![]() ![]() Style now matters, and that started with the iMac. IMac started the trend towards the consumerization of the computer industry, and the injection of high style into desktop computers. Apple’s Swift OOP technologies continue to build on this foundation. It also played a role in the World Wide Web, which Tim Berners-Lee developed on a NeXT box. The reasons for such rapid and rich application development on iPhone, iPad, and Mac all stem from the object oriented programming (OOP) development technologies developed at NeXT and advanced at Apple as Xcode. Both have modern Unix under the hood, incredible display technology, modern operating system libraries and a slew of other advancements. MacOS/OS X is NeXTstep plain and simple the libraries still refer to NeXT. DTP technologies would later morph and beget many web publishing technologies we continue to enjoy today. The Mac, Postscript, AppleTalk, PageMaker, and the 300dpi goodness of LaserWriter allowed the masses to create beautiful (or gaudy) layouts, ushering in desktop publishing. ![]() Right before Steve was invited to leave Apple he helped bring the world the ability to produce high quality print and layout with the LaserWriter. This is the computer that brought the graphical user interface to the masses, or “the rest of us,” as Steve Jobs said at the time. This got the Graphical User Interface on its way towards becoming mainstream. Steve Jobs was booted from the Lisa group, but he got the ball rolling with his stroll/deal with Xerox. Again, The Woz gets all the tech credit, but Steve Jobs sold it and had the vision. Steve Wozniak deserves all the tech Kudos here, but Steve Jobs was key in seeing its potential and then selling it.Īpple II was first “total package” computer the average person could bring home, plug in, and go. The Original List of Apple Revolutions 1Īpple I ushered in the concept of powerful personal computers that mere mortals could obtain. In that most important of ways, Apple continues to be what it has always been. I mean, what do I have to do to get a new MacBook Pro with 2TB of SSD storage? But I’m super comforted Apple has continued the more important tradition of innovating on big milestone projects. I’ve groused about Apple’s failure to scale and inability to release regular updates to its tried and true product lines. The table shows these innovations come in stalls and fits. The gaps grow even wider if you limit yourself to just the ‘mega’ revolutions. There’s a four year gap between the release of iTunes Music Store and iPhone. There was either a 10 year (measuring from the NeXTstep acquisition of NeXT by Apple) or 13 year (measuring from the DTP revolution) gap before Apple came out with the iMac. If you look at the time-line, it took six years for Apple to come up with the Lisa after the Apple II. My view is that between the two, Apple should get credit for at least one mega project.Īnother thing to note: it’s not reasonable to expect a revolution every other year. Conversely, pessimists might argue Siri was mostly completed during Steve Jobs’ tenure, and that Apple Watch ain’t mega. One can argue that Apple released at least one mega product post-Steve Jobs, Siri. iTunes/App Store/Digital Commerce & Distribution.Eight of them (marked by asterisks) were really mega revolutions that rocked the tech world: While all 21 revolutions in the full timeline are killer, some are more important than others. They redefined how we interact with devices with biometric security (TouchID), payments (Apple Pay), and the car industry’s locked infotainment juggernaut (CarPlay). Even if you discount Apple Watch and Siri (because Steve Jobs was involved), that’s still three solid innovations since Mr. The time-line below shows Apple ahead of that pace with Siri, TouchID, Apple Pay, CarPlay, and (arguably) Apple Watch. So to be on pace, Apple would need three such revolutionary products in the last six years. In the earlier article, I noted that Steve was responsible for some 16 tech revolutions across 30 years or about one product revolution every other year. Five years after Steve’s death, it’s a good time to look back at Apple’s progress based on that track record. Several years ago, I wrote an article pointing out the frequency of major innovations from Apple. I’m happy to report that with regard to major innovations, the state of the union for Apple is strong. When Steve Jobs died in 2011, everyone rightly worried whether Apple could continue to innovate without him. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |