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Will Apple ever do live keynote addresses again?
Wednesday, August 9, 2023 5:49 pm

We get it. The wild overreaction to COVID-19 — blanket lockdowns, useless cloth masks (safe not to use when eating (smirk)), plexiglass partitions that did absolutely nothing, abjectly stupid “6-feet apart” stickers on floors, etc., etc., etc. — necessitated the suspension of live presentations at Apple events.

Yet, it’s 2023 now and even China — which very likely engineered and let loose COVID-19, partially funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, no less — has finally exhausted its prodigious authoritarian inclinations and largely resumed normal life. Regardless, Apple plans to continue doing canned keynotes.

Mark Gurman via ??:

Not that there was any doubt, but Sept 12 event is being prepared as an in-person launch. So recorded video + people watching at the Apple campus + hands on afterwards. Same as the iPhone 14.

José Adorno for BGR:

As a journalist, I covered press conferences in the most diverse places with different styles of keynotes and executives. Still, none of them offered the same experience as an Apple event. In 2019, I covered the last in-person WWDC in San Jose, California.

Being surrounded by developers from all over the world, international media, and Apple staff was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. During the keynote, I saw developers cheering about the latest software updates and gasping when Apple introduced the all-new Mac Pro and the Pro Display XDR.

But it seems Apple prefers to move on from Steve Jobs-like keynotes to error-proof presentations that only a recorded video can bring. The events are faster, but they lose that special Apple touch only a live keynote could have.

MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in September 2022:

It’s highly likely that Apple’s pre-taped, edited special event videos are with us for the foreseeable future due to the significant reduction on demand on executive presenters’ time alone. The hands-on area and access to Apple executives at these events are easily strong enough draws for the media to attend in person: Watch the movie, then play with — or at least see — and photograph the actual tech afterwards with an executive Q&A. It obviously works.

If Apple ever again gets a dynamic, charismatic CEO who’s mastered on-stage live presentations, we may return to such events, but, for now, enjoy the videos!

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https://macdailynews.com/2023/08/09/will-apple-ever-do-live-keynote-addresses-again/