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Macworld Buzz: iTunes Milestone, Jobs' Crank Call, And What About Leopard?

The hype was out of control for Macworld this year. Yet, somehow, Apple's Steve Jobs managed to not disappoint despite months of conjecture and expectation. He might have surprised a few people -- both with what he announced and what he didn't announce -- but I didn't talk with one person who walked out disappointed. Now, that's saying something.

I had talked with one Apple guru last week and he said no matter what Jobs said, people would be disappointed and walk away wanting more. It's just the nature of the beast, he had told me. Well, it seems that's not so this year.

And people were really geared up for this event. Here's one way to know how expectant people were for Jobs' keynote on Tuesday. Hundreds of them were lined up for it at 4:30 in the morning. The keynote wasn't going to start for another four and a half hours but they were out standing in the early morning darkness -- forgoing that elusive conference week sleep -- just to be at the front of the line. That's some kind of dedication.

Once they got inside, Apple's fans got a lot of information about the Apple TV and the iPhone. What they didn't get was any news about the Mac or the upcoming Leopard. Analysts and industry watchers had expected Jobs to announce a Mac Pro with a quad-core or two, and they had been expecting more in-depth information on what will be in Leopard, which will be the next commercial release of Apple's operating system. Nothing. So when will we hear about that?

More than a few people were scratching their heads on this one. When I asked them about it, they would say they were surprised… but then they quickly started talking about the iPhone.

Tuesday was all about the gadget, not the desktop or the notebook or the operating system.

While the iPhone, and to a lesser extent the Apple TV, were big news, there also were some interesting tidbits that came out of Jobs' presentation. Here are a few things he said or did in his keynote:

• In the United States, more than half of all the Macs sold across all the channels are being sold to people who never owned a Mac before;
• iTunes crossed what Jobs called a major milestone, having sold more than 2 billion songs, with more than a billion of them sold in the last year alone;
• iTunes is selling 5 million songs a day, which means it's selling 58 songs every second. (I didn't do the math on this, so I'll have to take Jobs' word for it);
• iTunes has sold 50 million TV shows and 1.3 million movies to date;
• Disney had teamed up with Apple, selling its movies on iTunes. Now Paramount is joining in, taking iTunes' collection of 100 movies offered and ramping it up to 250 in the next few weeks;
• Jobs says he expects Apple will sell its 100 millionth iPod this year;
• Former Vice President Al Gore even got in on the fun, leaving Jobs a voicemail message on his iPhone, calling the new device "unbelievably cool";
• Jobs actually appeared to crank call a local Starbucks. The CEO was showing off the iPhone's Google Maps capabilities by first finding San Francisco's Moscone Center, where Macworld is being held, and then searching for nearby Starbucks shops. When several popped up on the map, he touched one, which gave him an address and phone number. He then touched the number and the iPhone made the call. "I'd like to order 4,000 lattes to go," he told what I'm assuming was a confused woman. "Oh, wrong number. Thank you."
• Apple has filed for more than 200 patents for its new iPhone;
• Jobs says he'd like the iPhone to capture 1% of the mobile phone market -- about 10 million phones -- in the first year that it ships;
• Grammy winner John Mayer closed out the keynote by performing two songs live onstage. In between songs, he told the audience, "It hits me that Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. make life more fun. It's the exact opposite of terrorism." Odd quote, but he sounded great.

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