Posted on January 8, 2002 - by deCadmus

It’s The Picture, Stupid

Thumbs-up to TechTV for their coverage of the entire MacWorld keynote [hereafter known as the 2002 Apple Lovefest]. Thumbs-down to TechTV commentator and long-time PC columnist John C. Dvorak for whining afterward about Steve Jobs’ extensive demonstrations of Apple’s new iPhoto technology. I think Dvorak just doesn’t get it…

Steve Jobs has once again fired up his crystal ball, this time tuned not to the hearts and minds of unwilling technology users, but to their wallets. And he’s found something intriguing. Whether that wallet is stuffed with cards of platinum, gold or green, nearly all of them are filled with…wait for it… photos. Photos of children, grandchildren, dogs and cats. Photos of vacations remembered, brides and grooms eternal. Photos of cars, boats, planes and trains… even photos of beautifully prepared cappuccinos.

Introduce a household of technophobes to a personal computer with Internet access and within a week the whole family is emailing photos to friends and family — whether they’re on the other side of town, cross-country or around the world. Despite the fact that web-based photo sites have proved famously unreliable, users have flocked to them in droves, largely because off-line tools for building and hosting photo albums have proved difficult to use.

With a single stroke, Jobs has launched a service that eases import, organization, editing, printing and distribution of digital photos — which paints a very compelling picture for millions currently using a jumble of mis-matched utilities on a PC. Killer app, indeed.

Oh yeah… I understand Apple launched a new iMac, too.