A Bunker Year for Apple
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I had loudly proclaimed the eminent death of Apple several times in the past. A cute computer with a fuzzy wuzzy name? Design choices that included not installing a cooling fan on Apple III’s because it was "inelegant?" A limited software library? A monochrome only display? Heck, an operating system other than DOS or Windows? It is not often that I fully own up to a mistake.
I hate admitting that I am wrong, and in the past I have always tried to talk my way out of those mistakes.
Not this time though. This time I’m glad to admit that I was 100% wrong. I freely admit it. In fact, if I was so athletically inclined, I would be doing cartwheels down the street over my mistake.
You see, at the time of my predictions, IBM compatible computers were cheaper, more widespread, easily modified, and had a much larger software library. Of course, conforming and going with the masses is always an easier choice; it’s supposedly the smarter thing to do in these cases.
A good example is that in 1994 Apple’s Macintosh series computers using a processor designed by Apple, Motorola and IBM. If you recall, 1994 is about the year that Intel took over the world as the most dominant processor manufacturer. Programs written for one kind of processor could not be used on the other unless they were recoded. Being that IBM compatible computers were more common, who do you think got access to the latest software, peripherals, and games?
And for me, the kicker was Apple always seeming to stress a snazzy design and aestheticsover actual functionality and upgradeability. I had sold out long ago, joining the evil empire, the cult of Microsoft. I sacrificed the virgins of open source, innovation and operating system stability (damn you, blue screen of death!) at the alter of Bill Gates.
It was then, when casting my gaze upon the ramifications of having just one company make an operating system for almost every computer in the land, I realized the error of my ways. After patch upon patch upon patch to fix glitches for Windows and Internet Explorer I realized, “Hey, maybe it’s a bad idea for everyone in the world to be using the exact same operating system, with the exact same security vulnerabilities, and general problems.”
Showcasing this problem, in October of 2001, Microsoft admitted that its corporate network had been hacked and source code for future Windows products has been seen.
So I looked back, back towards the “Small Little Computer Company That Could” which had fallen so far behind.
But guess what I realized: Apple never really died off. It actually limped along through the late 80’s and 90’s, despite being thrashed sales and market share-wise by Microsoft. It was supported by Apple loyalists, people who loved the general design philosophy of Steve Jobs and Co. Macs were still used to a great extent in the publishing world, only recently starting to lose its dominance to other companies, like Adobe.
Next: The Dawn of iPod >>
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