hello... I am Macintosh Dorinda Livesay IXDS 5403 Media History and Theory Professor David Meyers August 6, 2016
APPLE Macintosh On January 24, 1984, Steve Jobs revealed the computer, Macintosh. This computer would revolutionize the entire computer industry. Jobs’s vision of how the computer should work and fit into our lives has not changed over the last 30 years. The impact is astounding. The introduction not only was an insight to what our lives would be with computers but also an introduction to his company, Apple. Apple had many struggled throughout the years. It changed the industry, lost its way, found its way back and set standards for the future computer generations. The Macintosh was a project that was started in the 1970 from the vision of Jef Raskin, who was an employee with Apple. He envisioned an easy to use, low cost computer for the average customer (a.k.a real people). The Macintosh was the first of its kind to use graphical user interface, a mouse and cutting-edge technology. It was also Apple’s first mass-market personal computer. Raskin named the computer after his favorite apple, the McIntosh. The spelling had to be changed for legal reasons to be spelled “Macintosh”. When trademarking the name McIntosh, Apple learned of another company, McIntosh Laboratory carried the same name. Apple asked McIntosh to release the name so that they could use it but was denied. The first model was named “Macintosh 128k”. Over the years, Macintosh’s name was phased out and become known as “Mac” or “the Mac”.
“Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn”.-- Steve Jobs
The Macintosh was not perfect. Once the operating systems was installed there was not enough left for memory. It did not have color graphics, incompatible with MS-DOS, was not expandable, was monochrome, and only had one storage option: microfloppy. Another problem that developed for the Macintosh was that it was very expensive. This hindered its ability to compete in the market which was already dominated by other personal computers. Although, it still found success in education and desktop publishing areas.
In the early 80’s, Apple sold a computer known as the Apple II. It had become the world’s most popular computer, which made Apple the fastest growing company in American business history. Through the years, Apple developed several more computers. Prior to the Macintosh, Apple Lisa was built for the next-generation yet it was too expensive for the average customer to purchase. After Lisa, Apple made several changes were made, which made production more cost-efficient. The final was the Macintosh. The design was self-contained with complete operating systems. With this innovation of the Macintosh, Apple was able to reclaim the leadership of the personal computer. Over the years, the Macintosh established several different lines of computers, computer software, etc. Prior to incorporating its own software, Apple made an effort to work with other developers from other companies to write programs for the Macintosh. In launching the Macintosh, Apple readjusted its advertising budget from $500 to $2495. The campaign was aimed directly against IBM. This placed Apple in s financial strain, along with the failure of Lisa. The Macintosh did save Apple Computers from ruins. But, that was not fully, due to being brought on to the market later, most consumers had already purchased their computer. The sales of the Macintosh did not meet the sales goals that Apple had predicted. During this time, while working out the bugs in the Macintosh and repairing from the miscalculation of sales, Apple lost several great opportunities to establish the Macintosh as the general industry standard. It was not until in later years, that Apple began to climb to the top to become the best over the past three decades.
Over the years the Macintosh series developed. After the introduction of the Macintosh, in October 1984, the Macintosh 512K was introduced, with quadruple the memory space. In 1985, Macintosh combined Apple’s LaserWriter and a specific software such as MacPublisher and Aldus Page Maker, which enabled users to design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics (known as desktop publishing). Desktop publishing became unique only to the Macintosh. In 1986, the Macintosh Plus was introduced. It was a lot more powerful, offered one megabyte of RAM that could expandable to 4 megabytes, it featured SCSI parallel interface, could attached up to seven items such as hard drives and scanners, and increased the capacity of the floppy drive to 800kB. The Macintosh Plus was success and remained in production until 1990. It is the longest lived Macintosh in the Apple’s history. Also in September 1986, the Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop was introduced. This application allowed software developers to create software the Macintosh on the Macintosh. In 1987, the HyperCard was unveiled along with the MultiFinder, creating the ability to multitask on the Macintosh. This was the beginning of Apple bundling programs together with every Macintosh computer sold. Apple also introduced the Macintosh II in 1987. The Macintosh II was more powerful and had more expandability. The most exciting addition to the Macintosh II was that it could power a color display called Color QuickDraw. The QuickDraw had the ability to handle any display size, color depth and multiple monitors. With the Macintosh II, it leads Apple to focus on a new direction with their computers.
In addition to the release of the Macintosh II, the Macintosh SE was released. It was the first compact computer with 20MB internal hard drive and an expansion slot. Also in 1987, Claris was a software business released by Apple. It was the code and applications to MacWrite, MacPaint, and MacProject. The titles were changed later to MacWrite Pro, MacDraw Pro and FileMaker Pro. By 1990’s the all the applications were shipped with the consumer-level Macintoshes. Claris was reincorporated in 1998 as AppleWorks. In 1988, Apple releases the Macintosh IIx, which had major internal improvements done. Later the Macintosh IIcx appeared, a more compact version of the Mac SE with few slots. Apple released another released computer called the Macintosh IIci, which was the first to “32 bits clean.”
"I want to put a ding in the universe." -- Steve Jobs
In 1989, Apple released the Macintosh IIfx, which had significant internal improvements, faster memory and two CPUs dedicated to I/O processing. The Macintosh Portable was also released. The laptop was a major for the company. It only weighed 15.8 pounds. Quite impressive but slow and costly. The Macintosh Portable was eventually replaced by the PowerBook line due to design issues. In 1990, Apple created a range of inexpensive Macintoshes. The less expensive one was the Macintosh Classic, the Macintosh LC, which offered color graphics and lost cost monitor, and the Macintosh IIsi, which was an upgrade to the Macintosh IIci with one expansion slot. Throughout the 90’s, Apple continued to improve upon computers with new improved versions. The iMac was born in 1998, the all in one computer with its translucent case in a variety of colors. The floppy disk was replaced by the CD-ROM drive and the standard connections were replaced by USB ports. The success of the iMac was phenomenal. There were 800,000 units sold in just 139 days from its release. Later that year, the iBook was released and became Apple’s first consumer-level laptop computer. During this time, was when the Macintosh name was simplified to Mac. In 2001 Apple shipped all their computers with CD-RW drives. The Mac Mini was introduced in 2005 and became the cheapest Mac at $499. It was also announced in 2005 that the Mac OS X was developed to run on both Intel and PowerPC. By doing this it helped modernize company’s computer systems.
The Macintosh Portable Apple’s First Laptop
The Mac expands from more than 30 years in the computer business. This only scratches the surface of how the Mac computer impact the lives of the average person. Apple and Steve Jobs realized early on that users would always pay for better technology. They still strive in doing that today.
Macintosh Timeline
REFERENCES Macintosh. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh Pierce, D. (2014, January 24). The Mac turns 30: A visual history. Retrieved August 15, 2016, from http://www.theverge. com/2014/1/24/5340320/the-mac-turns-30-a-visual-history Apple Macintosh. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2016, from http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Personal/Macintosh.html Dernbach, C. (n.d.). The History of the Apple Macintosh. Retrieved August 15, 2016, from http://www.mac-history.net/top/2011-01-24/ the-history-of-the-apple-macintosh