Greatest hits from the past 4 decades
Newest Apple product
According to various leaks and online
sources, Apple will introduce the iPad Mini to the world on October 23rd.
For $390-$470, consumers worldwide will have access to the smaller 7 inch
brother of the iPad. As we await the newest of the Cupertion designed products,
let us take a brief tour of Apple’s history of commercial introductions.
Coincidentally, we look back at the four decades of Apple releases having
recently marked the one year passing of Steve jobs. His vision, even when he
was not at the nominal helm of the company, made an imprint on all of the
gadgets and services emblazoned with the Apple logo. Although his passing was
more than a year ago, we now enter the undiscovered territory of Apple
corporate and product evolution without the deified co-founder’s influence.
A
world of a difference
Apple II
No, we won’t start with the Apple which was
more of a hobbyist’s toy and less a commercial product meant for widespread
distribution. The Apple was such a machine that, in conjunction with Radio
Shack’s TRS-80, the Commodore PET and IBM’s PC, helped to create the personal
computer industry.
The Apple II, introduced in 1977, in all
its permutations of Plus, lle, llc and llgs, remained in production through the
early 1990s and sold over two million units. For $2, individuals across the US,
eventually Europe then Japan and subsequently the rest of the world, purchased
their earliest machines thereby introducing a generation to the advantages of
personal computing. There were some downsides though – a limited number of
programs were available and communication between machines consisted of audio
cassette tapes until 5.25 inch disks and a disks operating system became
available. The world would have to wait for VisiCalc’s introduction in 1977 to
fully rationalize their buys. With the killer app that was VisiCalc (imagine a
dumbed down version of Microsoft Excel) home users now had a formidable never before
seen tool that was unique to the personal computer.
The
Apple II was designed more like a home appliance and less like a computational
device
Even back then, jobs and Wozniak’s Apple
targeted a somewhat different purchasing demographic than the other nascent PC
manufactures. The Apple II was designed more like a home appliance and less
like a computational device. It had a color screen which was at that point a
substantial differentiating selling point from the more business-oriented
offerings from the competition. The Apple LL’s emphasis on targeting consumers
with electronics that were until-then primarily seen as a business tool set the
bar for consumer marketing that lasts to this day. It should also be noted that
the Apple II coincided with the rebranding of the company with the now
familiar, although since modified, Apple silhouette.
Macintosh
Enter the GUI. Before the 1984 release of
the Macintosh, most PC users had to interact with command prompts which
entailed a blinking for textual input. Sound as boring as programming a
Unix-based server in ASCII? Yep. Legend has it that jobs and Wozniak toured the
Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in exchange for Apple
stock and subsequently utilized, some would say stole, the basic concepts of a
mouse navigated Graphical User Interface from a prototype Xerox computer
codenamed Alto. Although the imminently unsuccessful Apple Lisa was the first
PC to use a GUI, Macintosh is a precursor to all of today’s Gui-based devices
from the self-service checkout at your local Target to the interactive menu on
your TV.
Jobs was the mastermind behind the
Macintosh marketing plan culminating in the television commercial that paid
homage to Orwell’s 1984. All of Apple’s subsequent corporate identity
practices, until perhaps the last few years, were based upon the narrative in
the commercial. Apple was the outsider fighting for the individual’s rights
against the megalithic corporate culture. Recall the PC/Mac ads of just a few
years ago in which a portly actor portrays the established computer makers in
comparison to the charming hipster who embodies the youthful Apple brand. All
such Apple narratives that stick in the minds of the current tech consumer can
trace their lineage back to that 60 second commercial. Initially priced at over
$3,120, the Macintosh was introduced with great fanfare and with software
preinstalled that took advantage of its graphics abilities. Macintosh seeded
our cultural image of Apple tools that are both elegant and easy to use.
Moreover, due to corporate infighting, Jobs
had been pushed out from the Lisa product development group and relegated to
the Macintosh team. His slow, painful descent and removal from the company are
intertwined within the byzantine politics that took place within the Macintosh
product group and the corporate umbrella. Destined to lose the power struggle
with Sculley, then CEO of Apple, it was only after being removed from his post
could Jobs then return as the prodigal son to lead Apple to greater heights.
iMAC
What difference does a bulbous
blueberry-colored desktop without a disk drive make? A world of a difference.
iMAC represents the return of Jobs and the reinvented technology maker. The
company had lost its way under the leadership tenures of Sculley and later, Gil
Amelio. Apple had unsuccessfully branched into portable devices and corporate
machines but under the laser-focus of Jobs’ vision, returned to its core, and
to product purity and profitability. iMAC lacked certain industry accepted
features such as a floppy drive but was the first to truly embrace the
networked environment. The ‘i’ in iMAC for the Internet and jobs wagered the
corporate future on a colorful device that was meant to work within a
client/server paradigm and less as a standalone computer powerful enough to
tackle anything on its own.
iMac
27 inch: 2.7GHz - MC813ZP/A
Yes, all of Apple’s big hits since have
integrated the “i” as a branding device in addition to announcing the
networkable aspects of the machines, but the iMac’s great feat was creating an
easy-to-use consumer-based machine that buyers would pay a premium to own.
Although the Macintosh had been successful in pushing a similar cost/benefit
equation, Apple Corporation had lost its way until Jobs created the iMac.
Today’s Apple devotees are trained in the mantra that the supposed simplicity
and ease of the Apple product line comes at a higher cost: You may get similar
performance from a less expensive in a less gratifying user experience? That is
the supposed analysis that successfully took hold in the minds of the millions
of Apple consumers. The legacy of the original iMac lives on in every iPhone
and iPad sold today.
iPHONE
We all know its power and bow to it.
Telecom carriers hate it and competitors mimic it. Without iPhone, you would
most likely not be reading this magazine or this article. It is given
near-heroic attributes and abilities. Jobs leveraged the form function attained
from years of refining an mp3 player and morphed the iTunes market into one
that also hawks apps. He brilliantly repackaged the operating system initially
designed for a tablet and squeezed it into the smaller size device. The iPhone
has transformed the way in which Americans interact with devices and one
another. International markets have followed suit and in doing so, reinforce
the hegemonic grip that American companies, especially technology firms, have
in creating the emerging fields of tomorrow. iPhone, Apple Corporation but
serve as ambassadors of American capitalistic ingenuity. They are the shock
troops that communicate to the consumer the attributes of value, engineering
prowess and marketing genius. They are physical embodiments of Jobs’ thoughts
and business acumen. Apple will supposedly introduce the newest iPad in less
than 2 weeks. We will see if this introduction and all coming product
unveilings are able to exploit the mindshare that Jobs was able to carve out
over his lifetime.
