Stevenote 2008: What the Hell Happened to the 'One More Thing'?

One of the biggest complaints about Steve Jobs' keynote this morning was its lack of his trademark"one more thing" announcement. As any Stevenote veteran knows, the Apple CEO seems to relish dropping one big surprise at the end of his talks, and over the years Macworld attendees have come to expect the buildup and drama that foreshadows such announcements.

I spoke to a few industry types about the errant "one more thing" and the best explanation I've heard so far comes from Creative Strategies analyst Tim Barajin.

When you look at it, Jobs set the keynote up in an interesting way this year. He said, we're two weeks into the year and I've just given you four major announcements. What many people are missing, I think, is the fact that this was the equivalent of his "one more thing. What he really saying was: expect many more major announcements throughout the year.

With the iPhone SDK coming at the end of next month and the continued evolution Apple's products like the Apple TV, I'd have to agree with him. More and more, Apple is morphing into a company that churns out major announcements, not just at its major events, but at regular intervals throughout the year. If anything, this speaks to the company's growing ecosystem of products. But it also could be a new strategy.

In the end, spreading out major announcements is probably easier for Apple. As Daring Fireball's
John Gruber recently observered, "while everyone marvels at the massive amount of 'free' publicity that Apple garners during the 'let’s speculate about what they’re going to announce' pre-keynote prelude, that publicity and speculation does Apple no good and even hurts them if what they’re actually prepared to announce doesn’t meet the level of speculation."

Ultimately, Apple can better manage the hype and expectations and keep people guessing with this strategy. For all we know, this year's keynote could signal the end of "one more thing" altogether.

Photo: Flickr/Steve Rhodes