Steven E. Sclarow, AIA

Based on the video assigned and other presentations I have of Steve Jobs, he absolutely is a great presenter. Jobs being known as a great presenter can be attributed to two things – the natural charisma and the way he speaks to the crowd. During the presentation, he takes pauses to let the crowd think. Pausing allows his presentation to really settle into the crowd. Another part is word choice he uses. Using words, such as “revolutionary,” helps Jobs to formulate the exact image he wants of his products into the minds of the audience which elevates the entire presentation. One thing I felt that Jobs could have done better is speed up certain sections to get to his point faster. As he was building suspense, I began to lose interest.
I think the analysis of Steve Jobs’ techniques was very accurate. It completely explained what key things in his presentations makes it so good, from themes and content to body language. Steve Jobs used all of the tools available to him to make sure everyone was in tune to what he was saying and the product itself.

As they mentioned in the analysis of Steve’s presentations, it’s apparent he enjoys his work and is passionate about it, but he’s also extremely intelligent and methodical. He emphasizes specific qualities of each product that’s revealed and constantly engages his audience. It’s hard not to share in the enjoyment and get excited about how innovative technology is becoming. With each release he has a strong focus on how the products differentiate from their competitors. Comparing Steve Job’s presentation to Steve Ballmer’s, I would say he’s more reserved, where Ballmer over exaggerated and was annoyingly loud. If I was to criticize anything about his presentation, even this particular one where he introduces the first Phone, I would say his fashion decision wearing the black turtleneck shirt with blue jeans against a black background, just appears to stand out as unfashionable, this may have distracted audience members from the main topics being covered.

Steve Job is definitely a great presenter; he appears confident and knowledgeable to the audience. However, his meticulous presentation planning, combines with his natural presentation skill, is what creates his ‘reality distortion field’.

At the beginning, he immediately captures the audience attention by saying that this is a ‘revolutionary product’. He then proceeds to build up anticipation for the new product by showing Apple’s revolutionary products track record. Throughout the presentation, he continuously makes the association between ‘revolutionary’ and Apple, thereby reinforcing the fact that Apple is an innovative company.

Throughout his presentation, his use of images also helps tremendously in giving the audience a visible and tangible form of the product concepts. For example, instead of just saying that Apple’s Iphone is ahead of the competition, Steve Job shows the audience a graph of where other phones stand compare to Apple’s. This allows the audience to visually see how far ahead Apple’s Iphone is and make his point more memorable.

The analysis video perfectly points out what makes Steve Job’s presentation great. I will definitely try to incorporate the concepts in the video into my team’s presentation.

Steve Jobs definitely has strong presentation skills and leaves his audience with a lasting impression of himself and the subject of his presentation. However, new disruptive technology is enchanting and draws attention, which I think Steve uses to his advantage. If I were to change something about this specific presentation, I would not repeat myself 3-4 times as he did. I understand this is a technique that is recommended to reiterate to your audience for retention but in this case he used it to be dramatic and it left me wishing he didn’t.
The analysis of Steve’s presentation skills was spot on. One point that stuck out to me, was that he smiles and enjoys himself. Most of us hate presenting and it can come across as awkward or unusual through our body language. Steve looks like he’s enjoying himself, you can feel his energy, and his excitement. His behavior strengthens buy in from the audience for the product he’s presenting on.

I think Steve Jobs was a good presenter. What I noticed was that he had a good awareness of who his audience was. He used humor properly and gave them the information that they were looking for. I also really liked the graphics that he used to show how far ahead of its competitors Apple ‘s IPhone is. The only thing I would have done differently is that at some points in his presentation, things got repetitive. Perhaps he could have gotten to the point of an idea sooner at some parts. The analysis video does a good job of exploring what Steve Jobs does to make his explanations simpler and to bring the idea home for his audience.

After viewing the video in class, it is apparent that Steve Jobs was extremely proud of the work that he and his team developed. Jobs started to emphasis how great the original product was. For example, the video highlights, “Macintosh not only changed Apple but change the whole computer industry”. I believe Steve Jobs used true and strong words when he described his own products and even when he critiqued his competitor’s products. When he explained his own products, Jobs used the line “Sync with Itunes”. Not only is this line simple, but it’s also a strong one liner. Jobs promoted another Apple product within the launch. I think one thing that Jobs could have approved upon during his presentation would be some of the humor points he brought up. I believe some of his intended jokes made the presentation long and somewhat cringy. I believe the analysis of Steve Jobs was very accurate. The video really explained how Jobs used key words to help him with his presentation. Jobs did an excellent job on providing all the information effortlessly.

Obviously Steve Jobs was a great presenter. Not only did his company create revolutionary technology, but his charisma in presenting made people believe that Apple’s products were the real deal. Steve does a great job in his presentations of boiling his points down to the simplest and most powerful words. Instead of giving long-winded explanations and technical descriptions, he uses just a few words to sum up what Apple was offering, and the way he did it so deliberately, methodically, and confidently is what convinced people that what he was saying was true. This is shown in his extremely simple slides with few words and images. The slides help drive home his points, but when listening to him speak, you really do not even need to see the slides. I think the video analyzing Steve’s techniques was very insightful, particularly the point about “Magic Moments.” Steve was able to turn the revealing of a laptop into something incredible and newsworthy around the world. That is what made him and Apple so successful.

This was the first time I saw the iPhone launch and I was blown away by the simplistic but very powerful presentation Steve Jobs delivered. He started off the presentation by listing all of the successful products that Apple has launched within the last couple decades, which too me instilled confidence in the audience members that Apple always puts out stellar products. He then goes over what he’s going to talk about what in the presentation and sprinkled in a little humor, which kept the audience engaged. He added humor throughout the presentation which really lightened up the mood. He added easy to read graphs that wouldn’t confuse anyone who was completely new to a subject. All of these factors combined made Steve Jobs a really good presenter. He kept the audiences engaged, had good posture, used meaningful gestures, maintained eye contact, and his voice/tone was very confident. For me it was a perfect presentation and I am going to watch it over again to see what I can adapt from him to make my presenting skills better.

The skills analysis video was spot on. The one thing that I really took away from this video were the 2 images rule. I see a lot of presentations with pictures all over the place. You want to to use images that will emphasize what you’re trying to get across to the audience. Even in the iPhone launch video he used 3, but it was emphasize that the iPhone had the capability to use all three features in one product. Another point, was to smile! This will let the audience know that you’re enthusiastic about the product!

Absolutely Jobs is an excellent presenter. I watched the video many times in which he introduces the first iPhone. Each time I can enjoy the way he does presentation. Not only is he good at presentation, he is good at marketing, too. He is clearly good at creating suspense and attracting the attention of the audience. Therefore, audiences will get a surprise about what he introduces. Like the analysis of Steve’s presentation techniques says, he is good at making Magic Moments. For example, he use 3 different products to describe iPhone, which make people curious and then get the new idea readly. Although the presentation was hold in 2017, it is still fresh and existing for people who review it.

To me, Steve Jobs was an amazing presenter. This comes from a mix of many things such as his strong knowledge of the product which gives him credibility to his strengths in delivering the message with the occasional humor added in. While he is presenting it is very apparent that he loves his products, he understands his product, and he knows just how to make us want his product. We spoke in class about how he was proud of his product, he even kept one of his own in his pocket and he bragged in a way to say, yes my product was the best in all the best of ways. Many things contributed to Job’s legendary reputation and I believe the ‘Steve Jobs reality distortion field‘ was a real thing that made his end products great. Steves presentation flowed smoothly and in the analysis, it highlighted some of the many great ways he captures the attention of the audience. Steve Jobs was a great man and a great presenter and I believe nobody else could have presented the iPhone as perfect as he did.

Due to my experience in advertising, I admire Steve Job’s ability to embody the best features of a good advert in his presentations. Like a good ad, Steve Job’s iPhone presentation made great use of concise ad copy (text), compartmentalized concepts, strategic placement of images, and concrete comparisons:

Throughout the presentation, he regular engaged in the following sequence: building a background story to create anticipation, releasing it with a strong, powerful statement (“5 years ahead of any other phones”), continuing with a few most illustrative images and descriptors, then reiterating his points by dramatic repetition.

Aside from these techniques, much credit should also be attributed to the team behind the deck for choosing the right information and selecting the right features to emphasize; the presentation would not have been as effective if Steve Job’s script had involved talking about CPU specs.
I agree with the analysis on Steve Job’s style. However, I believe the item “Magic Moments – Put on a show” encapsulates the idea of the style. Every element of the presentation should be orchestrated according to human psychology, and the the best moments have to be planned, theatrically, to produce the desired effects in viewers.

I don’t have any criticism for Steve Jobs’s personal techniques. However, I wish the presentation had been more interactive, which could be done by giving sample phones to the audience or providing videos/animations showing people using the product.

Steve Jobs presentation showed an extreme amount enthusiasm towards the new product. He was proud of his products. The words and expressions he used, such as “amazing” and “revolutionary” and the emotions he showed throughout the presentation highly influence his audiences to be excited for the new product. Steve Jobs was also a great storyteller. From Macintosh to iPod, he introduced as revolutionary products that not only changed how we do things, but changed the entire industry. He used past successful products to built up the reputation and assumption for the new product that he will be introducing. He presentation was informative and entertaining. His slide decks were simply and easy to understand. He used “common” humors here and there to keep his audiences engaged throughout the presentation. Steve Jobs presentation skills and ability definitely make the company products look more magical than it is. There is nothing Steve should have done differently. He is a great influencer just the way he is. The characteristics of Steve’s presentation skills were accurately highlighted in the video. It highlighted Steve’s style of presentation, provided examples, and summarized the techniques Steve used. I think the video will be a great tool for presenters who want to improve their presentation skills.

There’s no doubt that Jobs was an outstanding presenter. I believe his greatest strength as a presenter was to know his audience and tailor his message to them. In the video, he knew he wasn’t talking to a room full of developers, so he avoided using technical jargon and instead explained everything in a way that anyone could understand. He also used humor effectively to keep the audience engaged. It’s difficult to legitimately criticize him considering how successful he was at doing what he did, but if I were in his place, I’d probably avoid the passive aggressive jabs at competitors. It came across as a bit cocky, which can have a polarizing effect on audiences.

I definitely think Steve Jobs was a great presenter, and I don’t think any other parts of his reputation had much to do with it once he got on stage to speak. I don’t think there was much he should have done differently considering how successful he was and considering the fact that whenever we are being taught how to be great presenters, his name and videos of him presenting are always brought up. He is widely known as one of the greatest presenters in the business world, and we watch and analyze videos of his presentation because we are trying to copy his success and greatness, so I think it’s obvious he didn’t need to change anything.

I think the analysis of Steve’s techniques was pretty accurate. For example, one of the techniques was story telling, which is something he did very well and is an important tool to use in presentations because it gets the audience more engaged and makes the presentation way more interesting. Also, using less text in the slides of the presentations is something he did that everyone should follow because just like the video stated, “nobody wants to see lines and lines of boring text”. I think people would rather see a simple line of text and listen to the presenter explain it in more detail. The techniques discussed in the video were definitely some of the most important techniques that helped Steve Jobs have such successful presentations.

Steve Jobs was a phenomenal presenter and there’s no question as to why the iPhone launch is considered the gold standard of business presentation skills. Before I took business communications I would often be one of the individuals who would paste paragraphs of information on my slide. Now when I see something like that I completely zone out and become disinterested when watching Steve Jobs, I got the complete opposite, I couldn’t keep my eyes off what he was presenting even though I have seen this presentation before, he is that captivating. I really enjoyed the second video that broke down what Job’s did well because it allowed you to see with just a few simple tricks your presentation can go from a bore to enthralling. Jobs has a great ability to break things down simply but while also conveying the unbelievable complex capabilities of the technology. Something I also took for granted before watching the second video was how powerful something as simple as a smile or short story can be on the audience, it gets you just as excited as he is about the product. Taking these concepts and integrating them into any presentation can be a powerful tool that I hope to use in the future.

Based on the video of the iPhone launch we watched in class, I believe Steve Jobs had very strong presentation skills. He was noticeably passionate about Apple’s products and knew exactly what the audience wanted to know and the most effective way to relay that information. His calm demeanor while presenting helped draw the audience in and keep them interested, while his word choice made everything easy to understand despite the complex nature of the technology being presented. However, it can be argued that Jobs’ presentation skills were good, but it was the content of which he presented that made the launches so successful. The audience was composed of die-hard Apple fans that were interested and excited about the launch before it even began. One thing I would change about Jobs’ presentation is reducing the number of times he repeated himself. I understand that it was probably designed that way to reiterate a point to the audience, but it’s something that I found to be annoying.
I liked the analysis video of Jobs’ presentation. I thought it was accurate and brought up points that I hadn’t thought about. For example, I thought the section about using simplified numbers was interesting. Instead of using complex industry terms and specifications, Jobs opted to use numbers easily understandable by the average person. Instead of discussing a large number with little meaning, Jobs put the number in a perspective that the audience would recognize, such as per minute or per day.

There’s no question that Steve Jobs was an amazing presenter, but he wouldn’t have the reputation he does now, if he was working for another company. The analysis of Steve Jobs’ presentation skills points out what strategies he used that made his presentation great, but they didn’t explain how the product shaped those strategies. Steve minimized text on his slides and used few, simple images. These strategies made it easy for viewers to remember the presentation, but they’re also strategies that apple used in their products. They streamlined the iPhone to be user friendly and simple, and that carried into the presentations. Had apple been selling a more complex product to a more technology-heavy crowd, Steve may have been forced to abandon his small text rule in favor of clear technical details. Apple is an innovative company and that contributed heavily to Steve’s reputation; he presented products that “work like magic” and he was excited about it!. His excitement fed the audiences, which led to even better reception. If Apple failed to live up to the magic that Steve was selling, though, his reputation would’ve collapsed and he would have lost credibility as a CEO and as a salesman presenting his products.

I think Steve Jobs was a great presenter because he is passionate about his product and he can really reach out to the audience. I like how Steve talks slowly and enunciates his words so that you can clearly hear what he is saying. I also could tell that he practiced his presentation because he looked so comfortable during his presentation. Jobs actively engages with the audiences and also paces around the floor instead of staying in one spot of the stage. I also think the analysis of Steve Jobs is spot on. The tiny text, tight theme, and super smile basically describes Jobs! Also, I think the “magic moments” are also a highlight of Jobs presentation, it reminds of a comedian setting up the punch line for the joke.