A Top 10 List written because of Lists
First I would like to wonder why there are so many top lists today about Apple. Today is not about Apple, it’s about the Macintosh. Apple’s birthday is on April 1st. Along with this, I see the same old list made every year. Ones that take little time to think. The simple blog post to get as many hits as possible. After timing myself, This one took about 2 hours to write.
I’m doing this not for the hits, but to create my own list, because I couldn’t stand the lists I saw today. This is just my opinion, so you can agree or disagree with me. Below, are the links to the list based articles from today and yesterday:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1873486_1873491,00.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/138404/2009/01/macat25_worstproducts.html
http://www.cio.com/special/slideshows/2009/01/mac_evolution/index#slideshow
This will not be about Apple’s success, rather this is about the industry as a whole. What Apple has done to the world rather than what it has done to itself. Personally I don’t like lists, so I don’t care if you like it or hate it, I understand.
1. Apple II, 1977
Before the Apple II, was the Apple I. This device is normally listed, however the Apple I really only helped Apple’s success to make the Apple II. The Apple II is what really got the personal computer market going. Apple didn’t make the first personal computer, but they led to the creation of the market. To this day, the Apple II is the most popular computer brand.
2. Macintosh, 1984
The Macintosh was nothing more than a cheap version of the Lisa. The Lisa was Apple’s first attempt at a graphical user interface, however the hardware costs were tremendous. No one could afford it. Much of Lisa, like it’s graphics engine, was ported over to the Mac. At 1/3 the price, the Macintosh finally made a graphical interface cheap and practical. However, Apple’s roadmap had changed for the Mac wasn’t the success they hoped it to be. It was meant for prosumers, educators, and businesses. However the Apple II kept the consumer and educator market. Many business didn’t want it do to no command-line and little upgradability. The Macintosh, though not a marketing success, helped change the world. Apple is one major reason for people using the mouse, Windows’ interface was originally based on the Mac OS (an agreement made between Apple and Microsoft). The Mac forever changed the way people use operating systems, and not just for personal computers.
3. HyperCard, 1985
Not many remember HyperCard. It was a card based hypermedia platform for Macs. What that means is, you could create applications through hyperlinks and these stacks of cards. The cards you can think of as windows in a program. HyperCard was a huge success, however Apple shunned it in the early 90s, passing it off to it’s other company: Claris. HyperCard changed the world for everyone. It is a founding ingredient used for the World Wide Web. JavaScript was inspired and slightly based on HyperTalk, HTTP was inspired by HyperCard, and so was the concept for HTML based webpages. HyperTalk is still alive today in Mac OS X through its clone: Applescript. Automator, an application that comes with Mac OS X, creates Applescript based workflows.
4. Newton, 1989 (development stage)
The Macintosh was a revolution for personal computers, however Apple wanted to go even further. They wanted to create smaller, more portable personal computers. They soon created the Newton platform, a personal computing operating system designed for their smaller pocket sized devices. John Sculley (Apple’s CEO), when showing off the Newton, coined the term “Personal Digital Assistant” starting the market and industry for PDAs. Newton never took off, but it paved the way for other companies. Palm alone, owes a great deal to Apple, for helping them get a foot in the PDA market. At this point in time, the iPhone OS has take Newton’s spot on Apple’s product list. Newton was cancelled in 1998, the beginnings of the iPhone appeared in 1999.
5. Powerbook, 1991
To this day, all companies still design laptops based on Apple’s simple design philosophy that was invented for the Powerbook, the most important parts are the keyboard, trackpad, screen, and the placements of those parts. It took another 5 years for other companies to finally catch up.
6. Pippin, 1995
In the mid 90s, the market was going towards the world wide web and more multimedia based platforms. Apple was one company that went many years ahead, however, doing so can be fatal to that product. This time, it was fatal to Pippin. Most people see the Pippin as a gaming device, which is the reason it stood no chance again the N64 and Playstation. The Pippin was in fact nothing more than a multimedia center, like most game consoles these days. It was a Mac based platform that used a game like controller, You could run Mac apps like Navigator to surf the web, watch movies, listen to music, or play games. I see Pippin as the first true modern media center.
7. USB, 1996 (standard in 1998)
Apple is not the creator of USB, but the company that dropped the old serial technology and adopted it. They, in other words, made USB the standard starting with the iMac.
8. Mac OS X, 2001 (1988, NeXTstep; 1994 OPENSTEP)
Through the years Apple has been known as a closed, proprietary company. They have used their own designed hardware and software. They made a few open products, including their own Linux distro in 96, however it was Mac OS X and Steve Jobs that got Apple into the open world. When Steve Jobs showed Mac OS X in 2001, he said the Mac OS is now like Linux. This has helped strength the Open source industry, even though many don’t want to believe it.
9. Webkit 2003
Webkit has brought Apple into the web market, which has brought OS X. One example of this is the new Canvas element. This allows 2D, and soon 3D, drawing inside web browsers. This has been done before, however the drawing techniques and technology comes from OS X. Besides this, Webkit has been added to many newer browser including Safari, Chrome, OmniWeb, iCab, Swift, Android’s browser, Nokia’s mobile browser, and many others. Last year, Steve Ballmer(Microsoft CEO) had mentioned that they may look at Webkit in future versions of Internet Explorer. It is now slowing taking over a good portion of the web market. It’s development is constantly going, adding support to newer technologies faster than other engines.
10. Snow Leopard, 2009
Though this is a bit early to say much, Snow Leopard will finally make 64bit and multi-core computing mainstream for millions of Mac users.