There were personal computers before Steve Jobs presented the Macintosh to Apple investors. The Mac moved in and took over.
Why?
It made itself useful. It was user-friendly and behaved like a helpful teammate, turning complex processes into simple ones anyone could master quickly.
“Apple made a machine desirable at a time when computers were these terrifying behemoths guarded in a glass room by someone in a lab coat,” said Leslie Berlin, project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University.
Jobs had wanted to make computing appealing to the general public by streamlining all the complex commands. Users could click on icons and drag and drop files. It came with a mouse. The Mac changed the way all computers communicated with its users. It wasn’t a big idea. It was a huge one.
The idea wasn’t in the technology. Apple didn’t invent all its consumer-friendly tech. Rather cleverly, it cherry-picked good ideas from places like Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center in Silicon Valley, and turned them into commercial successes.
Most importantly, Apple ‘got’ people. It had an easy going personality and an affable way of talking to its audiences. When it made mistakes, it was considered ‘only human’. When you’re in with the in crowd, you’re easily forgiven.
“The Macintosh was the product that first made Apple sexy,” Berlin stated. “If you were a designer or desktop publisher, this was a cool computer.”
1984 launch a way of being in with the in crowd that Apple has only just begun to muck up…
…Perhaps because it has been under pressure. It’s had to be the genial host when you’re unsure of yourself. Global Mac sales fell sharply in 2013 until a 28.5% occurred in the US. But then PCs had a dreadful year too.
The 30th anniversary webfilm and website, Apple – Mac 30 – Thirty years of innovation is compelling – its story (ok, chest thumping) full of big name endorsers and evocative images.
Will it work?
