Steve Jobs introduces the “Digital Hub” strategy at Macworld 2001


On January 9, 2001, Steve Jobs gave one of his greatest Macworld keynote presentations. The main topics included the original version of Mac OS X, the original SuperDrive and the original widescreen PowerBook G4. But perhaps the most profound was the introduction of the “Digital Hub” concept in which the Mac would evolve into becoming the center of the digital lifestyle of the 21st century. It has been the subject of much discussion by Steve and his substitutes when talking about the Mac …

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22 Responses to “Steve Jobs introduces the “Digital Hub” strategy at Macworld 2001”

  • lardrat says:

    That will disappear, as said. I haven’t synced my iPhone for months and do access iTunes directly. But I repeat myself.

  • wesscoast says:

    but what do I sync my iPod touch to. yea. the computer. I buy stuff on iTunes and its stored on the computer. Everything else stems from that home base. Only in the AppleTV case do you ‘not need’ a computer, but really the AppleTV is the computer, it has its own storage, input and connectivity tech.

  • lardrat says:

    No, Jobs describes pretty much exactly what the Apple ecosystem is. The only thing that isn’t so up to date is that the ‘hub’ idea for the main computer is disappearing, and only because the devices (e.g. iPhone, Apple TV) are more powerful and better connected now than anyone was imagining back then.

  • konradgarus says:

    Wrong, wrong, wrong.

    The speech is great, nonetheless Steve was wrong. Digital lifestyle? Yes, but completely different from how he saw it.

    Today is not about using multiple devices and PC as a hub. It’s all about *accessibility* and even sacrificing other value for accessibility (”The good enough revolution”).

    An companies are actually working hard *against* the hub idea. Think about DRM banning you from copying your digital collection, for example.

  • russelljackwebdesign says:

    hard to believe this concept was revolutionary 8 years ago

  • zenopopovici says:

    Marker Felt … no Comic Sans

  • krabunk says:

    Is that comic sans? Ugggh…

  • enricorpg says:

    Steve, you are a genius!

  • booc0mtaco says:

    Jobs, 2001 “And the glue that’s gonna make all this happen, are the applications”

    2009 – There’s an app for that, only on the iPhone

  • LeviFig says:

    The current growth and success of Apple in the last 10 years is a product of this clear and accurate vision of where things were headed. Apple really got their bet to start paying off, and I’m happy for that. The world can use more people enjoying their computers and their user interfaces. Apple has made computers not only a hub, but a tool that you don’t need to dread but actually enjoy using.

    Kudos to Steve Jobs and Apple. Good job… :>

  • LeviFig says:

    Very Apple, actually… It’s Marker Felt! :)

  • mxcl says:

    Distinctly un-Apple font in use there.

  • drygnfyre says:

    He was. I don’t think the “digital lifestyle” played out exactly the way he envisioned, but certainly the PC has become more important than ever before, with the Internet, e-mail, social networking, etc.

    There have been many instances in the past where Jobs has been remarkably accurate at predicting where computers will take us in the future.

  • mariusmyk says:

    I must say, Mr. Jobs was amazingly precise in his prediction!

  • Adam77724 says:

    I think this was back when the word “PC” encompassed all personal computers (both Mac and Windows machines), before the term became synonymous with Windows-based machines.

  • storeflack says:

    look how crapy those things look today to think that was just in 2001

  • AndrewsAwesome says:

    Apple were right and now almost every camera is digital

  • AndrewsAwesome says:

    HE WAS SOO RIGHT! Apple were so right

  • bradykroeker999 says:

    How right was he.
    HE WAS SPOT ON!!!!

  • davedotproductions says:

    …heck, he even thought of the whole “YouTube” idea first!

  • davedotproductions says:

    this is proof that the iPhone has been in Steve’s head since the very beginning… go to 3:05 in this video!

  • ocbeach11 says:

    awesome! let me be the first to comment this one! are they even talking about pc, as in windows????

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