Apple’s confidence

It’s been an interesting few years for Apple. Despite high sales numbers for its products, Wall Street has been beating on the company and analysts as a group have wondered if Apple has lost its mojo. Today’s keynote should put that nonsense to rest.

One thing that became very clear to me early on in today’s keynote is that Apple was having fun again. They were really enjoying themselves.

One of the highlights of the keynote address was whenever Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, took the stage. He was jovial and interacted with the crowd very well, often cracking jokes about the lack of skeuomorphic elements in the new design.

It was light-hearted and Federighi would laugh right along with the crowd. It helped put the crowd at ease about a slew of important announcements that would come throughout the event.

To me, the fun was coming from the confidence Apple had in the products they were announcing. It’s not hard to enjoy yourself when you know the products you are going to introduce will be accepted and applauded by the people you’re releasing them for.

The announcements, like the design changes to iOS 7, were certainly not a sure thing. There was wild speculation on what exactly Apple would do, scaring a lot of people into thinking that iOS 7 could end up as flat as Windows 8. Of course, that didn’t happen.

Let’s not forget Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, joking with the crowd about giving a sneak peek of the new Mac Pro to 5,000 of his closest friends. And then in a remark that will surely go down in keynote history, Schiller said after introducing the Mac Pro, “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.”

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, was all smiles as he introduced iTunes Radio and talked to attendees about the new service. This was especially true when he revealed the ad-supported service would be ad-free for people who purchase iTunes Match.

Of course, you can’t talk about the keynote without mentioning Apple CEO, Tim Cook. Tim looked relaxed during his portion of the keynote and didn’t linger on a lot of needless numbers. He exuded confidence.

The entire Apple executive team looked confident in their products and judging from the reaction inside the keynote room today, the developers responsible for making apps for the platforms seemed confident in Apple.

That’s great news for consumers.