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Wow! I want one!
It’s interesting though that Steve Jobs in the clip from 1981 was talking how he didn’t want it to go down like a “1984”.
Thought it’s interesting also that I’ve had a computer now since 1979 when I got an Apple ][ when I was just 17. Ah…the memories…..
“Worlds largest backyard fence”?..Yea right! That will never happen!
#1. and # 2. What the hell are you two doing up so early ?!?
On the other hand..( what I usually do if I’m up so early..:)
I really applauded the work ethic they tried to introduce but, I didn’t believe it would work any more than the rest of the folks.
I had a hard time getting past that woman’s drawn-on eyebrows.
Thanks to Steve Jobs??? Geez. The whole thing began with the Altair not Steve Jobs. This shows how the major media is slow on the draw. The Estridge prediction about the Internet (kind of) was astonishing though.
GOD, Im old…
Geez John, what did Steve Jobs do to you? He kick your dog or refuse to be interviewed by you or what?
Oh look, something mentions Apple and John C. Dvorak is bashing it in some way. (yawn)
Awesome clips! I especially liked the Shatner Vic-20 commercial. Apple’s revisionest claims in advertising go back a long way. If you want to get a true account of those days check out “On the Edge: The Rise and Fall of Commodore” by Brian Bagnall. Great book on Commodore and the whole PC industry of the late 70′ s and early 80’s.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in ’79, I was computing on the great OSI Superboard II. Loved that thing. Full-size keyboard on a board of electronics and it plugged into a monitor, not a TV. It had 4K memory which I upgraded to 8K. Oh, the sublime power and the glory. The ROM BASIC programs you created were stored on a cassette tape. It sounded like this: drrtrrdttrdttrrdttttrdddttter. I actually created a cool “shoot-the-flying-saucer-with-a-missile” game. I still have the thing and will one day resurrect it.
http://tinyurl.com/up8kd
http://tinyurl.com/y8p5eb
You think back now and wonder how different things might have been if you’d just taken the whole thing a little more seriously and actually invested into some of the companies of that era that looked like they were in for keeps and would dominate. I wonder how my Ashton-Tate shares would be doing now? (cough).
RBG
John – it IS thanks to Steve Jobs.
Apple made and, most important, marketed to normal people. They really created the mindset that built PC’s into a viable home gadget, not just for geeks.
They didn’t invent PC’s, they didn’t invent nice UIs, and they didn’t really do too many firsts, but what they have always (and.. still are I guess) been good at is taking concepts and doing them well for general consumption.. plus they make them pretty.
#10: You’re forgetting the TRS-80. It was used by a lot of businesses and home users despite a variety of quirks. Oh, how I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of mine. I wonder how much it would be worth. Still have my KIM-1 board, though.
#10
Normal people did not spend ~$2000 on a computer in 1980, the price point for an Apple (for reference, a Ford Mustang was $6,500 in 1980). Normal people did not buy computers that early in history.
In my travels through the BBS scene from 1984-1987, I found that the community was dominated by Commodore. However, there existed numerous incompatible brands strewn across the digital wasteland back then. Many of these brands advertised in mainstream magazines and on TV; although, the serious machines appeared to be CP/M based, and hid in business publications. The Apple was a slickly packaged, expensive, member of these diverse marketing corps.
And IMS, normal people started buying IBM clones in 1988, or so.
Yes, if you were upper middle class+, you probably bought an Apple to run educational software for your children. And if your children had the aptitude, they were probably hacking into whatever they could find (via modem). You may have also used your Apple to print banners, or play “video games”, or type text into it for printing (like a high-priced typewriter that printed in dot-matrix). The Apple hardly did anything for the general consumption of computers, other than create techno-lust.
Who cares? I just like the hair! Woot
Wow- that looked like a PC (or an XT) still on the line- not covered with scratches and dings and abandoned at the Salvation Army.
BL – you missed my entire point – it’s about headspace.
Plus I know a LOT of people that bought apple in the early 80s.. and just for home users. They weren’t geeks, they just needed a home machine to make their lives easier.
However that is not the point – the point is how Apple made PC’s friendly and acceptable. They had cute names, they made the pretty, they created a PC shaped space in the publics brains. They didn’t fill it completely, but the shape was there for the future.
the TRS-80 was a great machine, but it didn’t do that.
Well, in my opinion, it was IBM that popularized the PC. All those others, Radio Shack, Apple, Osborne, Commodore, and whatever were toys. It was the IBM PC marketed to business people that took the PC from a game / novelty toy to a useful item. IBM, in fact, was so popular that pretty soon, all those other makers either bit the dust or copied IBM. Well, except for that one company satisfied with 4% of the market.
AMIGA RULES….FOREVER
My first computer was the TRS80 – then in 1979 my dad bought me an Apple II in which he had to get an Apple credit card to make payments. The computer was $2,200.00 back then.
No hard drive just the floppy. We also had a 150 baud modem to share files.
Yes Mr. Fusion…and that company with only 4% is dying right? Any….day…now….
#19, ya, but don’t hold your breath too long, those 4% are a pretty loyal bunch.
Last year, I predicted that Apple would sell off its computer division and concentrate on other consumer electronics such as the iPod. I still think it will happen within the next couple of years.
I said it then and I’ll say it now. Anyone that uses a computer has to be a geek.