I rock

It was amazing that we made $24 billion dollars in revenue, and sold 2,164,000 macs during the quarter. The number of iPods we sold was 10,600,000 and we couldn’t be more pleased. The iPhone, our best selling phone sold 1,389,000 units.

I rock

NY Times and Leopard

I did an interview with the New York Times over the phone. It was mainly about how Mac OS X Leopard will be the anchor for our operating system. I just can’t wait to show you how cool Leopard is going to be. I know it’s been a little while since we released Tiger, but it was well worth the wait. Here are a few excerpts:

"The Macintosh has a lot of momentum now," said Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, in a telephone interview last week. "It is outpacing the industry."

"I'm quite pleased with the pace of new operating systems every 12 to 18 months for the foreseeable future," he said. "We've put out major releases on the average of one a year, and it's given us the ability to polish and polish and improve and improve."

At the very least we’re progressive. Microsoft can’t get an operating system out the door in a timely manner if they sold their soul to the devil. Oh, wait, they already did. I’m quite confident that Leopard will help launch Apple and Mac OS X to a higher share of market, and all with be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

More Thoughts on Leopard

I'm getting very excited about the release of Leopard this coming Friday. This will mark the 6th major release of Mac OS X since 2000. I know we have been very Vista-like in our development of Leopard, but it will be well worth the wait. We really needed to get the iPhone out to you as quickly as possible. It was necessary to take developers off of Leopard to work on the iPhone. After all, it isn't like they weren't working on Leopard, the iPhone is Leopard.

I had a meeting the other day where we declaired build 9a581 as the Gold Master. It is a solid build, but we also started talking about the features of 10.6. Already Leopard has become obsolete. Still, I'm very excited. I've been using it for a while, I've seen all the seeds and watched my baby grow to be a healty and robust operating system.

I'll never forget the first time I saw what we now see as OS X. It was so small and fragile. We were astonised by the simple little things like moving a window without that gray square outline, and those cute little buttons, you just wanted to lick them. We'd put it to sleep at night and it always slept through the night. In the morning, it would wake up with that smiley face of a happy Mac. We'd feed it programs and drivers to make it strong. Plus, due to great memory management, it never cried. Just shrugged off all attacks as if they were nothing.

Now OS X is dressing in flashy clothes, reflective dock and transparent menu bar. Plus he's now a time traveler, but we now know he needs his Spaces, we don't want to Expose him to anything which will cause him to take his eyes off the Dashboard. His Core Image is that of being sleek and trendy. He can Dock his pride, and Repair the Permission of his heart.

Okay, this is getting a little hokey. I just want you to enjoy Leopard as much as I enjoyed developing for it.

Unlocked iPhones

I have been giving some thought to the unlocked iPhones we’ have to offer France. In case you were not aware, France has a law which states call phones sold there must have an unlocked version. We made the deal with the cell carrier Orange and we’re really excited about this partnership. I’m a little worried about people trying to purchase unlocked iPhones in France and bringing them back to the United States. Any unlocked iPhones brought back to the United States will only work with the AT&T network.

I’ve been following the hacks posted on the internet to uncouple the iPhone from AT&T, know that any further attempt will render your iPhone useless. We realize you have a choice of carriers, but if you want to use the iPhone you’ll need to use AT&T.

Now I did promise that I would be more informal, and I have been using our marketing statements, this blog is not about marketing, this blog is about letting you know how I really feel and better communicate with the people.

I don’t want to have these restrictions on the iPhone, I see a world where we can use any carrier we want. Apple is bound by contract with AT&T to provide iPhones on their network, and I can’t say we don’t get some commission from AT&T. I want the iPhone to be for everyone, that’s why we released the iPod Touch. Not everybody wants the phone part of the iPhone and Apple understand that.

As I announced recently, Apple will be providing an SDK in February for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I personally recommend you wait for that SDK before trying any other unauthorized hacking. This could leave your iPhone or iPod Touch useless.

iPhone SDK

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

I'm Listening...

Just so you know, these are the podcasts I've started listening to in order to get a new grasp on what people are saying about Apple.

• Your Mac Life
• This Week in Tech
• MacBreak Weekly
• Mac OS Ken
• Diggnation (Alex, you will get a Mac)
• Maccast
• Apple Phone Show (I'm listening Scott)

Don't forget, I'm listening.

Leopard

Okay, so Mac OS X Leopard will be released next week, it's been a long haul but we are confident we are delivering the most advanced operating system on the planet.  Spaces, Time Machine, Core Animation and over 300+ features

Don't forget, buy as many as you can.  Apple wants to position itself as a big player in the Operating System market, but I do have a secret for you...

Leopard will be allowed to install on install on regular PC's.  We want everybody to be able to use Leopard and now the can.  We feel that it is time, while Apple still makes the best hardware in the business we are confident that Leopard will be the most stable and secure operating system on the Intel platform.

I've decided to talk...

Just the other day I released the news that Apple would be releasing an SDK for the iPhone. Before that I publicly justified the actions of Apple cutting the price on the iPhone and offering a $100 credit. I decided to allow myself to be a little more open with everybody.

In recent months I have been watching the blogs and websites which have condoned hacking the iPhone and iPod Touch to allow third-party apps to run on it. My staff and I have decided to oblige our customer base and allow them. Apple has always been innovative and from the podcasts I have listened to and the blogs I have read, it seems as if I am considered some sort of self-important tyrant. I disagree.

I demand perfection from those around me and from myself. I want things to be esthetically pleasing and extremely easy to use. This has been Apple’s focus since the beginning. I want to be informal with my customer base while doing this blog, and I want to ensure that no product information will be presented on this blog until it has been announced. Ever since Microsoft stole our ideas back in the 1980’s I want to keep things secretive. I know I have allowed pre-announcements recently starting with the iTV or AppleTV and recently the announcement of the iPhone SDK coming in February, at this time I do not wish to reveal why.

Just know that Macworld will blow you away in 2008. And I will be watching the blogs and podcasts closely.