CHANNEL THEIR INNER ZEN 91
contains his actual words, and the column on the right contains
the text on the accompanying slides.^13
In four slides, Jobs’s presentation contained fewer words by
far than what most other presenters cram onto one slide alone.
Cognitive researchers like John Medina at the University of
Washington have discovered that the average PowerPoint slide
contains forty words. Jobs’s first four slides have a grand total
of seven words, three numbers, one date, and no bullet points.
Let’s Rock
On September 9, 2008, Jobs revealed new features for the iTunes
music store and released new iPod models for the holiday season.
Prior to the event—dubbed “Let’s Rock”—observers speculated
TABLE 8.1 EXCERPTS FROM JOBS’S MACWORLD 2008 KEYNOTE
STEVE’S WORDS STEVE’S SLIDES
”I just want to take a moment and look back to
- Two thousand seven was an extraordinary
year for Apple. Some incredible new products: the
amazing new iMac, the awesome new iPods, and
of course the revolutionary iPhone. On top of that,
Leopard and all of the other great software we
shipped in 2007.”
2007“It was an extraordinary year for Apple, and I want
to just take a moment to say thank you. We have
had tremendous support by all of our customers,
and we really, really appreciate it. So, thank you
for an extraordinary 2007.”
Thank you.“I’ve got four things I’d like to talk to you about
today, so let’s get started. The first one is
Leopard.”
1“I’m thrilled to report that we have delivered over
five million copies of Leopard in the first ninety
days. Unbelievable. It’s the most successful release
of Mac OS X ever.”
5,000,000 copies
delivered in first 3
months