Transcript of Knaster Interview, Part 5

Steve Jobs story: introducing the Apple IIc (transcript)
January 20, 1999

Note: Transcripts have been edited for readability and are not word-for-word reflections of the audio sections.

S: In 1984 Apple introduced Macintosh, in January, and in April they introduced the Apple IIc. It was introduced at a pretty big event in San Francisco at Moscone Center, and I happened to be there for the setup the night before.

The presenters were rehearsing their speeches and Steve was rehearsing his, and he was just listless going through his speech. He would get up and say, "the Apple IIc blah blah blah..." -- literally, he'd say "blah blah" -- and he'd go to the next slide and say, "and we think that developers blah blah blah...." He looked like he'd rather be flogging himself than being up there, and I thought, oh boy, this is really going to be a disaster when he gets up there tomorrow -- he's just not into this. Well, of course, I'd never seen Steve Jobs rehearse a speech before.

The next day, when it was real, he was Steve Jobs. He was "on," and his usual riveting self, saying just the right thing in just the right way, keeping everyone's attention.

The thing I remember most about that was, when he got to the end of his rehearsal, he said, "and the Apple IIc, and... I'll think of something great to say here." And I thought, oh boy, he's not going to say anything great. Then the next day came, and he got to the end, he got to the last slide, and he said, "And now with the Apple IIc there are only three important computing platforms in the world... and Apple owns two of them."

And the crowd went wild, and he was right -- he thought of something great to say.

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