Posted on 03/31/2016 11:24:38 PM PDT by Swordmaker
“In Apple’s first 40 years it shipped 1,591,092,250 computers,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco. “This shipment total is higher than any other computer company in its first 40 years. Actually there are no other PC makers that are 40 years old. One computer maker (IBM) is older but they only sold PCs for 24 years and what they still sell they don’t sell in high numbers.”
Dediu writes, “Combining the history of customer creation and customer preservation with the value obtained from each customer implies that the next 40 years will be about creating another large tranche of customers whose willingness to spend on whatever Apple creates will be relatively unchanged.”
“We don’t know the limit,” Dediu writes. “One billion was hard to imagine even one year ago. We might see two billion devices in short order. Perhaps not. Perhaps as we have a multitude of devices about us all day the number will become less meaningful. But if the number of middle class customers grows and as Apple keeps its products within their reach, there is no reason to think that there will be a reversal of the last 40 years in terms of customer acquisition.”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MAR 28, ’16 11:02 PM
AUTHOR: Horace Dediu
In Apple’s first 40 years it shipped 1,591,092,250 computers.
This shipment total is higher than any other computer company in its first 40 years. Actually there are no other PC makers that are 40 years old. One computer maker (IBM) is older but they only sold PCs for 24 years and what they still sell they don’t sell in high numbers.
That does not make it the top seller in a given year. Looking at only the Mac, Apple’s traditional form factor personal computer, Apple has only returned to the top 5 last year. Only if including the iPad it was the top computer vendor in 2011 and including iPhone, it was first in 2009.
/Counting Apple II, Apple III, Macs, iPads, iPod touches, iPhones, but excluding Apple Watches, AppleTV, and other iPods, Apple shipped 1,591,092,250 computers in its first 40 years, more than any other computer company! — PING!
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The iPhone is a fully functional miniature computer that also makes phone calls.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, stands with the Apple II that he helped develop, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on Oct. 15, 2010.
Credit: Robert Scoble
The history of early personal computing is interwoven with that of phone phreaking, where people would try to figure out ways to take advantage of the automated phone systems becoming common.
One popular trick was trying to figure out the special sequence of touch tones required to gain access to free phone calls. It was laborious work, but with the arrival of the Apple II computer, John Draper, a famous phone phreaker and Apple employee, decided a computer could do the job much more easily.
In this article republished from the Oct. 1, 1984, issue of Infoworld, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak describes the trick.
By Steve Wozniak
The best prank I’ve seen with the Apple was played by Cap’n Crunch. John Draper, one of Apple’s first employees, was responsible for designing a telephone board for us. Much more than a modem, the board could send touch-tone or pulse dial data; it could also transmit any tones that were programmable down the line, listen for specific sounds and a bunch of other things.
At one point Draper was motivated to crack the WATS extenders that are used by companies with incoming and outgoing free 800 lines. Company executives call in on the incoming 800 line and tap out a fourdigit code, which gets them on their outgoing 800 line. Then they can dial a free call anywhere they want. The only system protection is the four-digit code.
It would take a long time to dial ten thousand phone calls manually, searching for the extender code. But Draper had designed this new telephone board, and he knew a bunch of companies that had WATS extenders. He programmed the Apple to call the company on its 800 number, automatically get to the WATS extender, type out a four-digit code and check to see if the attempt succeeded or failed. The Apple with the board would listen to all the tones on the phone line to determine when it was ringing, when it went to the WATS extender, and so on.
It took about ten seconds for the Apple to dial the call and try a new four-digit code. The Apple would restart and try it again. And then try the next number. It was able to dial about five thousand calls a night-the average number of calls to crack a WATS extender. Draper cracked about twenty WATS extenders, averaging one a night.
The city of Mountain View, California, where he lived at the time, keeps an index of how well the phone system is working. An average of 30 percent of all calls made from the city don’t go through. The month Draper was cracking the WATS extenders, the index jumped to 80 percent! For that month Draper made more than 50 percent of the calls originating from Mountain View, California, whose population is over sixty thousand ...
Forgot the link to the article above:
When Apple introduced the Apple II, the need for a home computer was largely untested.
By Martyn Williams — Mac World IDG News Service — Mar 31, 2016 4:05 AM
When Apple launched the Apple II in 1977, it was still far from certain that consumers would want or need a home computer. While hobbyists were tinkering with computers they built and programmed themselves, Apple saw a need for something easier, and introduced the Apple II.
This article, republished from the May 1, 1978, edition of Computerworld, sets the scene at the time and describes how a young Apple Computer was looking to the future. (DP was an industry term of the day for “data processing.”)
By a Computerworld Staff Writer
CUPERTINO, Calif.—As soon as low-cost computers were available in configurations designed for use by consumers, with programming features and language that non-technicians could use, the personal computing market began to grow rapidly, according to Apple Computer, Inc., one of the firms vying for a share of that blossoming market.
With more than 100,000 units sold, the personal computer market is finally being recognized as much larger then the original hobby market, a spokesman stated, observing that there have already been forecasts of $2 billion in sales by 1985.
Apple, which introduced a self-contained personal computer (Apple II) in June 1977, believes the personal computer will make home life better for middle-income families. The spokesman said such systems will provide for better financial decision making and tighter control over family finances, better protection against fire and theft, better environmental control with attendant energy cost savings and more free time for all family members.
Additional benefits, he predicted, will include better educational opportunities, lower cost communications, immediate access to all family records and increased family interaction through the entertainment aspects of the systems.
At present, the vast majority of non-business computer users are still considered to be hobbyists, Apple noted, because until self-contained machines like Apple II came along, home computers required some technical understanding to assemble and program them. Now, the self-contained machines can be taken home, unpacked, plugged in and put to work.
Considering all the purchases of nonbusiness computers, estimates are that hobby computers accounted for 67 percent of all sales in 1977, Apple noted. The home computer, requiring no technical knowledge or assembly. accounted for only 3 percent of that market, with the other markets accounting for the remaining 30 percent.
This is expected to change dramatically in 1978, Apple said. Home computers will take 17 percent of the market while the hobbyist sector will account for 35 percent. The home market will dominate by 1982, accounting for 56 percent of all sales of personal computers, Apple predicted.
These figures do not include computer systems sold for entertainment purposes, which are generally considered part of the personal computer market even though they can only offer preprogrammed games.
The true home computer, by comparison, provides the capability for entertainment in addition to its other possible uses. This entertainment segment of the consumer market accounted for about 18 percent of the total personal computer market in 1977 and will account for about 29 percent by 1982, Apple said.
Apple was founded in January 1976 by Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak for the purpose of developing and marketing personal computers. The firm’s first product, the Apple I, was essentially intended for the knowledgeable hobbyist. Apple received equity financing from Venrock Associates, Capital Management, Inc. and Arthur Rock this March.
>>Actually there are no other PC makers that are 40 years old.<<
100% true.
Apple did and does decide not to participate in capitalistic Darwinism.
Apple decided “this is our tiny slice — it is small but it is ours.”
It is certainly a model. We all know the iPhone saved them as a company. And no sane person can dispute that all the PDAs from other companies saw the iPhone OS concept as something worth copying/stealing.
Sadly, Apple has not had any breakthroughs (are they possible?) and just banks on its “us too, but a little better” incrementalism approach.
The phone feature wars are great for consumers but the decision to go iAnything is now more emotional than practical.
Good run though and no one should ever suggest Apple is not forever iconic in personal electronics.
“made in China”
Just saying.
Also customers who have the majority of their products assembled by FoxConn, the same company Apple contracts with to assemble their products:
Just Saying.
That's just the 52 largest companies who have their consumer electronic products assembled by FoxConn. There are over 500 at last count.
However, Apple's products are engineered in California, and the Apple MacPro is made in Austin, Texas, and the Apple iMac is made in Elk Grove, California. Many of the parts of those products you claim are "made in China" originate in the United States, such as the Gorilla Glass IV on the screens, almost ALL of the software, some of the more important ICs, etc.
Apple was the last major computer company to move major production to China. And the only one to move any of it back.
Well I agree.
It is not just an Apple problem.
Not at all.
Forty years is a very long time to be selling computers and have the loyal customer base that Apple has
I use both, but sure like the security aspects better with ios, and am sick and damn tired of being bullied into converting to WIN 10. (Which I refuse).
Apple products seem to better made than the rest of the PC's now too.
” And no sane person can dispute that all the PDAs from other companies saw the iPhone OS concept as something worth copying/stealing.”
Sane people are usually not ignorant, such as ignorant to the fact that Compaq had the iPaq in 2000, years before Apple copied the “i” for the iPhone in 2007.
Also, Cisco Systems had the IOS (Internetwork Operating System) in 1984. Another stolen “invention” of Apple.
Also, Google’s Android OS was also produced in 2007, the same year Apple introduced iOS. Apple wasn’t exactly an innovator.
P.S. That Google Android OS produced the same year Apple produced iOS is crushing Apple in sales, hence swordmaker’s social media trolling on FR to try to advertise Apple.
Android based devices are killing Apple in sales. Apple is simply too restrictive and expensive, and Apple leaves their customers behind. If a customer has an “old” device, tough noogies, upgrade or be left behind.
LOL. Draper is another one of my old heroes. :-)
You're not really THAT ignorant, are you?
Apple had the iMac in 1998. iPaq was the name copy; cute, but not the original.
Please tell me you were making an April Fool joke.
Had to use DOS/MS at work. Hated it for any number of reasons have been an Apple user since 1993. Products last and last. May be a bit more up front but long term far less cost
Of course, a large part of overall Apple sales was the Newton. /pokepokepoke
Apple II models (all models combined) was in the low millions, if memory serves. By the time the GS came out, 8-bit Apple II models had sold perhaps 4-5 million, hmm, sez here another 1.25 million were 16-bit GS models. That number was a lot for its time, but that was over a period of a lot of years. Phones dwarf all, though.
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