Visionary 1983 Steve Jobs speech foretells rise of mobile computing, iPad

“The full-length version of a ‘lost’ Steve Jobs speech given at the Design Conference in Aspen was unearthed and posted to the web on Tuesday, illustrating some of the prescient insights the late tech guru offered as to how computers would one day be an overwhelming presence in our lives,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.

“AppleInsider first reported on the 1983 speech in August, though that copy was merely a 20-minute snippet of the full hour-long recording revealed on Tuesday,” Campbell reports. “The new audio comes from blog LifeLibertyTech.com, which obtained a cassette tape recording of the speech handed out to conference attendees.”

Campbell reports, “Perhaps the highlight of the newly-published recording is a question and answer session in which Jobs describes mobile computing, pointing out that he would like to one day build a computer in a slate-like form-factor, much like the iPad.”

Read highlights and/or listen to the speech (54:23) here.

12 Comments

    1. SJ repeated what Bill G has already said 5 years prior and yes no doubt with SJ in the room. Gates/SJ and frankly several 1000 others have collectively contributed to the tech world we now live in. I

  1. Steve was a one trick pony, all he ever could envision was a portable computer for the masses, mac, iMac, ipad, iPhone
    It’s all the same thing really.

    Not saying its a bad trick.
    The ipad must have been satisfying for him, when technology finally caught up to his vision.

    1. I have a feeling the Newton was on the laundry list, while Steve was still at Apple. Based on what we are learning about this man, Scully couldn’t have “come up” with it, but Steve did and since he left “while pushed,” he couldn’t take that list with him. Think about it. If he shared all his dreams with Apple before ’85, and I think he did, then he lost a whole lot more than Apple, when he left.

      For him coming back to Apple, was imperative.

  2. I listened to most of this speech, nodding off to sleep at 1AM. My middle school benefitted with Gov. Brown and Apple’s rollout of at least 1 Apple computer per school. Our school had more than one though, but not many. I fortunately had my own Apple at home. The class was amazing, learning BASIC, I got into Assembly that year as well. For me the plan worked. It’s not in effect today though. The technology is there, but no one teaches programming anymore. I don’t get it, it’s like the state is afraid to train the next generation of hackers or something.

    As I am listening to this, I find it inconceivable that at 5 years into “Apple” Steve is talking like this. It’s like he’s Dr Who. He just knows what needs to be done, he’s out of time. Seriously, he’s talking about solutions that will or would take 20 years and more to make. This is just blowing my mind. I am sure the vision of “A Radio Station for Software” is not the same as music. The App Store is pretty darn close and free “lite” apps is apart of that.

    This audio tape…. If anyone thinks Steve Jobs and Apple is a copy cat, they are plainly nuts. He’s been running with these ideas from his youth. Like Einstein and relativity, It’s just taking a whole career to implement. I think Apple has been well behaved in going after copy cats, in light of a lifetime of “lost” dreams.

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