MacMost Now 26: MacWorld Expo History

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at past MacWorld Expo keynotes and what important products were announced each year, including the iMac, iPod, the switch to Intel and the iPhone.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.   Well, MacWorld 2008 is almost upon us.  It's a good time to take a look back and see the history of MacWorld, and what's been announced in keynotes in past years.  
The MacWorld Expo started back in 1985.  There'd always been a show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, in the winter.  But there's also been a summer show many years in New York City or Boston, at least until 2005 when it went down to just one show.  All of the different expos featured a keynote speaker, although Steve Jobs didn't start speaking there and doing his famous keynotes until 1998.   Before then there were various different people in the Macintosh community.  The show also featured a crushingly huge expo floor with tons of vendors showing new products for the Mac, and in recent years, also for things like the iPhone and the iPod.  
So in 1998 Steve Jobs had just returned as CEO of Apple and he had a new big product to announce.  The product he announced was the iMac.  And of course this changed everything and started Apple on its upward trend that it's been since then.  
In 1999s keynote, Steve Jobs announced the iBook.  Now laptops have always been a very powerful part of the Macintosh line, and having an iBook to match the iMac was a big step.  
Another big step was in 2000, when Jobs announced Mac Os X.  this was the new operating system that of course changed everything.  That's what we use today.  
In 2001 Jobs made what seemed to be a very unusual announcement.  He announced an mp3 player, something new for Apple.  It's called the iPod, and of course, that changed everything even more.  
Not every year saw a complete revolution in Apple's line.  In 2002, they simply announced an upgrade to the iMacs, a new design, and actually my favorite in all the iMac designs, the iMac G4.
The next year also saw just an incremental change in the product line.  New PowerBooks were announced.  Not only did they have a sleek new aluminum look but they're also 17 inch and 12 inch models.  So now there's a complete line of laptops.

MacMost Now 26: MacWorld Expo History

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