| Why a new version of Keynote will only be announced but not for sale at MacWorld - expect to be blown away | | Date Created: 22 Dec, 2004, 12:10 PM |
 If Keynote is going to receive an upgrade to version 2.0 status any time soon, MacWorld in two weeks is the logical place to demonstrate it.
But it won't be released for sale is my prediction. Nope, it will be released for retail sale around the time or soon after the official release of OS X 10.4 "Tiger", perhaps in March.
Why not at MacWorld?
Well, from all the various discussions about some of the effects used by Steve Jobs in his last couple of Keynotes, whatever app. he employed made fine use of technologies we are expecting to see in Tiger, using Core Data underpinnings - Core Audio and Core Video.
My belief is that the next version of Keynote will go way beyond adding yet more spectacular transitions and effects. There are indeed more effective ways to leapfrog Powerpoint, even in its Office 2004 version.
Moreover, it's not the Apple way merely to add more of the same to a Version 2 upgrade, especially not of a software that is close to Steve Job's heart, in the sense he uses it each time he publicly demonstrates Apple's current status and future wares. Since Keynote was released in 2001, he has used it publicly half a dozen times. Say he spent a couple of months preparing and rehearsing his slide show, that gives a year of intimate contact with Keynote. After all, he was using it before it was a retailed Apple product.
No, given the imminent release of Tiger and how its Core features, as well as Spotlight are expected to be integrated within a number of updated and new applications, I expect Keynote will also benefit. Indeed, if this next version is not backward compatible with pre-Tiger OS X variants, then it may well receive a different name rather than a Version 2 title.
I was going to suggest Keynote Pro, but that would be foolish since its intended use has always been with a professional audience since its Version 1 release. Perhaps just calling it V.2 will suffice, but don't be surprised to hear another title offered.
I've already written of some of the features I'd like to see in a new version, and there has been much speculation in a variety of Keynote discussion groups.
I have a strong belief that Apple will pull no punches with Keynote. Steve Jobs will surely have been appraised of the considerable nagativity surrounding "Powerpoint fatigue", and will want to further differentiate his product from Microsoft's.
Already in version 1, Keynote's look and feel do that. But functionally - timed slides, music within slides, moving objects about within slides - Powerpoint offers more. That is not necessarily a better thing, since Keynote's virtue has always been its simplicity of operation (but too many individual panes - fonts, Inspector, Colour), merged with its impressive aesthetic capabilities.
So, while I do believe we will see more functionality built in to the next version, I suggest we will see more than just a feature set upgrade. This will be a serious upgrade for Apple. Since Keynote's release in 2001, slide show presentations have found their way from boardrooms to gradeschool to Sunday sermon. That's the positive side. The negative side has been well described and Apple will want no part of that. That said, it will want to bring its innovation DNA to slide shows and initiate a paradigm shift.
If you look at the Keynote winners in Apple's recent competition, you will see the beginning of this shift - a cross between a slide show and iMovie presentation. I expect the next version of Keynote will build on that merging, include Motion features, and encourage even more creativity from professional users.
The gap between cookie cutter Powerpoint presentations and professional-looking story telling with Keynote will widen further.
Expect to be blown away by the next version of Keynote.
(Update): I thought more about this after receiving the minutes of a meeting from my professional society who is about to roll-out a beta of a video-confrencing solution for continuing education activities. I'd like to see Keynote integrate with iChatAV so I could share my presentation with my colleagues, such that they could see it live while I talk to the presentation.
Would that be cool or what? |
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