April 15, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on January 9, 2007, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs—already a legendary pitchman—put on what many consider the best business presentation in corporate history. Jobs unveiled a new product that would cement Apple’s comeback.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. And to search
for the American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, a story
about an American product that was released not so long ago.
One You might be listening to this show on right now. Well,
(00:32):
this product, it changed the world, It changed everything. Let's
take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
On January ninth, two thousand and seven, Apple co founder
Steve jobs, already a legendary pitchman, put on what many
considered the best business presentation in corporate history. Here's technology
commentator Charlie Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Steve Jobes was a masta at tasing new technology to people.
And everyone turned up to Macworld thinking they were seeing
a new iPod or a new Mac. He was showing
them something vastly different, something new, and something that was
going to change the world. And he did it like
the master that he was.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
This is a day I've been looking forward to for
two and a half years.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
At the Macworld conference in San Francisco, Jobs built up
the narrative before he even mentioned a new product.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along
that changes everything. Nineteen eighty four, we introduced the Macintosh.
It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry.
(01:59):
In two thousand and one, we introduced the first iPod,
and it didn't just change the way we all listen
to music, it changed the entire music industry.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, today.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're introducing three revolutionary products of this class.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Jobs was famous for adding one more thing at the
end of his keynotes. In his two thousand and seven
iPhone presentation, he put the twist at the beginning. The
following excerpt is the most viewed and maybe the most
memorable part of the iPhone presentation.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
The first one.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Is a widescreen iPod with touch controls, the second.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Is a revolutionary Mulbifi, and the third.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Is a breakthrough Internet communications device.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
So three things, an iPod, a.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Phone, and an Internet communicator, an iPod a phone.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Are you getting it?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
These are not three separate devices. This is one device
and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going
to reinvent the phone.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Every great story has a villain or a conflict in
need of a resolution. In the two thousands, have an
iPhone keynote, Job showed several competing smartphones and pointed out
their weaknesses, and then showed how the iPhone solved all
their issues.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Now here's for smartphones, right, Motorola Queue, the BlackBerry, Palm, Treo,
no Kee sixty two, the usual suspects, And the problem
with them is really sort of in the bottom forty there.
They all have these keyboards that are there whether you
need them or not to be there. And they all
have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and
(04:34):
are the same for every application. Well, every application wants
a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of
buttons just for it. And what happens if you think
of a great idea six months from now. You can't
run around and add a button to these things. They're
already shipped. Well, how do you solve this?
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Hmm?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It turns out we have solved it. We solved it
in computers twenty years ago. We solved it with a
bit map screen that could display anything we want, put
any user interface up, and a pointing device. We solved
it with the mouse. Right, we solve this problem. So
how are we gonna take this to a mobile device. Well,
(05:15):
what we're gonna do is get rid of all these
buttons and just make.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
A giant screen. A giant screen Now, how are we
gonna communicate this?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
We don't want to carry around a mouse, right, so
what are we gonna do?
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Oh, a stylus? Right, We're gonna use a stylus.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Now, who wants a stylus?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
You have to get them and put them away and
you lose them. Yuck.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Nobody wants a stylus. So let's not use a stylus.
We're gonna use the best pointing device in the world.
We're gonna use a pointing device that we're all born with.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
We're born with ten of them. We're gonna use our fingers.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It's easy to forget how funny jobs could be. On stage.
His iPhone launch present elicited a laugh from the audience
fifty one times. Here's one of those times. During the
iPhone maps, pitch Starbucks.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I'm gonna search for Starbucks, and sure enough, there's all
the Starbucks. Now I can get a list of Starbucks here,
so I can pick that one if I want, And
I can even go look at that Starbucks and there
it is, and let's give them a call.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Good morning you.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yes, I'd like to order four thousand lattes to go
please now, just kidding, wrong number.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Thank you bye bye.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Okay, Today we look back and it all looks so easy.
But the launch of one of the best selling products
of all time was expected by many to go disastrously
wrong and take Apple's fortunes along with it. Here's iPhone
co creator Andy Grignan.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Every single time he touched the screen, We're waiting for
the music to stop playing. We're waiting for the browser
to just go white. I mean, there's all sorts of
things that we knew could happen.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I've got playlists here, I can go into my playlist.
I've got artists, I've got songs.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
The stress level is through the roof. You've never seen
behind stage a more angsty, miserable group of people.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Job's team is stressed for good reason. Up until this point,
the iPhone had never made it without a glitch through
all the trial tests, in practice presentations.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
We had a very careful path, it's called the Golden
path that Steve had to follow. We had to do
exactly these things and exactly this order, and if he didn't,
it could crash.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What the audience didn't know was to avoid these crashes.
There are several iPhones and jobs as lectern with jobs
discreetly switching between them. It would take a magician to
figure out how he did it. Here's magician Pendelet.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
He was doing switches.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
He would switch one iPhone for the other so we
could show off different apps when they actually could change.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But even with the multiple hidden iPhones, Andy Grignon and
his team of engineers who watched backstage expected the worst.
Grignon came prepared especially for that grand finale crank call
to Starbucks.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I could play with this for a long time.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
I just anticipated all this going wrong, so I might drive.
I brought with me a bottle of Scotch. And what
we decided to do is every one of us who
was responsible for a certain part of the demo, whether
it was playing some music, showing the maps, oh, every
responsible that part would take a shot. The problem was
I'd been involved for all of them. By the time
Steve does the big finale, I'm completely wasted. He's got
(08:52):
at this point, maps going, there's pause, music, all the
software is lit up on this phone.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So I'm going to search for Starbucks, and sure enough
there's all the Starbucks.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Things could go just absolutely sign.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And I can even go look at that Starbucks and
there it is, and let's give them a call.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Maybe the whole thing was just going to just go
black and then restart. We didn't know. It was the
first time any of us as a group saw just
a perfect demn. I mean, we'd never seen the whole
thing go off without a hedge.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Five months after Steve Jobs presentation, as customers waited in
line for days, the iPhone hit the shelves in the
United States. The device is still Apple's most important product
in their arsenal of cultural and technological must have items.
Today's app economy is bigger than Hollywood, and WhatsApp, Snapchat,
(09:45):
uber Tender and more are essential parts of modern culture,
collectively used by hundreds of millions of people every day.
But before the iPhone, none of that existed.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
And great work as O, and thanks to the folks
at Hillsdale College who, by the way, teach things like
the fact that intellectual property rights, well they're in the
Constitution and they're in Article one, and this innovation is
not possible without that, and what free enterprise does for
the world and for human progress. By the way, that
clapping you kept hearing that was not your typical corporate
(10:20):
meeting and corporate launch.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Was it, folks, On this day in history in two
thousand and seven, the iPhone is launched and change the world.
This is our American stories.
And we continue with our American Stories. And to search
for the American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, a story
about an American product that was released not so long ago.
One You might be listening to this show on right now. Well,
(00:32):
this product, it changed the world, It changed everything. Let's
take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
On January ninth, two thousand and seven, Apple co founder
Steve jobs, already a legendary pitchman, put on what many
considered the best business presentation in corporate history. Here's technology
commentator Charlie Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Steve Jobes was a masta at tasing new technology to people.
And everyone turned up to Macworld thinking they were seeing
a new iPod or a new Mac. He was showing
them something vastly different, something new, and something that was
going to change the world. And he did it like
the master that he was.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
This is a day I've been looking forward to for
two and a half years.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
At the Macworld conference in San Francisco, Jobs built up
the narrative before he even mentioned a new product.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along
that changes everything. Nineteen eighty four, we introduced the Macintosh.
It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry.
(01:59):
In two thousand and one, we introduced the first iPod,
and it didn't just change the way we all listen
to music, it changed the entire music industry.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, today.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're introducing three revolutionary products of this class.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Jobs was famous for adding one more thing at the
end of his keynotes. In his two thousand and seven
iPhone presentation, he put the twist at the beginning. The
following excerpt is the most viewed and maybe the most
memorable part of the iPhone presentation.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
The first one.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Is a widescreen iPod with touch controls, the second.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Is a revolutionary Mulbifi, and the third.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Is a breakthrough Internet communications device.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
So three things, an iPod, a.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Phone, and an Internet communicator, an iPod a phone.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Are you getting it?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
These are not three separate devices. This is one device
and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going
to reinvent the phone.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Every great story has a villain or a conflict in
need of a resolution. In the two thousands, have an
iPhone keynote, Job showed several competing smartphones and pointed out
their weaknesses, and then showed how the iPhone solved all
their issues.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Now here's for smartphones, right, Motorola Queue, the BlackBerry, Palm, Treo,
no Kee sixty two, the usual suspects, And the problem
with them is really sort of in the bottom forty there.
They all have these keyboards that are there whether you
need them or not to be there. And they all
have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and
(04:34):
are the same for every application. Well, every application wants
a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of
buttons just for it. And what happens if you think
of a great idea six months from now. You can't
run around and add a button to these things. They're
already shipped. Well, how do you solve this?
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Hmm?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It turns out we have solved it. We solved it
in computers twenty years ago. We solved it with a
bit map screen that could display anything we want, put
any user interface up, and a pointing device. We solved
it with the mouse. Right, we solve this problem. So
how are we gonna take this to a mobile device. Well,
(05:15):
what we're gonna do is get rid of all these
buttons and just make.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
A giant screen. A giant screen Now, how are we
gonna communicate this?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
We don't want to carry around a mouse, right, so
what are we gonna do?
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Oh, a stylus? Right, We're gonna use a stylus.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Now, who wants a stylus?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
You have to get them and put them away and
you lose them. Yuck.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Nobody wants a stylus. So let's not use a stylus.
We're gonna use the best pointing device in the world.
We're gonna use a pointing device that we're all born with.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
We're born with ten of them. We're gonna use our fingers.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It's easy to forget how funny jobs could be. On stage.
His iPhone launch present elicited a laugh from the audience
fifty one times. Here's one of those times. During the
iPhone maps, pitch Starbucks.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I'm gonna search for Starbucks, and sure enough, there's all
the Starbucks. Now I can get a list of Starbucks here,
so I can pick that one if I want, And
I can even go look at that Starbucks and there
it is, and let's give them a call.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Good morning you.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yes, I'd like to order four thousand lattes to go
please now, just kidding, wrong number.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Thank you bye bye.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Okay, Today we look back and it all looks so easy.
But the launch of one of the best selling products
of all time was expected by many to go disastrously
wrong and take Apple's fortunes along with it. Here's iPhone
co creator Andy Grignan.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Every single time he touched the screen, We're waiting for
the music to stop playing. We're waiting for the browser
to just go white. I mean, there's all sorts of
things that we knew could happen.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I've got playlists here, I can go into my playlist.
I've got artists, I've got songs.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
The stress level is through the roof. You've never seen
behind stage a more angsty, miserable group of people.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Job's team is stressed for good reason. Up until this point,
the iPhone had never made it without a glitch through
all the trial tests, in practice presentations.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
We had a very careful path, it's called the Golden
path that Steve had to follow. We had to do
exactly these things and exactly this order, and if he didn't,
it could crash.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What the audience didn't know was to avoid these crashes.
There are several iPhones and jobs as lectern with jobs
discreetly switching between them. It would take a magician to
figure out how he did it. Here's magician Pendelet.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
He was doing switches.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
He would switch one iPhone for the other so we
could show off different apps when they actually could change.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But even with the multiple hidden iPhones, Andy Grignon and
his team of engineers who watched backstage expected the worst.
Grignon came prepared especially for that grand finale crank call
to Starbucks.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I could play with this for a long time.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
I just anticipated all this going wrong, so I might drive.
I brought with me a bottle of Scotch. And what
we decided to do is every one of us who
was responsible for a certain part of the demo, whether
it was playing some music, showing the maps, oh, every
responsible that part would take a shot. The problem was
I'd been involved for all of them. By the time
Steve does the big finale, I'm completely wasted. He's got
(08:52):
at this point, maps going, there's pause, music, all the
software is lit up on this phone.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So I'm going to search for Starbucks, and sure enough
there's all the Starbucks.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Things could go just absolutely sign.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And I can even go look at that Starbucks and
there it is, and let's give them a call.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Maybe the whole thing was just going to just go
black and then restart. We didn't know. It was the
first time any of us as a group saw just
a perfect demn. I mean, we'd never seen the whole
thing go off without a hedge.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Five months after Steve Jobs presentation, as customers waited in
line for days, the iPhone hit the shelves in the
United States. The device is still Apple's most important product
in their arsenal of cultural and technological must have items.
Today's app economy is bigger than Hollywood, and WhatsApp, Snapchat,
(09:45):
uber Tender and more are essential parts of modern culture,
collectively used by hundreds of millions of people every day.
But before the iPhone, none of that existed.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
And great work as O, and thanks to the folks
at Hillsdale College who, by the way, teach things like
the fact that intellectual property rights, well they're in the
Constitution and they're in Article one, and this innovation is
not possible without that, and what free enterprise does for
the world and for human progress. By the way, that
clapping you kept hearing that was not your typical corporate
(10:20):
meeting and corporate launch.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Was it, folks, On this day in history in two
thousand and seven, the iPhone is launched and change the world.
This is our American stories.
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