Before MacBook Neo, There Was iBook

The opening is almost like the beginning of the music video for U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name". Just about a minute in, we see him getting mic'd up, ready to take the outdoor stage. Not Bono. Steve Jobs.

The year is 1999. There is no black turtle neck, but rather a gray long-sleeve tee. The jeans are ripped in a very 1990s way. The music fades as Jobs walks up, looking a bit tired but healthy. He is just 44 years old.¹

Yes, a new video of Jobs has been unearthed. And yes, it simply must be written about. This is the way.

And it seems like perfect timing for this video to surface given that Apple has just unveiled the MacBook Neo – the first laptop to come in fun colors since the candy-colored iBooks back in the day. This video is that day. The setting is 1 Infinite Loop – Apple's main HQ before the spaceship landed – and it's a breezy day in July 1999. Jobs and a lot of the team has just returned from New York where they used Macworld to unveil the consumer laptop. Notably, the final piece of the puzzle Jobs laid out when he returned two years prior to the company he founded.

Yes, the quadrant was now complete.

Jobs clearly felt great about the unveiling. "Everyone is going nuts – including our competitors," he said to laughs. Again, it sounds a lot like today.

He goes on and on about how "awesome" the iBook is – especially since it had to follow the iMac, an incredibly tough act to follow. And while others had struggled to do consumer portables well because of all the corners that need to be cut in order to make such devices affordable – "you gotta cheese out" – Jobs believed Apple nailed it and seemingly couldn't help but grab one to show it off, just like he would in a normal keynote.

Speaking of, he told the crowd of employees about his favorite moment in his presentation when he was able to walk around with the iBook, surfing the web. As he told it, everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. "And then we told them about AirPort."

It's nearly impossible to think about now, but in 1999, wireless internet was not ubiquitous. So this must have seemed like pure magic. And Jobs describes how they were able to make this work on a consumer device thanks to some technology from Lucent – which Jobs noted that Apple was able to "extract" out of their labs.

The resulting AirPort product was something Jobs was clearly beyond proud of. "It just works." Hearing such praise now, it's especially wild to me that Apple was so quick to kill the product off nearly a decade ago – which I wrote about at the time as their "ErrorPort" moment.

Steve Jobs, famously, didn't like to look back. But he also clearly recognized the moment here, two years after returning to the company, with Apple having just completed that all-important quadrant. "You've completely overhauled Apple," he beams to his employees.

With the iBook in place, completing their original deceptively "simple" plan, Jobs notes that they can now enter a mode where they're turning over those four key products as fast as they can to stay ahead of the competition. The same basic strategy Apple has today, of course. Albeit with a product lineup not quite so simple.

But Apple was a very different company in 1999. This was a couple years before the iPod, so all that mattered was moving Macs. Jobs noted that Apple was selling about 4 to 5 million computers a year. Last year, Apple likely shipped just north of 25 million Macs. And about 75 million iPads. And maybe another 250 million iPhones.

Jobs pulled out a piece of paper to close with "one last thing":

"A lot of people have declared our turnaround officially complete. And you would have to say that’s true. We’ve had seven consecutive profitable quarters. We made $200M last quarter. That’s a lot of money! And we’ve got great products. But, you know, I never looked at it that way. The reason I came here had nothing to do with turning Apple around. Because that’s about the company. And I know we all love this company, but what we love even more is putting these great products out into the world and seeing people use them. And so the reason I came back here. And I’m sure the reason you’re here isn’t to turn Apple around, it’s to make Apple great again. Right? And I think we now have that possibility. We now have that possibility with the work you’ve all done in the last two years. The foundation we have now is really great."

This is a great message delivered in a very Jobsian way: this wasn't about a turnaround, this was about putting great products into the world. The turnaround was a byproduct of that.

Oh and did you catch it? Yes, Steve Jobs may have invented "MAGA" before anyone in Donald Trump's orbit did. Make Apple Great Again.

Jobs went on to note that the real secret to Apple's success is that they're the last company willing to "make the whole widget". And because they don't have to constantly convince endless partners to do the work they believe will make for great products, they have a unique advantage over the Dells and Compaqs of the world. Even yes, Microsoft.

Talking about their wireless breakthroughs, Jobs noted that the PC guys simply couldn't do it even though the technology has been there for the taking. But when Dell or Compaq go to Microsoft to get the software to make it all work, they'll get: "Well, it’s not high volume. We’ve got 38 million things wrong with our software. We’ll put it at the bottom of the list." This drew huge laughs from the audience.

Nothing beats a shot at Apple and Jobs' old foe.

"We can break through those things and bring innovation to customers because we’re the last people in this business that give a shit about making great computers."

Finally, Jobs spoke to focusing on Apple's core markets with creative professionals, consumers, and education. He lamented how Apple has slipped a bit in the latter market and wanted Apple to renew focus. Which seemingly worked for a time, before focus was lost again – only to be regained again now with the MacBook Neo! It all comes back around...

"I happen to know all the things in the pipeline. And I can tell there are so many more great things coming. It’s unbelievable. The products are just unbelievable. The best stuff i’ve ever seen in my life. So I think we’re really gonna be able to rock and roll the next few years."

Indeed, they did.

¹ Holy shit, I realized when doing the math that Jobs in this video is almost the exact same age that I am right now. That's sort of wild to think about... ↩