Posted on 12/15/2003 1:17:02 PM PST by yankeedame
The Mac @ 20
Happy Birthday, Mac!
Quentin Hardy
12.15.03, 12:00 PM ET
It ought to be dead by now, beset by time and big competitors. Be grateful it isn't. For in all its iterations since it was introduced to the world in January 1984--the Macintosh, then such sequels as the Mac II, PowerBook, Power Mac, iMac--the world's most persistent computer brand has done the most for all computer users. Not through market share, of course--bad business decisions, bad luck and bad behavior from friends and foes ruled that out years ago. But the Mac, always built by the rule that good design is paramount, has challenged and inspired everyone in the digital world.
The most famous innovation, of course, is the original Mac's graphical user interface, which Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Windows appeared to copy over several generations. Microsoft, which denied this from 1985 on, paid Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) an undisclosed sum in 1997 to end allegations that it had poached Apple. Never mind that Apple was itself accused of poaching the interface from Xerox (nyse: XRX - news - people ). The Mac was key in the advent of desktop publishing, too. Wi-Fi, now one of the hottest things in networking, got its start in 1989, when Apple engineers were looking for a way to wirelessly connect the Mac to a printer.
Then there is the PDA. Maybe everybody was wrong to laugh at that Mac cousin, the Newton, which never took off but lingered on the market until the spring of 1998. Apple's hit product iPod is the first piece of hardware expressly built for the "digital lifestyle" (with the Mac at the hub) theme announced by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs in 2001. Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ), Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ) and Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) now talk about selling consumer gear and PC-centered media products, but Mac was there first. Even OS X, the Mac's newest operating system, is based on a Unix computing approach only now hitting PCs through the migration of Linux to the desktop.
How could one product line bring so much to the industry? Because the Mac team has always understood that really great design makes an object seem like a hitherto-unknown part of oneself, a new way to encounter and express yourself in the outside world. How that happens may be impossible to pin down, but you know it when you see it, and it is inspirational, it is emotional. PCs are functional, even well made, but they do not inspire.
Great design is not just about surfaces; it runs from deep function through outside aura. Engineers felt inspired by the guts of the first Mac, and its close ties of hardware and software that have always made it far easier to configure and upgrade. Ordinary users fell for touches like the smiling Mac icon that came on as the computer warmed up, as if the machine was relating to you, promising to be along in a minute. They liked the straightforward shape, with a desktop terminal almost the same length and width as a piece of paper. Marketers were spellbound by the first Mac ad, that famous "1984" spot where the sprinting woman threw a hammer through Big Brother's (read: Big Blue's) droning rant. It showed nationally once, but it still elicits passion.
One more thing about great design: It comes from a single vision, not a committee. The PC is Microsoft's operating system, Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) chips and a bunch of stuff from nameless factories in Taiwan, all hung together. It is a committee product. The Mac, even with chips manufactured by other sources, comes from a few people at Apple, sharing a common vision.
Most of the Mac's life, whoever was on team Mac could count on Steve Jobs standing behind them, telling them that their latest idea sucks, ranting that they'll have to do better. Love the guy or hate him, we have all benefited from his tyranny.
Too much at times is made of Jobs' genius, as when the iMac came out in several colors. A computer that wasn't beige! What a visionary! Really, this was more an indictment of Silicon Valley, 20 years into home computers, than a testimony to Steve's big brain. He did not always get it right the first time, either--the first Mac lacked enough memory, was a commercial failure and led not only to layoffs but to Jobs' own ouster in 1985. 2000's PowerMacG4 Cube was also a high-priced flop. But more than most, he learned and adapted, and drove his teams to improve--over the long haul, great design can handle the odd failure, but not the failure to learn.
Happy 20th, Mac! Take the day off, team. Chill, Steve. Just come back to work tomorrow.
How else do you explain their willingness to spend 4X the amount of money for the effectively same product?
Sort of. As I recall the PARC GUI lacked basic features like overlapping windows. (It did have Smalltalk, and the world would be a far better place if Apple or Microsoft had "stolen" that, rather than mucking about with Pascal and C, but I digress).
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger from Predator (on why the Predator didn't attack the unarmed female): "No sport"
It's the geek equivalent to canine butt sniffing...
My 2c has 'Loderunner' with it, and a joystick. The boys love it!
Would that be the GUI that Steve Jobs perloined after his visit to Bell Labs?
It is reported that when Jobs first saw MS Windows he exclaimed, "Hey! Somebody stole the thing I stole!"
</sarcasm>
No, these are Apple 3's, and that machine was a botch from just about every way you could look at it. I bet Apple won't even admit that they made them, now.
My Apple 2's are still in the basement, and once in a while one of the kids will drag one out and fire it up. That machine is an enduring testament to the genius of Steve Wozniak. It's a pity Jobs pushed him out of the company.
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