Comments on: Apple’s Jobs tapped France’s Minitel box for pre-internet ideas

By: Xan

Xan — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:13:42 +0000

You’re thinking of Prestel.

That was essentially developed as the UK equivalent of Minitel. It never gained even a tiny fraction of the penetration that Minitel did. That’s largely because of the prevalence of the TV-based teletext services CEEFAX and Oracle, and also because it was damned expensive.

Minitel’s success is largely down to the fact that millions of terminals were given away for free, thus ensuring a large customer-base which made the platform attractive to content providers.

By: Indentured1

Indentured1 — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:13:59 +0000

“Who cares about who invented what when”? Evidently you do.

By: AvantiAAPL

AvantiAAPL — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:10:39 +0000

The Minitel was conceived to do away with PRINTING phone books, then expanded for other services!!

By: TomCatMac

TomCatMac — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:09:02 +0000

I remember back in the 70′s as a kid watching a documentary about it and I thought it was pretty cool… I told my dad about it and he asked me how to get it… told him it was only in available in France. Years passed and before he passed away a couple of years ago, he reminded me about it and I had then a vague memory of it and now this article brings it back.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:59:52 +0000

36 15 …I remember it well when I lived in France in’88

By: rolf

rolf — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:43:03 +0000

a little history:

Arpanet (1969) US Dept. of Defense
MiniTel (1974 à 1981) 5yrs after Arpanet but 17 years before the web!

here’s the Apple timeline MiniTel influenced since its invention 1974:
eWorld (1994 jun20 > mar31 1996)
– eMail Center + news + bulletin board system or Community Ctr
- 1st proper noun with a lowercase prefix; )
– PC vers planned but entire serv too exp/weak mrktg
iTools (2001-01-05)
iDisk (2000-01-05 > 2012-06-30)
.Mac (2002-07-17)
MobileMe (2008-07-09) since iPhone2; $99/yr 20GB
iWork.com (2009-01-06) beta launched @MW SF
iCloud (2011-10-12 public / jun6 dev) 5G free/$40yr+20G/$100yr+50G;
- only count mail/doc/backup, rest free: iTunes buys+PhotoStream)

great Apple essence resource: http://www.Stevessence.com/blog

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:35:55 +0000

Britain had/has similar networks. They are called CEEFAX and…….I forget the name of the other one. Basicly they allow you to read and interact with News, Stocks, banking, Advertising and interaction with live programming over the TV network such as voting.

It has been around as long as I can remember…going as far back as early 1970′s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceefax

By: rolf

rolf — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:35:54 +0000

France’s Minitel was not just fantastic, but revolutionary for its time. we now take it for granted. we don’t even give it credit as the precursor of the internet!

shame France missed the chance to take it to the Next step. as usual, inventors, whether Minitel/France Telecom or our u.s. Xerox Parc, as once inventing 1 revolution, sleeping on its laurels in ego, versus pushing it further, sustaining or surpassing the momentum.

the most creatively inventive country, ingenious folk, are the Brits. before you shout, yeah, it’s not our usa, and the reason we don’t hear much of all the british inventions or revolutions, is that 1. we never leave our country to learn this from our stifled politically correct but retarded media, and 2. the Brits suffer from poor seed funds, so their ideas get backed by foreigners who then stamp their Made in XXX on it. Brits don’t get credit. just as happened with Minitel.

anyway, in the end, who cares about who invented what when. what matters is, as with Apple, who never claims to invent, but to do it better. faster. smoother. more reliable. easier. ubiquitous etc.

By: Tine

Tine — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:01:40 +0000

3615 Ulla

By: Ellis D.

Ellis D. — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:33:57 +0000

I used Minitel in Pre-Internet 1990s France to book train travel. It was a revelation, and a glimpse of things to come.

I can see why Steve was fascinated by this simple device.

By: hannahjs

hannahjs — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:05:53 +0000

Minitel was a cash cow for France Telecom, employing proprietary technology and resisting competing networking schemes, including the Internet, as long as possible; thereby squandering an opportunity for France to seize technical leadership. This according to commenters to the original story in http://www.economiematin.fr

Sounds familiar, somehow…

By: Todd fabacher

Todd fabacher — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:57:38 +0000

I used it when I lived in France, and I will tell you it was FANTASTIC for it’s time. Not graphical, but – good, cheap and fast.