“It’s the 25th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh, but Steve Jobs’ eyes are dry,” Steven Levy reports for Wired. “At the company headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he was presenting a set of new laptops to the press last October, I mentioned the birthday to him. Jobs recoiled at any suggestion of nostalgia. ‘I don’t think about that,’ he said. ‘When I got back here in 1997, I was looking for more room, and I found an archive of old Macs and other stuff. I said, ‘Get it away!’ and I shipped all that shit off to Stanford. If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.'”
Levy reports, “Here’s what’s amazing about the Mac as it turns 25, a number that in computer years is just about a googolplex: It can look forward. The Mac’s original competition—the green-phosphorus-screened stuff made by RadioShack, DEC, and then-big kahuna IBM—now inhabit landfills, both physically and psychically. Yet the Macintosh is not only thriving, it’s doing better than at any time in its history. Much of the attention directed at Apple over the past few years has focused on new products like the iPod and the iPhone. Click wheels and touchscreens have distracted us from the news that the Mac market share has quietly crept into double digits. That’s up from barely 3 percent in 1997, just before the prodigal CEO returned to the fold after a 12-year exile. Any way you cut it, the Mac is on the rise while Windows is waning.”
“Those original Mac rebels (including their leader) are now in their fifties, but the Mac itself has managed to avoid middle-age wrinkles and creaky joints,” Levy reports. “Forever young, it’s associated more with Millennials than geezers, even though many Millennials weren’t even born when that famous first commercial—Ridley Scott’s ‘1984’ spot—ran during Super Bowl XVIII.”
Levy reports, “That generational perception is why Apple’s long-running PC-versus-Mac ad campaign, with the nebbishy John Hodgman portraying the PC, has deeply unhinged Microsoft despite the company’s dominant market share. When I mentioned the ads to Bill Gates at the January 2007 Vista launch, he went Vesuvius on me. ‘I don’t know why they’re acting superior,’ he said. ‘I don’t even get it. I mean, do you get it? What are they trying to say? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it!’ But that’s not what the public thinks, and the sales figures prove it. Microsoft is now so rattled by Apple’s advertising that it’s running a $300 million counterpunch. The whole point of the ‘I’m a PC’ campaign is to assure customers that they aren’t pathetic losers.”
Full article, with a nice “25 Years of Mac” timeline image, here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Bill Gates hasn’t figured it out by now, he’ll never get it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Chuckles the Microsoft CEO” for the heads up.]
The whole point of the ‘I’m a PC’ campaign is to assure customers that they aren’t pathetic losers.
And therein lies Microsoft’s own undoing. By letting Apple run circles around them, MS is now forced to spend enormous amounts of money and resources to just improve its brand image. Until that is done, they can’t even begin to advertise their product, let alone convince the market that their product may be superior.
And Apple isn’t just standing still. The more MS runs in an effort to catch up, the further Apple seems to be. This is usually the case when a large, bloated entity is trying to catch a lean, fit, nimble entity.
MS’s only chance to remain relevant is in the enterprise. There will always be IT people who are resistant to change and their managers who don’t understand technology and accept whatever IT people say. Eventually, all others will have moved to Mac.
Nice article, and I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been posted, but it is almost a month old. It was a good read last year.
You know- I’m really happy that Apple is where is it today but will you guys stop with the “Bill Gates doesn’t get it” crap. You don’t gain over 90% of any market unless you get it.
Sorry guys- not what you want to hear- but Christ…
oh- and BTW- our beloved APPL is down again today.
“You don’t gain over 90% of any market unless you get it.”
All depends on how they got there in the first place. It’s through BG brilliant programming powers, or Ballme smarts.
Well MS DOS was the best (or only. not sure) open OS there was. So it upgraded to windows, and made people feel like they weren’t going into a difficult foreign environment. The popularity of an OS is a vicious cycle. That and the lack of the need for a real computer, AKA ‘PCs are cheaper’
@ ILuvMyMacs –
Your ‘analysis’ is incorrect, as well as being a simplistic connection between market share and ‘getting it’.
The history of how and why the unwashed majority all bought cheap crappy computers has been discussed many times.
Refer to IBM and DOS and other factors. Refer to IBM clones and how they allowed Dell and many more to sell the public bad product.
Gates and Microsoft rejected the Internet, and said that no-one would use it. Wrong.
Gates wasnt interested in Search engines until he saw that everyone with half a brain was. Wrong again.
Gates didnt see the value of Music and Photographs on a computer. Wrong.
Gates said that he couldnt see why anyone would ever need more than 640KB of memory. Wrong.
Zune. Wrong.
Vista. Wrong.
Copying the Mac and getting sued by Apple and losing. Gates Wrong again.
Get some evidence and then post something smart.
Gates doesnt get it because he is a simpleton who has one quality that can easily be discerned – he is a revenge-seeking greedy geek with no principles. (I am allowed one conjecture, if you can post unproven statements))
Tolstoy said that behind every great fortune is a great crime.
He was referring to Royalty and other criminals. These days it would be people like Gates, Madoff, Bush and many others.
Wake up ILuvMyMacs! You are missing a lot of info.
Others who dont get it:
Bush
Blair
Cheney
Ballmer
GM
Ford
Chrysler
Major music companies
Those who think voting means democracy
The list is huge, and it exists because ordinary people accept what they are told…..
Predrag… you said, bro! Microsoft’s products have recent history of , if not outright failure (Zune, Vista), then being poorly thought out or shoddy. Their idea of vision boils down to the Big-Ass Table and Beach Ball.
Microsoft makes the equivalent of an okay typewriter. Nobody, except the odd, cared about typewriters… they just used them.
iLuvMyMacs… Read the history.
Microsoft got to where they got, NOT through innovation or good design but by crafty acquisition (ie: CPM), dumb luck (they were in the right place at the right time when IBM needed and OS for their desktop computers), strong-arm techniques (licensing fees from computer makers, etc.) and forcing other companies out of business by various means (vaporware announcements, etc.).
Again, just read the history of a convicted and unpunished monopolist.
So, yeah, Bill Gates never DID “get it”. He got the marketshare and his billions and the power and influence tat those things bring, but little else.
As the old joke sort of goes… Bill Gates IS micro soft, just ask his wife.
@iLuvMyMacs – “but will you guys stop with the “Bill Gates doesn’t get it” crap.”
Bill said that, not the people here. He said “I don’t even get it. I mean, do you get it?” Credit where credit is due.
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Microsoft got 90% of the market by destroying any possible competition they might have had. Consumers had no choice. When was the last time you were buying a computer and the salesman asked you what operating system you wanted on it?
Microsoft would have to do far less image improvement if Windows wasn’t such a poorly made, just-good-enough-to-sell product. Consumers are becoming aware (despite Microsoft’s best efforts) that there is a choice out there other than Windows, and they are flocking to it.
And Microsoft finally pays the price for trying – and largely succeeding – in taking the world hostage.
And as for Bill Gates getting it. Yep he got it back in the 80’s, enough to steal it and beat others into pulp ‘in the process of getting it’.
Since that ruthless process took place he’s been behind, completely out of touch or somewhere between, probably in that comfy philanthroper’s la-la-land that so much wealth bought him.
The time for respect for Gates has long passed.
And today, unless I’m mistaken Steve Jobs has had a longer career in IT than Gates has..
I know which of them will have the most timeless, most respected, reputation…
Derek, you and you lame political mudslinging can go to hell you commie assclown
Lighten up. And take your political BS to a political site. We’re here to discuss Macs and Apple.
Jake
@ILuvMyMacs
You don’t get it. Bill Gates is not a brilliant programmer. Microsoft gained market share because Gates was lucky enough to step in and sell IBM the operating system he just bought from a real programmer. When businesses first started buying PCs they went with IBM (nobody ever got fired for buying IBM). They didn’t know who Microsoft was and didn’t care.
Gates does get credit for recognizing that the OS was the important thing, not the box. Thus the split from IBM and the rise of MS.
Deep down, Gates does get it. Remember that he told Jobs way back that being better isn’t what counts. He knows Mac OS is better than Windows, and he’s frustrated because more and more people are waking up to that fact.
JohnLee, very good and very succinct. And without insulting any great American institutions or citizens.
Radish writes, “Consumers had no choice. When was the last time you were buying a computer and the salesman asked you what operating system you wanted on it?” So true. In 1995 I was buying a Micron PC but wanted OS/2 and Word Perfect, not Windows and Office. “Can’t do that,” I was told. “Our contract with Microsoft requires Windows on every PC.”
And let’s not forget the dirty tricks used to eliminate the competition. Remember DR DOS – the “better” DOS? Microsoft set out to crush them, even working to get Windows *not* to run on DR DOS. Caldera – which bought Digital Research – sued Microsoft over this. it might have proved a more enlightening trial than DOJ’s anti-trust case. But Microsoft settled for a reported few hundred million just before going to trial.
@Derek in Milan:
You forgot the following:
Obama
The media
The Left Wing
The Right Wing
…whatever you want to add here
@Roberto
You’re wack.
Part of the problem with this whole Mac versus Windows thing is the fact that Microsoft is a licenser of an OS where Apple Macintosh is a computer hardware company that has it’s own OS. If you compare the Macintosh to a Dell, HP, Sony you are more accurate in how we stand, but it’s hard to show relevance when Microsoft’s OS is on 90% of the hardware out there.
Microsoft tries to make an OS that runs on every computer made. That’s pretty hard to do successfully. I love the Mac OS (even the old classic OS at that time). It’s hands-down the best out there, but can you imagine Mac OS X running on a bottom of the line Dell? I’ve heard Windows users actually like Vista for normal home computing. Of course, I’ve heard a lot of complaints here where I work.
The major thing that Microsoft has done right is to have a certification program for IT people. Is it even possible to hire an IT guy who isn’t indoctrinated into using Windows at all cost? The few of us Mac users here at my work need to know how to do most of our own IT work ourselves, because we’ll never get the support from our IT department. That in itself guarantees that Windows will continue on. And, while I’m talking about the Mac’s IT, why does the Mac OS have a totally different terminology of connecting to a network?
That’s just my 2¢.
Guys- All I’m saying is that I don’t think we should discredit a guy that has built a multi-billion dollar business and has his footprint in almost every doorstep— and then call him lucky. Look- I’ll take Steve Jobs over him any day of the week. But Gates pretty much made software licensing a business in itself- Steve Jobs even admitted it. I seriously switched to the Mac in 1998. I’ve helped convince my IT staff at work that the Mac was for real… that took some doing because -they don’t get it – .
Just to be clear- when it comes to innovation- MS isn’t even close. I’m not talking about that- I speaking in terms of the industry as a single entity. And I’m certainly NOT judging who is better by market share-
Cheers guys.
The 25 Years of Mac: Product Timeline fits perfectly on my 24-inch screen — no scrolling for me!
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!
loves me some apple…
What Bill Gates gets is the business of selling computers and completely outmaneuvering rivals—legally or otherwise. He is brilliant. He was also brilliant in making sure that DOS users migrated to Windows, no matter how kludgy Windows was. Contrast Apple, which completely failed to provide a bridge from Apple II to Mac.
IBM’s shortsightedness and Apple/Atari/Amiga/Sun’s ineptitude did the rest, not to mention business in general, which allowed itself to become enslaved to a single OS.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard for Microsoft to have windows running on different makes of computer. The majority use the same Intel processor, video chips and drives, so what’s the problem? OSX runs on the same processors, variety of video chips and drives perfectly, so why is Microsoft supposed to be the hero making PCs work?
“Contrast Apple, which completely failed to provide a bridge from Apple II to Mac.”
Synthmeister, excellent point! Had Apple done that, it would be an entirely different OS landscape today.
Windows was (and arguably) remains only a shell for DOS. Vista STILL has bits of DOS in it. I’d wager that Windows 7 will too.
M$ made some good-timed business decisions and packed their wallets longterm…allthewhile
China and Japan passed us by…GM is not in trouble because of the economy, but because Japan ate their lunch in vision, design, and effeciency. Same for Apple.
@iLuvMyMacs:
Bill Gates was lucky. Gates is quite possibly the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
First off, he was born into privilege. His parents are loaded. Oh sure, he’s waaaay out-earned them, but even if he hadn’t, he was never going to want for anything.
When IBM was looking for an operating system for its new “Personal Computer”, it turned out the CEO of IBM was friends with Bill Gates’ mother. She was able to talk the man into giving her son’s company a chance, even though Microsoft had never developed an operating system before.
Even then, most people at IBM were leaning toward going with CP/M, the dominant microcomputer OS at the time. But Gates’ luck continued, as the creator of CP/M was unenthusiastic about licensing his baby to a big corporation. The negotiations went poorly, and Gates was able to get the contract.
Then Gates benefited from several idiotic moves on IBM’s part. First, IBM could have bought DOS outright, but preferred to license it, thinking it cheaper. Then they failed to forsee and prevent the development of IBM-compatible “clones”. Suddenly, the market for Microsoft’s DOS exploded.
The domination of Windows, a clearly inferior product, largely was able to happen because of a poor deal that Apple struck with Microsoft. And it goes on and on.
Really, Bill Gates has lived a charmed life. If I believed in such things, I’d suspect that the true reason for all his recent philantropy is because he sold his soul to the devil when he was a teenager and is trying to buy his way out of hell.
——RM