Comments on: Has the Last 30 Years at Apple Been as Good as the First 10? http://svenontech.com/2006/03/29/has-the-last-30-years-at-apple-been-as-good-as-the-first-10/ The technology resource you can't resist! Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: mark http://svenontech.com/2006/03/29/has-the-last-30-years-at-apple-been-as-good-as-the-first-10/comment-page-1/#comment-14685 mark Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:45:58 +0000 http://svenontech.com/2006/03/29/has-the-last-30-years-at-apple-been-as-good-as-the-first-10/#comment-14685 Instead of looking at the 10/20 split, I'd just say that the years with Jobs and Wozniak are better than the years without them. 1976-1985: Apple II, IIe, IIc, Mac, MacOS, MacPaint/MacDraw, Laserwriter 1997-2006: iMac, MacOS X, iPod, iTunes/iTMS, iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, not-so-much iDVD) I include the software apps (MacPaint, MacDraw, iLife) because they were important in bringing much more costly/complicated solutions to the mainstream user for the first time - spurring innovation outside of Apple as well. MacPaint/Draw led to things by others such as Pagemaker, Illustrator, Director - they led people to see that PCs could be used for things other than text. I think the iMac was important in that it broke the beige-box mentality, and now computers could actually be evaluated on design and aesthetics. Mac OS X is a dramatically different beast than OS 9, and a solid base for the future; Pink, Taligent, Rhapsody, Copland were all OS projects that failed to deliver. The iPod/iTunes/iTMS established a completely new market. During 1986-1996, I think the highlights were the Powerbook, Hypercard, Newton, Inkwell. The middle two were great ideas that were ahead of their time (and poorly understood by Apple mgmt as to how to develop/parlay/market them further), and eventually failed. The people who established PDAs (Palm, Handspring) came from Apple. Inkwell, which started under Newton, might still turn out to be useful someday. Instead of looking at the 10/20 split, I’d just say that the years with Jobs and Wozniak are better than the years without them.

1976-1985: Apple II, IIe, IIc, Mac, MacOS, MacPaint/MacDraw, Laserwriter
1997-2006: iMac, MacOS X, iPod, iTunes/iTMS, iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, not-so-much iDVD)

I include the software apps (MacPaint, MacDraw, iLife) because they were important in bringing much more costly/complicated solutions to the mainstream user for the first time – spurring innovation outside of Apple as well. MacPaint/Draw led to things by others such as Pagemaker, Illustrator, Director – they led people to see that PCs could be used for things other than text. I think the iMac was important in that it broke the beige-box mentality, and now computers could actually be evaluated on design and aesthetics. Mac OS X is a dramatically different beast than OS 9, and a solid base for the future; Pink, Taligent, Rhapsody, Copland were all OS projects that failed to deliver. The iPod/iTunes/iTMS established a completely new market.

During 1986-1996, I think the highlights were the Powerbook, Hypercard, Newton, Inkwell. The middle two were great ideas that were ahead of their time (and poorly understood by Apple mgmt as to how to develop/parlay/market them further), and eventually failed. The people who established PDAs (Palm, Handspring) came from Apple. Inkwell, which started under Newton, might still turn out to be useful someday.

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