The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: The Real Deal Behind The Reality Distortion Field
11:59 pm, September 13th, 2009, Carmine Gallo
Dress up numbers. When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said it came with a 5GB hard-drive. Only the most technical audience would understand the implications of that number. Jobs broke it down by saying, “That’s enough storage for 1,000 songs.” He made the number even more compelling by announcing that all those songs could fit in your pocket. Apple presenters never leave big numbers hanging without placing those numbers into perspective. For example, during the “Rock & Roll” music event, marketing head Phil Schiller announced that Apple had sold 220 million iPods to date. “That’s 73% of the market,” he said. Schiller took it one step further, and got a laugh, when he said Microsoft was “pulling up the rear” with 1% market share.
Posted by Carmine Gallo in Apple, How-To, Opinions, Steve Jobs | Comment on this article
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Carmine Gallo is the author of 
Why do you refer to yourself in the third person?
nak, on September 14th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Very good post. Was a great read. Thanks!
Dylan, on September 14th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Interesting article to read. Thanks.
Johnny, on September 14th, 2009 at 12:36 am
I recognise and appreciate that hits = $ so I understand breaking this up over several “pages,” but geez louise ELEVEN PAGES?? That’s just money-grubbing, sorry. Six would have been about right.
Shenanigans like this actually hurt the story (just check Digg comments any time a story not from Ars Technica goes over half-a-dozen pages) by losing “busy readers” and by annoying faithful readers. It also makes me question the motivation behind presenting the story — am I really going to get some useful info if I stay with it, or am I just being used to drive up the hit count and will end up with an unsatisfied feeling at the end?
Better editorial judgement about how long you can string readers along, please …
Charles Martin, on September 14th, 2009 at 1:50 am
I agree with the above post. I’m afraid I skip these articles with so many pages because it’s too annoying to have to keep clicking from one page to another.
Matt, on September 14th, 2009 at 9:45 am
The problem is that if you try to copy steve jobs “reality distortion field” your audience would not think:
-Wow that guy is great at speaking!
Instead they will chuckle to themself and think:
-Wow, that guy thinks he’s Steve Jobs. What a looser.
D, on September 14th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Meh, Jobs is good, but he’s no Billy Mays.
J, on September 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm