“I’d be quite content if I never again heard the Intel ‘bong’ at the end of every PC ad,” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “I’d also be terminally depressed if I had to look at a gaudy Intel Inside sticker every time I opened my MacBook.”
“Thankfully, Macs have remained 100% free of Intel branding since Apple adopted its processors way back in 2006,” Segall writes. “We have Steve Jobs’s sensibilities to thank for this. But how it all happened is a fun little story.”
“In 2006, hell officially froze over,” Segall writes. “With his eye on the future, Steve Jobs did the unthinkable. He announced that Apple was transitioning to Intel processors.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank God for Steve Jobs and his legendary attention to detail. He saved us from indignities large and small!
Apple doesn’t do stickers.
Apple certainly has done stickers and I have used many from the various macs I’ve got…
on the computer. You know. Intel inside?
There were stickers on some of the Performas, don’t you remember?
The Power PC “emblem”? I suppose… My memory is of course not perfect being 65.
especially after being riddled with a lifetime of drug abuse.
Hey Bottwipe,
Coming back from Yucca Valley today after making a payment on a place there for my retirement, I ate some of that hybrid edible I like. The one that makes me “think”. I know you are going to latch onto that turd so I’ll just let it go.
Anyway, thinking of you and that coal dust in your nostrils. That is when you can find shift work.
I think you need a story.
he Parable of the Burning Bridge.
I was in Honor Camp. Fighting fires, stream clearance, maintaining fire breaks. It was a crisp cool Autumn night. Crystal clear, leaves rustling slightly. We were standing around the firepit in the visiting area. Maybe 12 feet across, 7 feet deep. Nice fire. Talking about the day. Thing is we were high on PCP. Marveling at the Infinite Bounty of the Universe. The wonder of life. Anyway…….. the fire was dying down.
Bummer.
That’s a drag. So I’m standing there and say, “what about the bridge”. The nice kiddie bridge across the ‘stream’ bed through the visiting area.
I was kidding of course but could see the realization that “what about the bridge”. So the next thing I know, the bridge is across the fire pit.
Simple English Botvinnik. I did not move the bridge.
Well, after the bridge caught, it dawned on people that maybe they should get away from the scene and you could watch people drift off.
Soooooooo…… the bridge was burnt.We enjoyed the PCP.
Riddle me this Batman.
Am I liable, responsible, cause of, etc the burning of the bridge. Should I have learned a lesson about it. Should I confess to a priest?
So, are you saying the group got high and negligently allowed fire from the firepit to spread to the wooden bridge, then ran off?
You say you yelled fire in a crowded forest. That nobody did anything about it is not your fault. Everyone was stoned, but only you retained any presence of mind or sense of social responsibility. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
No… it was a firepit in an honor camp. The bridge burnt, the fire went out…. the camp investigated… Didn’t ask me about it.. Pretty much normal night, except we ran out of wood and because of lack of wood, influence of drugs, etc, the bridge got burnt.
I didn’t burn the bridge. I was joking. Others did. Just an ethical, moral, legal question for bottwipe.
They put the bridge on the fire pit. Almost perfect fit of the bridge across the fire pit.
bottvinnik is the smartest one in the room like tRump.
This is a serious question and has bothered me for over 40 years. That bridge was fun for a lot of kids visiting people. Did I cause its destruction when I made that joke? Since I didn’t try to stop them am I responsible?
So, the fire was dying down and needed fuel so you mentioned the bridge and your buddies went to get it.
Two things – if you hadn’t mentioned the kiddie bridge, would any of the others have thought of it? And once they went to get it, did you want to tell them “I was only kidding,” but didn’t because you were appalled at the power of your own words?
Pretty much…. I didn’t think of the power aspect. Would anyone else have thought of it? Probably not. We were high on PCP. Horse Tranquilizer, so everything was really surreal.
PCP abstracts one from reality. Yet you maintained presence enough to discern a solution to the problem of the dying fire, and voiced it to your comrades as a joke, and have regretted it ever since. Is that about right?
botvinnik may not be inclined to absolve you. So I will. You didn’t mean harm, and although you indirectly caused it, it was not done wilfully or maliciously. Hail Mary, full of grace. May she smile on your future endeavors.
It was definitely surreal with the. Thanks. Do I have to do any kneeling or any of that stuff. My first girlfriend was Catholic. Didi a lot of kneeling and stuff during the heyday of “folk” masses.
Actually not a lifetime for a majority of my life I have done responsible drug use. Try to understand English buttwipe… oops, bottwipe. I practice all things in moderation concerning drugs INCLUDING ALCOHOL. IT IS MY NATURE. I DO NOT HAVE AN ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY.
Ever take over 100 bennies a day bottwipe. Stay awake for 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 days..
And come back from that. Meet Steve Jobs, Bill Gates (gates asked questions about sales…and stuff). Actually BE A FORCE IN THE “COMPUTER BUSINESS”.
And all you got is “riddled with a lifetime of drug abuse”.
You pathetic worm
Watch me double down bottwipe. If any of those interns on mdn was worth their salt, they would be wondering how to leverage these old mac stories and generate some revenue. Get some hits as I put you in your place one weekly basis.
Maybe even a joy of tech serial. What freakin lie did I tell this week. Voting and all.
Yes, I am claiming everything I say is true. Your petty ignorance doesn’t change that.
And hey. I like this hybrid. It allows me to put into words how pathetic you are.
I do remember it was a stated policy regarding Intel, that Apple would not be putting Intel Inside stickers on their machines. That is actually an advertising gimmick, on the same level as crapware installed.
You’re right. But Apple Performas had a shitload of bloatware installed. Thank Jobs that stopped.
NO doubt. Dark days. At that time I was training, doing basic phone support for windows machines, etc, so wasn’t directly involved with the Mac product line or keeping up with things.
It always scalds me to see a Mac on TV that has a sticker over the Apple logo. And it makes me sick to see anything with a Microsoft or Dell logo, because you know those were freebies.
There was a time, when Apple was a small company, when every single hero in a movie or TV show had a Mac, with a prominent glowing white Apple logo clearly visible. Then, at one point, this stopped happening and these days, we will almost always see that logo covered.
The reason is fairly straightforward. Production designers have always preferred the elegant design of Apple devices over anything else, so for TV shows, and often even for movies (which have much greater budgets), they would simply request Apple devices, rather than building some custom boxes. Legal and marketing departments would then check with Apple legal to make sure they are OK with logos showing, and that would be it. Back then, Apple never paid for product placement, but didn’t mind sending free MacBooks or iMacs to the producers for the promotional value of the exposure.
As Apple grew bigger, so did producers realise they were missing out on revenue opportunity. Since the production designers were going to specify Apple devices anyway, the producers figured they may as well make money from product placement. After all, Ford, Kia, Samsung, Blackberry and many others do this all the time, and quite a lot of money changes hands in exchange for prominently placing product into the plot line. However, Apple never budged, they refuse to pay for product placement on TV. Since production designers often don’t want their protagonists with ugly computers, they still get Macs, but because Apple doesn’t want to pay, they cover the logos.
The funniest thing is that, while Ford and Microsoft are paying millions to feature their cars and laptops in a TV show, people still recognize MacBooks and iMacs, even with their logos covered.
Apple has always been extremely successful at getting tons of promotion for free.
Yeah, just look at “Kitchen Stadium” in the Iron Chef America TV show. It’s packed with iMacs with the Apple logo covered with Iron Chef logos.
No, there are no freebie logos on television anymore. Every prop on every set of a major production is a paid placement or else the logo is covered. Surprised that more people haven’t figured this out from observation.
I meant that the products were probably provided for free.
this reminds me how astonishing Steve Jobs was.
in about 10 years in his second tenure he :
– revitalized the Mac line. Going from colourful bubble gum iMacs to sleek Aluminium, from Orange Clamshell iBooks to the Macbook Air.
– he did the incredibly difficult transition from Power PC to Intel and OS9 to OSX ( OSX was based on UNIX Nextstep and had a completely different base. Legacy software had to be supported as programs were re-written. Mind-boggling that it succeeded…)
– in his free time he worked on creating iPod, iTunes (most profitable music retailer in the world) , iPhone, iPad, App Store, Apple retail store (most profitable per square foot stores in the world from zero store experience) , plus a series of award winning kick ass Marketing campaigns (1984, Think Different, etc).
all like I said in about 10 years.
And he did it all single handed, right?
Let’s be honest about why Apple survived the transition from ppc to intel. Steve was a great leader, but he also had a great team and tons of luck.
First, desperation brought focus that Cupertino hasn’t rediscovered since. Side projects were axed (Newton printers etc killed, ipod still years off) and the executive suite wasn’t globe trotting rock stars. Steve wasn’t working on everything all at once. Next, Apple had a vision, it wasn’t just Jobs. Jobs had to do a lot of learning at NEXT and Pixar before the Mac could be revitalized from its late OS 9 stagnation. Only from brutal feedback did Jobs and his team see what high performance computer users were trying to do.
So thankfully, Apple didn’t just rely on happy colors to sell units. Apple served the Pro market too. Graphics users never really left because unlike the recent Mac doldrums, you could always keep up with whatever Compaq (Cook’s company) released. Back then Apple made sure they offered a higher performance machine with the Power Mac. Apple was first in line for Intels latest chips. They were not always striving to meet ives thickness pipedream.
Then there was the safety net. The US DOJ was trying to prevent Microsoft from taking 100% market share. Jobs knew that as long as Apple didn’t ship garbage, the market and investors and ultimately the authorities would reward the high price, high quality company with more time. The big bad US government and EU essentially saved Apples bacon by pinning the bully Microsoft to the playground fence.
But if you will notice, it was not a smooth ride for anyone. Tons of classic software never made the leap to OSX. It wasn’t until Jaguar 10.2 that the Mac was truly solid.
also missing from the fan nostalgia is the reality that by 2008 Jobs was spent. After about that timeframe, the Mac was treated as a second class project and it showed. It remains to be seen if anyone at Apple is willing to work hard enough to gain more than 6% personal computer — that is, a CREATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE personal computer, not a touchscreen consumer thinclient — at any point in the future. We can only hope Apfs is a signal that somebody woke up at Apple.
Interesting and thoughtful perspective.
“And he did it all single handed, right?”
surely when someone talks about a CEO of a mega corp as doing something it’s IMPLICIT there’s staff? Does any regular MDN reader fail to understand this ? and most of my fellow MDN readers (tech aware) are very familiar with Ive, Cook , Forstall etc. My post was just light hearted ‘celebration’ of a great leader.
2) although some of your points are interesting some of it is misleading and incomplete as well (since you’re nitpicking about others incompleteness : “And he did it all single handed, right?” )
for example you say : “The big bad US government and EU essentially saved Apples bacon by pinning the bully Microsoft to the playground fence.”
There’s some truth it that but Apple could easily have been crushed by Microsoft as the Mac line before his return was failing.
(I give so much credit to Jobs because apparently the other CEOs at Apple : Sculley, Spindler, Amelio couldn’t manage … and note they had STAFF to HELP THEM as well! 🙂 )
Apple was at a brink when Jobs came back, as he said later “We were 90 days from going bankrupt.”
Jobs saved the Mac and Apple by getting Ive out of the basement and putting out the revolutionary iMac, clearing up the Windows license dispute with Msft (dropping Apple’s lawsuit in exchange for continued MS Office Mac development etc) and later transitioning to Intel/OsX as IBM was not keeping up with Power PC etc.
(for people’s info the $150 million Msft investment didn’t save it as Apple had over a billion the bank but the burn rate — revenue shortfall — was very high)
Note there were other organizations some way larger than Apple that tried to put out a PC OS and failed like IBM’s OS/2. Apparently the “The big bad US government and EU essentially did NOT save IBM’s PC bacon by pinning the bully Microsoft to the playground fence.” In market share numbers if OS/2 had succeeded it would have been really more significant to the Monopoly concerns of government (as they ran on ‘Windows’ PCs) than Mac as Mac CURRENTLY worldwide isn’t even 10%. Yet the big bad US govt and EU couldn’t save OS/2 ….
(IBM has since stopped making PCs).
Neither did they save ..
BeOS (an advanced 64 bit OS) , IRIX (silicon graphics) and a host of others etc
I love the Mac but historically Apple financials were helped greatly in Job’s second term by iPOD’s phenomenal success…
Wikipedia : “In January 2007, Apple reported record quarterly revenue of US$7.1 billion, of which 48% was made from iPod sales”
( I agree that Apple should focus harder on Mac development today as my many posts on that topic show)
I can go on to some of the other points you brought up but I leave it here.
(I’m just commenting as you seem to be so hairsplitting on details and want to show that Apple’s story is HUGE and impossible to cover everything in a forum post… )
“for people’s info the $150 million Msft investment didn’t save it …” Exactly. It was a payoff to drop the Apple lawsuit. the bigger announcement was the 5 year support for Office:Mac. This provided a 5 year window of support for the Mac business users.
Further, Steve Jobs was from 1997 – 2006 (when Pixar was bought), he was CEO of both Apple and Pixar. Amazing man.
I remember that quite well.