Plenty of highlights emerged from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 keynote presentation. As Philip Schiller, who is in charge of worldwide product marketing, said: “A lot has changed during the last ten years.” He was referring to the debut of Mac OS X in 1999. An entire serial show could be based solely on the Mac OS X Lion’s features. The same can be said of iOS 5.
But the highlight, to me, was revealed by the camera, as it panned across the audience—each intermittent shot serving up a smidgen of human diversity. Many were there because of their jobs. Even so, it looked and sounded like all were there to feel good.
One of my favorite quotes is from urbanist Jane Jacobs who proclaimed, “Design is people.” This is a pattern of Apple’s keynote presentations throughout the years (and proven to be a kind of art therapy for me)—a cinematic showing of audience anticipation and reception to technology designed for them—people’s work, entertainment and ultimately their art.
Image-snips of Apple Special Event, June 6, 2011.