Stevenote is a colloquial term for keynote speeches given by Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, at events such as the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Macworld Expo, and Apple Expo. Because most Apple product releases were first shown to the public at these keynotes, "Stevenotes" caused substantial swings in Apple's stock price.
The final Stevenote was delivered on June 6, 2011, when iCloud (Apple's cloud computing service) was announced. OS X Lion and iOS 5 were also announced on the same day. It was one of Jobs' last public appearances before his resignation as CEO on August 24 and death on October 5 of that year.
History
In late 1996, Apple purchased NeXT, and Jobs returned to Apple after an 11-year hiatus following his forced resignation from the company in 1985. In mid-1997, he delivered a keynote address, with a detailed report on the company's status, featuring a satellite appearance by Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Jobs announced a partnership with Microsoft with several key agreements which, according to him, would benefit Apple and allow it to recover from the prolonged decline of the early and mid-1990s. Two major announcements were made during the keynote: the next release of Microsoft Office (Office 98) would be developed for the Macintosh, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer would be the default web browser on Macintosh computers. Despite heckling from the audience, Jobs explained why the partnership was favorable to Apple:
Jobs later gave keynote addresses at trade expositions and conferences at least once a year, in which he announced updates to Apple products or demonstrated new products and services. Nearly every product upgrade or announcement in the next 13 years was made during a Stevenote. Among products so-announced were the original iMac all-in-one desktop computer in 1998, the clamshell iBook in 1999, the Mac OS X operating system in 2000, the iPod music player in 2001, the iPhone smartphone in 2007, and the iPad tablet in 2010.
Format
Stevenote addresses have usually been given at major trade expos. In the past, these have included the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco and Boston, and the Apple Expo in Paris. However, Apple has stopped exhibiting at both expos. After 2010, the Worldwide Developer's Conference, organized and held by Apple itself at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, was the only major conference at which Apple exhibited and at which Jobs delivered a keynote address. In recent years, Jobs gave his Stevenotes in an auditorium at Apple's corporate campus. These Stevenotes, in contrast to those presented at the large trade fairs attended by Apple in the past, were by invitation only and were attended only by a relatively small number of journalists, employees, and guests, and were called "special events" rather than keynotes. Similar Stevenotes have also been held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts like those for the introduction of the iPad in 2010 and Apple's "Rock and Roll" iPod event in 2009.
Jobs was known for donning the same uniform in nearly every keynote since 1998. His outfit usually consisted of a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck by Issey Miyake, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.