Steve Jobs' keynote speeches

One of the reasons Steve Jobs has become such an icon in the tech world is his master showmanship. His performances are awaited all around the globe by millions of Apple fans who crave their excitement and surprises. The shows are mainly part of a marketing strategy typical of Apple, since its early days. Yet it was dramatically reinforced since Steve’s return to the company in 1997. These infomercials are inseparable from the cult of secrecy of the company (see Steve at work on that).
Typically, Steve Jobs takes the stage and, after giving information on how the company is doing and what broad directions they are heading to, introduces new products to amazed fans and media. The excitement of the unveiling of new products comes both from their intrinsic greatness and the total surprise — this is why every such keynote speech is preceded by a flow of rumors from all kinds of website and blogs in the Apple community, which are now relayed even in the mainstream media since Apple’s incredible recent growth.
When Steve came back at Apple, he would typically do five to eight such public shows a year (for example he did seven of them in 1999: Macworld San Francisco, Macworld Tokyo, Macworld New York, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Seybold San Francisco, Apple Expo, and a Special Event for iMacs). However, this steady succession of public appearances has changed in recent years. There is now only one show that is semi-open to the public: that’s WWDC, held every summer in San Francisco. It is not open to anybody as you need to be a registered Apple developer and pay a substantial fee to attend. All the public shows are gone: the main one, Macworld San Francisco, which used to be held at Moscone Center every January; Macworld Tokyo, in February; Macworld New York, in July; Seybold (a publishing industry conference), in August; and Apple Expo Paris, in September. Nowadays, Apple usually hosts what it calls “Special Events” that are open only to the media. Steve is in front of smaller audiences, usually always at the same places (the Cupertino De Anza Auditorium, the Cupertino Flint Center for the Performing Arts, the San Francisco Yerba Buena Center, the San Jose Auditorium — or even Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium on the Cupertino campus).
The decline in the frequency of Steve’s public appearances can be attributed to several factors.
First, with the advent of broadband Internet, any show can now be watched online throughout the globe; this was not possible in the late 1990s, and Steve had to move personally to evangelize Apple products for customers and the media all around the country and abroad. This is why many shows used to be very alike (e.g. Macworld SF and Tokyo, only one month apart).
The second reason is the so-called Osborne effect: customers would stop purchasing a month or so before any event, in anticipation of potential new products that would make their purchase obsolete. This was disastrous for business.
Third is the official reason invoked by Apple, namely the incredible showcase provided by its retail stores. The company has over 200 stores worldwide and they are worth 100 Macworlds of visitors every week. They do a much more efficient job at evangelizing Apple products to potential and current customers.

The Reality Distortion Field

The Reality Distortion Field or RDF is a term coined by Apple engineer Burrell Smith to describe Steve’s charisma and his ability to convince you of just about anything. The term was used in the context of working with Steve Jobs (see Steve at work), but is now widely used to describe his charisma in general, especially on stage.
Journalist Alan Deutschman appropriately said of him that “what really gets you is the way he talks — there's something about the rhythm of his speech and the incredible enthusiasm he conveys for whatever it is he's talking about that is just infectious.” This is one of the elements of Steve’s charm, along with his delicate use of humor, a collection of surprise guests, his perfect timing and ability to build up suspense, as well as his own contagious excitement regarding his announcements. Steve’s sister Mona Simpson wrote in her novel A Regular Guy that Steve was "flirting" with his audiences. And one of his long-time friend, alan Kay, said, after watching Jobs unveil the iPhone: "Steve understands desire." And knows how to use it well.
Such keynotes are an integral part of Steve’s job at Apple. He is the company’s ultimate salesman. At NeXT he was even dubbed so because the company seemed able to close deals only after he showed up and personally convinced prospective customers. It is actually at NeXT that Steve brought his art of delivering keynotes to perfection, the way we are used to it now. Some of his traditional tricks he invented there, e.g. his use of a black and white gradient in the slides background, or some typical Steve phrases such as “it just works”.
Former Apple employee Mike Evangelist has written several articles on the subject in his blog, especially The Wizard of Pods - Behind the Curtain with Steve Jobs, in which he shows that Steve’s keynotes are extremely well prepared months in advance. Their genius is that they seem so natural when they are watched — all you can see is Steve’s magical touch. And it is delightful to watch.
One last thing to note about Steve’s public performance, and interviews he gives to journalists, is his use of the pronoun “we”. He will almost never say “I” but in fact, 90% of the time he is using “we”, he means “I”. This was particularly evident when, during an interview at D5, while Steve was telling an anecdote about Apple’s early days, Walt Mossberg asked him “who’s “we”?” Steve replied: “Well, ME!” In Mona Simpson’s novel about her brother, we learn that this habit of his is also true in private conversation.

Some of Steve's typical gestures 

I have gathered in the Movie Theater several movies that will give you a sense of this matter. In the Steve Jobs LIVE!!! section, you will find excerpts from Steve’s performances. In Behind the RDF, you will find a collection of phrases, jokes and tricks that Steve often uses on stage. In the same line of thinking, below are pictures of typical Steve gestures that he often does in public (as well as private) speaking.