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Philip Schiller surely had big shoes to fill this morning in Paris, standing in for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
CEO Steve Jobs, who was at home recuperating after cancer surgery earlier this month.
Schiller, the vice president of worldwide marketing for Apple, never blinked as he laid out the company's technology roadmap to the thousands in attendance at the Porte de Versailles conference center for Apple Expo 2004.
Schiller opened his presentation by bringing digital music to the forefront, touting the Apple iPod's current 58 percent market share among all MP3 players. He did not present any numbers for Apple's traction in online music sales.
Inspiring Other Companies
The iPod success, according to Apple, has inspired numerous companies to introduce iPod accessories, enhancing its capabilities. Schiller highlighted Altec Lansing, Bose and JBL, all introducing new speaker platforms for iPod users.
With a segue into Tiger, Apple's planned fifth major release of OS X, Schiller placed significant emphasis on Spotlight, a new capability in working with data on the Macintosh .
Spotlight enables searches that can identify hidden metadata in images and other files, such as spreadsheets and PDF documents. Additionally, "smart" technology has been built into OS X applications like Address Book, where all data associated with a contact can be initiated and viewed in one window.
"Tiger delivers more features and capabilities to our customers and enables us to distance ourselves from any other computer platform," Schiller told the audience.
On Hardware and Other Matters
After reviewing audio and video conferencing improvements in iChat AV, including a live four-way international video chat, he managed to sneak in a snub aimed at Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) .
"Tiger will be released a year earlier than Longhorn," he said.
With a bit of humor, Schiller shifted to hardware, asking the crowd if they wanted to talk a bit about the iMac. Since its introduction in 1998, Apple has sold 7.5 million units, with the latest redesign occurring in 2002.
With that, Schiller brought up an image of the new G5 iMac on the 25-foot video screen and produced an iMac on stage as well.
Hands-On Preview
Schiller closed the keynote with a new short movie produced to introduce the new computer, which will very likely find its way into commercials during September and is now being promoted on the Apple Web site.
He also noted Apple's booth at the Expo showcases one of the new iMac models, with which Expo attendees can interact, as well as workstations running Tiger (OS 10.4) for a hands-on preview of the new operating system.
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