off Mac OS X 10.2, code-named Jaguar, the second major upgrade of Apple's Unix-based operating system.

Jobs spotlighted the platform's new features and applications, including QuickTime 6, an MPEG 4-based streaming media app; Sherlock 3, a revamped version of Apple's desktop/Web search engine; Rendezvous, a new networking technology; Inkwell, a handwriting recognition technology; iCal, a new calendar app; iTunes 3, an upgrade of Apple's iTunes audio/CD burning software; and iSync, a new tool designed to synchronize data between Macintosh computers and mobile devices.

He also unveiled .Mac, a new Apple Web services platform that succeeds iTools, plus a new iMac G4 desktop with a 17-inch flat-panel display and new models of the iPod digital music player, including versions for Windows users.

"We believe that the personal computer is undergoing a rapid evolution to become the center of our digital lives," Jobs said. "We see the brightest future ever for the personal computer."

For Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, a key to that future is transitioning Mac users to OS X, which was introduced in March 2001.

"There have been some questions about [the progress of the transition to Mac OS X," Jobs said. One of those questions came in a Wall Street Journal article published Monday. The Journal story quoted Kevin Browne, the head of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, saying that Apple has lagged in pushing users to OS X and that, as a result, sales of Microsoft's Office v. X productivity suite have suffered and that Microsoft might have to rethink its Mac Office business if sales don't pick up.

Jobs, however, said OS X adoption is starting to hit its stride. Over the past year, the number of active OS X users has soared from 500,000 to 2.5 million, he said, adding that 77 percent of Mac users choose to keep OS X as their primary OS in the platform's dual-boot option, which lets users boot up from OS X or OS 9.

"We think we're going to double that number to 5 million active users [of OS X by the end of the year," Job said. Such a gain would represent 20 percent of Apple's installed base, he said. "That's the fastest OS transition that we know of," he said.

Jaguar, slated to ship Aug. 24 at a retail price of $129, stands to speed up OS X adoption by bringing more than 150 new features and apps, Jobs said. Key additions and enhancements include a new Mail app designed to eliminate junk mail; a new Address Book that lets users enter information once and access it from other apps; iChat, a messaging app compatible with AOL Instant Messenger; and Inkwell handwriting recognition technology, which is fully integrated into the text system and can be used with an input tablet.

Also new to the Bluetooth-ready OS are QuickTime 6, which supports the new MPEG 4 streaming media standard; Sherlock 3, a search tool that Apple rebuilt to give users personalized views and access to information over the Web; Rendezvous, a home networking technology that allows users to link computers and devices instantly without any configuration; Quartz Extreme, a stronger graphics engine; and an improved Finder, with spring-loaded folders and a new quick-search function in the toolbar.

A server version of Jaguar, Mac OS X Server 10.2, also is due to ship Aug. 24. A 10-client edition is priced at $499, and an unlimited-client edition costs $999.

"Apple has become the No. 1 supplier of Unix in the world--bigger than Sun and bigger than Linux," Jobs said. "We think we have the best, most advanced version of Unix out there."

Jobs was particularly bullish about Apple's Rendezvous technology and iSync product. Rendezvous automatically "discovers" other apps and devices over an IP-based network--via Ethernet, AirPort, FireWire, USB and Bluetooth connections--with zero configuration, enabling users, for example, to quickly share data with handheld devices and link to a network printer.

"We think this technology is going to be big," Jobs said, adding that Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Lexmark are working to integrate Rendezvous into their products.

ISync, slated to be available in September as a free download, is designed to synchronize address book, calendar and other information between Macs, Bluetooth-enabled GPRS cell phones, PalmOS devices and iPods--helping users keep their data up to date over multiple devices. "We think it's the beginning of something really big. We call it 'Mac to Mobile,' " Jobs said. Apple is working with mobile players Cingular Wireless and Sony Ericsson to craft "Mac to Mobile" solutions using their products.

"Wireless is not just about voice anymore," said Cingular Wireless CEO Stephen Carter, whom Jobs invited on stage along with Sony Ericsson President Katsumi Ihara.

Along the same lines, Jobs also said Apple's iTools will no longer just be a set of handy computer tools. The company is replacing iTools with .Mac, a new suite of Internet services that includes Mac.com e-mail (with IMAP, POP or Web-based access); the iDisk personal online storage tool, expanded to 100 Mbytes; HomePage, Apple's personal Web page tool; McAfee's Virex antivirus software; and Backup, a personal backup solution that lets users archive data to their iDisk, a CD or a DVD.

Jobs said .Mac, available now, launches Apple into the Web services realm, following in the footsteps of Microsoft's .Net platform. But Apple also plans to begin charging users for its Web services, a departure from the free iTools offering.

Current iTools users will be shifted to .Mac accounts during a free trial period that ends Sept. 30. After that, they'll get an introductory offer of $49.95 for the first year for .Mac services. The standard subscription for .Mac services will be $99.95 per year.

ICal and iTunes 3 both are being offered as free downloads. The iCal calendar software, due out in September, allows users to share information and automatically update their schedules over the Web. ITunes 3, available now, includes new features such as Smart Playlists, which lets users set rules to automate the creation of music playlists, and Sound Check, for more consistent volume playback.

Answering customer demand for a larger screen, Apple plans to release a new top-end iMac G4 with a 17-inch flat-panel display, up from the original model's 15-inch screen, Jobs said. Priced at $1,999, the new iMac has an 800MHz G4 processor, an 80-Gbyte hard drive, 256 Mbytes of SDRAM, a SuperDrive DVD-R/CD-RW optical drive and an Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 32 Mbytes of DDR memory. Jobs said the new iMac's screen has a cinematic-style wide aspect ratio (16:10) and a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels, 64 percent more pixels than the original iMac G4's screen. To further bolster the iMac G4 line, Apple lowered the price of the original SuperDrive-equipped model--which accounted for half of iMac G4 sales--by $100 to $1,799, he said.

Apple also is expanding its popular iPod line and lowering prices by $100 in response to customer feedback, Jobs said. A new 10-Gbyte model, now $399, is 10 percent thinner (18 mm) and features a solid-state touch scroll wheel, as does a new 20-Gbyte model, which is priced at $499 and can hold 4,000 songs. New iPod software features include improved synchronization with iTunes, Smart Playlists, Sound Check and personal information manager functions such as contact lists, calendars and a clock. The original 5-Gbyte iPod is now priced at $299, down from $399.

And after a deluge of complaints from consumers and industry analysts, Apple is now offering all three of its iPod models for Microsoft Windows users, a move that Jobs said could get PC users' feet wet on the Mac platform. The new Mac iPod models are slated to ship in early August, and the Windows iPods are scheduled to be released in late August, he said.

The spate of new products will help fuel Apple's "Switchers" ad blitz that began last month, Jobs said. The campaign, which features print ads and radio/TV spots of PC users who have switched to Macs, has drawn 1.7 million visitors to Apple's "Switch" Web site (apple.com/switch), and 60 percent of those visitors are Windows users, he said.

"Our research shows us that there are a lot of people who use Windows but who want to shift to the Mac," Jobs said.