Did Steve Jobs deliver ?

We had a big row - or rather a reasoned debate - in our morning
editorial meeting about whether Apple deserves quite as much coverage
as it gets. A leading economics journalist pointed out that the Ford
Focus is a much bigger seller than the iPhone - but gets much less
coverage. I felt the Focus was just a car – while the iPhone
heralded major change in a whole industry

Did Steve Jobs deliver?

But we all agreed that Steve Jobs would have to come up with
something pretty special to justify news of his keynote spreading from
our web journalism to mainstream TV and radio bulletins.

So Darren and I trooped into the venue where journalists from across
Europe were watching the relay from San Francisco and assessed each
Jobs announcement for real news value as it happened.

First new product is Time Capsule – a wireless storage device
– designed to be a companion to Time Machine, the Leopard feature
which allows painless back-up of your data. Nice but not newsworthy.

So news value: 2/10

Then there is iPhone news - 4 million sold in 90 days. Pretty good,
and makes the target of 10m sales by end of 2008 look very achievable.
A few software updates for the phone, including the ability to locate
yourself in Google maps and customise your home screen. And, at last,
you’ll be able to send an SMS to more than one person at a time.
Ipod Touch will also get new features, including Mail – but
existing users will have to pay for upgrade. Again, cute stuff for
existing users, but not a breakthrough for anyone else.

News value: 3/10

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