High Tech History

The  Apple Macintosh quietly turned 25 this month; but on January 22, 1984, it emerged with a roar from its first television commercial during Super Bowl XVIII – beamed to nearly 78  million viewers. Its tag-line was “1984 will not be like ’1984′” – a dramatic allusion to George Orwell’s futuristic study of totalitarianism. Here, Apple was suggesting that its Mac was a form of freedom from the prevailing computer technology of the day. And looking at Apple twenty-five years hence, it’s no overstatement to assert that the Macintosh was revolutionary in how it made the computer “personal” – in every respect. In fact, the most “liberating” aspect tor the average American looking to become computer literate, was that no programming experience was necessary.

The “Mac” was based on a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitated all of its hardware and created its own operating system for it — it was not dependent on anyone else’s system. This was in contrast to IBM’s PCs (personal computers) where any given PC was the result of multiple vendors designing hardware to run other companies’ software. It nothing if not intuitive in nature.

The Mac also added important internal as well as exterior design features that built upon its predecessor, the “Lisa.” Like the Lisa, the Mac had a graphical user-interface as opposed to a “Digital Operating System” (DOS). But for the average user, the Mac had several advantages: it was much cheaper ($2,500 as opposed to the Lisa’s $10,000); it utilized the Lisa’s Motorola 68000 processor -  so it could create the same graphical qualities as the Lisa, but was even faster. Also, the console was narrower than the lisa and projected upward (with an even larger screen), so it could fit on a desktop more comfortably and less awkwardly.

In 1985, the Mac became the pioneer in what would become known as “desktop publishing.” With Mac specific features, including Apple’s LaserWriter printer, and MacPublisher and Aldus PageMaker software, this allowed one to print pages complete with images and text. Mac was there first, but IBM with its “Word” software followed quickly behind.

With its ability to incorporate graphics software such as Adobe (Photoshop/Illustrator) and Quark, Apple soon achieved pre-eminence as a graphics-based computer; a reputation it has continued to possess to this day.

But the fact remains, the Mac clearly made the case that a computer could very much be “personal” in nature and not be confined to academies, office buildings and other environments outside the home.

– Christopher Hartman