Apple’s Jeff Williams discusses ads for Apple Watch, personalized medicine, why the car is the ultimate mobile device, and much more with Re/code’s Walt Mossberg at Code Conference 2015:
Hosted by executive producers and conference creators Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Code Conference is where top industry influencers in media and technology gather for in-depth conversations about the impact of digital technology on our lives and our businesses, today and in the future.
The second edition of the Code Conference takes place May 26-28, 2015 at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.
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Direct link to video here.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Jeff Williams: The car is the ultimate mobile device – May 27, 2015
Apple’s Jeff Williams made your iPhone and Watch – now he’s ready to talk about it – May 26, 2015
Seems like a nice enough fella, but between Tim, Phil, and him, it’s like listening to a plastic talking automaton and watching paint dry. I think they are not often accused of having highly dynamic personalities…
You said the key word: Personalities.
Finding people who are focused, driven and dedicated to their craft, AND affable, is very difficult. We all admire Steve Jobs because he was BOTH. This put him into the high quality leadership category of personality. He could communicate with the, ahem, ‘plastic automaton’ productivity oriented personalities as well as the relational, extroverted personalities. And yet, with that crossover personality, Steve Jobs went through the usual steep learning curve to figure out HOW to actually lead others effectively.
I know someone who is somewhere in the autistic spectrum, intensely introverted and robotic in their speech patterns. I know exactly what this person is going to say every time I greet them. They’re fully aware of exactly who I am, and yet they never say my name. That’s automaton seeming behavior. And yet! This person is one of the most expressive and skillful musicians I have EVER heard. That is this person’s ‘territory’ where they reside. Their language, interest, skill, expression is all music. I always enjoy listening to them play and am grateful that I can.
The usual conclusion: Diversity Rulz. We all contribute to the whole. We are a social species. For that reason we are also the most successful species life has ever known! (…Assuming, as I do, that Earth is the only place where life exists).
Yeah, nice enough guy. When will Craig Federighi ascend to be the primary presenter for the company? Surely he will dominate WWDC again but I keep hoping he takes on a larger role representing the company. He’s entertaining and informative.
Total agreement. He’s easily the best presenter of the current gang of VPs at Apple. But we don’t know his perspective. He may be good at it and yet would rather be off on his own banging out code. Being a presenter may be outside his interest field, despite that being within his skill field.
All this personality stuff is tough. We know what we as individuals know. But there’s a whole wide world of people out there, not to mention the unfathomably complex world of natural systems, environments, geology, energy… that we find impossible as individuals to comprehend. That’s one reason we utter FAIL as individuals to fit into our Earthly domain. We’re on a jet plane aimed at the base of Mount Everest right now because we’re unable to account for our effect on our jet’s steering wheel, to use an odd metaphor. If we could only pull up and steer around the mountain, we’d be fine. But apparently we have to have the mountain fill up our plane’s windshield before we commit to taking hold of the controls and attempting to save ourselves. I don’t get why that’s the case AT ALL! But don’t give me the controls. I might end up pointing us at the base of K2 instead. We’re ALL learning on-the-job how to steer this plane we invented for ourselves as a collective species.
And I haven’t even had my morning coffee yet! I’ll shut up now.
I get that for Apple to be successful that they need more farmers than hunters. Farmers are boring but they are habitual and they accumulate knowledge and experience season after season. I think Cook is doing a fantastic job and he’s much more comfortable in his role as CEO and primary spokesperson, now – to be expected. And I have gotten used to him and really like the direction of his leadership vis a vis the environment and other social issues where Apple takes a leadership role. So I really don’t have a lot of complaints about him. But I long for a presenter who can convincingly weave technology with liberal arts together and do it in a way that makes it all feel natural, instead of highly staged and choreographed.
Yup, first cup of coffee, done.
That being said, Steve Jobs presentations WERE stagecraft. Lots of planning and practice went into them. But a man needs a bit of impishness to trick us into thinking it’s all real. Jobs? Imp. Federighi? Imp. Cook? Williams? Non-imp.
You hit the nail on the head. Jobs practiced his presentations obsessively so that you could never see the seams. You always got the feeling that he truly understood what he was talking about, like any great teacher. And why wouldn’t you believe him…he started the whole home computer business so he had all the context and perspective internalized. Having an operations or manufacturing guy as your primary spokesperson for a technology company is a big challenge. I think Cook is not try to pretend he’s a technologist and instead focus on what he is comfortable with – ops, logistics and being a humanist. You can just imagine how out of place he must feel, sometimes, when he is up on stage trying to do marketing and technology speak.
time to go ahead and buy elon musk’s companies (tesla, spacex, and solar city) and get a move on things… get elon on board to run that shop too. after cars will be Apple Aerospace, Apple Energy (solar), etc… and elon is making the right moves in those areas already and it seems like Apple’s natural progression if a car is truly in their future.
As a kindness to your fellow man, please take a bit of time to make your posts more readable by using capitalization where it belongs. If you are so busy that you don’t have time to use proper punctuation, please don’t bother posting as it also wastes you and my time.
‘As a kindness to your fellow man….please don’t bother posting as it also wastes you and my time.”
Please don’t bother correcting others if you cannot use correct English either.
I’m not sure what the point of this was. A few obvious question asked by Walt and then, what, 3 audience questions? Hardly worth it. And yeah Jeff Williams isn’t the most dynamic speaker. Get Federighi up there.
Obviously not the full interview which is a shame.
But what you can get from that is that Williams is very comfortable in his role and knows what he is talking about. In the past, Jobs was the center of attention, but now the attention is spread across multiple representatives.