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Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing
'Insanely great' computer changed how we work
CBC News Last Updated: J anuary 24, 2014
Thirty years ago, Apple co-founder Steve J obs pulled a 16-pound, 32-bit machine
from a duffel bag to a round of applause from a rapt audience. The Macintosh - which
boasted a 9-inch black-and-white screen and a novel pointing device called a
"mouse" - pushed the computer from the realm of futuristic, nerd appliance to
ubiquitous necessity.
With the early '80s anthem Chariots of Fire humming in the background, J obs
demonstrated the new MacWrite and MacPaint software, as well as a calculator and
chess game. The showstopper? The cube-shaped, portable computer made its own
saucy introduction: "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I'd like to share with
you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: NEVER TRUST A
COMPUTER YOU CAN'T LIFT."
Apple's skillful hype machine drew new consumers - though some would later remark
that the Mac wasn't quite what was promised. Disappointed observers dubbed the
computer the "beige toaster," criticizing the machine for its speed issues and workflow
quirks. In its first three months, sales of the Macintosh totalled 50,000 - not a failure,
but not a wild success either.
But in the long view, Macintosh was hugely influential. It was among the first
affordable computers for consumers. And more importantly, it uniquely offered a user
interface that general consumers could control easily with a mouse. Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak in later years compared the Macintosh, for all of its faults, to the
Model T Ford - the blueprint for all future models. Three decades after its debut, we
consider seven ways the Macintosh forged a bold, new path.
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In the '70s and early '80s, competition in the personal computing
market sputtered to life. Apple's success with its Apple II was
tempered by its dismal results with its Lisa computer. The Lisa,
which had a graphical command line interface, had a hefty price tag
of $9,995 (which would amount to nearly $21,000 today). IBM
meanwhile introduced its popular 16-bit Personal Computer with a
massive advertising campaign. The computer boasted a reasonable
selling price of $1,565. Apple responded to IBM's success in 1981
with a full-page ad in The Wall Street J ournal that opened with,
"Welcome, IBM. Seriously." The ad commented on the computer
revolution underway but Apple also laid claim to having invented the
first personal computer system.
By 1984, Apple set its sights on cracking open the market with its
Macintosh. Apple figured ease of use would help sell the machine to
new users, noting in its advertising campaign that only a fraction of
the 235 million people in the U.S. could use a computer. This
computer they promised was "insanely great." They also boasted
that "soon there'll be just two kinds of people. Those who use
computers. And those who use Apples" - a concept the company
continues to tout to this day.
(Photo below: Apple employees (L to R) Andy Hertzfeld, Chris
Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crow, Bill Atkinson, Burrell
Smith, Jerry Manock)
Introducing the Mac
Price: $2,495 in the U.S., $3,595 in Canada
(Current equivalent $5,000/$7,200)
Processor: CPU Motorola MC68000
CPU Speed: 8 MHz
Memory: 128K RAM
Monitor: 9-inch black-and-white
3.5" Floppy Drive
Detachable keyboard, Mouse
Weight: Less than 16.5 lbs

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Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing - Interactive - CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/mac30/[24/01/2014 7:00:29 AM]
"Why 1984 won't be like '1984' " - The Ridley Scott commercial
" I want to stop the world in its tracks" -
so said the memo from Steve J obs to the
advertising agency tasked with creating a
Macintosh ad slated to run during the Super
Bowl.
The commercial, directed by Blade Runner
director Ridley Scott, immediately became
legend in advertising circles and cemented
itself in the cultural zeitgeist.
The 60-second spot harkened back to
George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen
Eight-Four. The concept: Expressionless
men cast under a grey-blue light march
down a long corridor into a room with a giant
screen featuring the image of Big Brother.
Meanwhile, security guards pursue a young
woman, but she outruns them. She
approaches Big Brother and throws a
sledgehammer, shattering the screen as
white light floods the room. The ad closes
with, "On J anuary 24th, Apple Computer will
introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why
1984 won't be like '1984'."
Members of the Apple board didn't like the
ad - so much so that the chairman
immediately called for a motion to fire the ad
agency, recalled copywriter Steve Hayden in
Adweek. But co-founders Steve J obs and
Steve Wozniak persisted and the 60-second
ad aired during the third quarter of the
Super Bowl. Hayden also noted that a 30-
second version also aired in the top 10 U.S.
markets - and Boca Raton, Fla.,
headquarters for IBM's PC division.
More than 90 million people watched the ad,
later deemed among the greatest television
commercials ever.
Two days after the Super Bowl , a 28-year-old J obs
donned a bowtie and demonstrated the Macintosh before a
crowd of Apple employees, shareholders and journalists.
The theatrical reveal was a hint of things to come from
Apple, a company that has thrived on event marketing and
hyping new products with a slow - if not always fulfilling -
tease.
Some trickery was deployed before the big event. The
demonstration computer was outfitted with extra memory so
it could perform more feats than a typical 128K - including a
speech in which the Macintosh introduced itself. The crowd
The rise of the Apple hype machine
Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing - Interactive - CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/mac30/[24/01/2014 7:00:29 AM]
went wild for the talking computer, according to biographer
Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs. Audience members
jumped from their seats and pumped their fists in an effusive
five-minute standing ovation. J obs - known for his steely
and at times cutthroat style - smiled and nodded before
choking up, according to Isaacson.
In later years, J obs swapped the bowtie for a black
turtleneck and jeans at events that came to be called
"Stevenotes." He also coined the catchphrase "one more
thing" - a remark delivered with a knowing grin before the
unveiling of new products including the iPod Mini, the iPod
Shuffle and the MacBook Pro.
Buying up Newsweek - The advertising blitz
In an unprecedented move, Apple
purchased all of the advertising space in a
special edition of Newsweek
commemorating the win of U.S. President
Ronald Reagan.
J obs and Apple CEO J ohn Sculley, who had
been recruited from PepsiCo, conceived of
the massive spread after viewing the
curiously cryptic 1984 ad, recalled adman
Steve Hayden in Adweek. J obs and Sculley
felt there would be an "information vacuum"
and ordered up the $2.5-million ad
campaign, laying out the case to consumers
as to why they should buy the computer.
The ad was lighthearted and crisp: "For the
first time in recorded computer history,
hardware engineers actually talked to
software engineers in moderate tones of
voice, and both were united by a common
goal: to build the most powerful, most
portable, most flexible, most versatile
computer not-very-much-money could buy."
In the pages that followed, Apple laid out its
new features (including the mouse, fonts,
the ability to cut and paste, its drawing
program) and also compared how the Mac
handled word processing and number
crunching as compared with the IBM PC.
It also featured testimonials, including one
from a young Bill Gates. Gates, who would
later spar with J obs over the Windows
Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing - Interactive - CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/mac30/[24/01/2014 7:00:29 AM]
operating system, is shown in the
advertisement alongside the presidents of
Lotus and Software Publishing Corporation.
"To create a new standard takes something
that's not just a little bit different," Gates is
quoted as saying. "It takes something that's
really new and captures people's
imaginations. Macintosh meets that
standard."
In 1979, Apple and Xerox struck a deal.
Xerox agreed to show its technology under
development in exchange for 100,000 shares in
the company. After much negotiation, Xerox
programmers showed J obs and the Apple team
its programming language Smalltalk.
"It was like a veil being lifted from my eyes,"
J obs said, according to the Isaacson biography
Steve Jobs. "I could see what the future of
computing was destined to be."
What J obs observed was a departure from the
traditional command lines and DOS prompts.
The new system used a graphical user
interface - with windows, icons and menus - on
a bitmapped screen. Xerox was also using a
mouse, which was invented in 1963, with its
computers. Apple mimicked this new operating
system with their 1983 Lisa, though this
machine failed to catch on with the public owing
in part to its high price.
In a bid to force consumers to embrace the
mouse, Apple left the arrow keys of the Mac
keyboard. Computer shops touted the
innovation and offered workshops to the
curious.
Fred Lebolt writing in Toronto's Sunday Star
remarked on how easy the new machine was to
use. "By rolling the mouse on the desk, you
move the cursor anywhere on the screen. The
cursor points to various commands -
represented by pictures or words on the screen
- and then you push a button on the mouse,"
he wrote. "That's it. No memorizing complicated
command symbols, no special-function keys,
no necessity to hit three keys at once to get
something done."
Behold a new pointing device called "The Mouse"
'The Miracle of miniaturization': Computers now portable
In the modern age of skinny
smartphones, the notion of a "portable"
device weighing 16 pounds (7.3 kg) seems
laughable. But in 1984, the Macintosh
seemed a waif of a machine and Apple
touted its size calling it a "miracle of
miniaturization" in its ads. By comparison,
IBM's Portable PC, released in 1975,
weighed 55 pounds (25 kg) and the
Compaq Portable, released in 1986, was
still a hefty 26 pounds (11.8 kg).
Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing - Interactive - CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/mac30/[24/01/2014 7:00:29 AM]
Observers were impressed with the sleek
Macintosh, emphasizing the importance of
being able to take what you want, where
you want.
Writer Larry Magid in a review in the Los
Angeles Times observed, "The entire
system can be slipped into an optional ($99)
padded carrying case to be hoisted over
your shoulder or placed under an airline
seat. The case and computer together
weigh 22 pounds."
Apple would continue to focus on portable
products with its game-changing iPods,
svelte MacBook airs, and slim iPads.
" Who out there in the general marketplace even knows what
a 'font' is?" asked J ohn C. Dvorak in a Macintosh review
published in the San Francisco Examiner. The question was fair
enough. After all, before the MacWrite word processor, fonts
were the business of professional typesetters.
A review in the New York Times remarked on the
groundbreaking novelty.
"MacWrite is a word-processing package the likes of which you
have never seen on a personal computer," wrote Erik
Sandberg-Diment. "Being graphics oriented, it gives you a
choice of numerous type faces, similar to Helvetica, Bodoni,
Times Roman, etc. You can use all these fonts in plain text,
bold, italic, outline or shadow."
But MacWrite was not without its quirks. Sandberg-Diment
noted that MacWrite had distinct workflow problems - notably
that it had a limited file length of up to 10 pages. "It is like
having a filing cabinet that will hold only folders of the same
capacity," said the review. "If you need to prepare a 20-page
report, you will have to separate it into two sections. That is not
too convenient." The review also remarked that printing was
unusually slow.
The addition of the mouse to the computer also allowed for
innovation in design programs. With MacPaint, users could
paint and doodle as they would using a canvas or sketchpad -
an innovation marveled at by iconic pop artist Andy Warhol,
who encountered the machine at a 9th birthday party for Sean
Lennon. J obs had brought a Mac as a present to the party.
Warhol was at first confused by the mouse, said journalist
David Sheff in PBS's Steve Jobs: One Last Thing.
"Andy sort of fooled around with it and he was completely
mesmerized," Sheff said in the documentary. "I mean when he
zoned in on something the rest of the world disappeared and
that is what it was like watching Warhol in front of a Macintosh
for the first time. And then you know he got this big smile on his
face and he said, 'I drew a circle.'"
A new set of tools: Fonts, bold, italics and paint
Mac at 30: How Apple revolutionized cool computing - Interactive - CBC.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/mac30/[24/01/2014 7:00:29 AM]
Producers: Tara Kimura | Robert Vajda
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