So I made a little piece that tries to give the cliff notes of each era of Apple, and I think the dates and the titles of each era sum them up each nicely. Which era did you really begin to love Apple products? I began to have interest in the “Think Different” era, as Apple even then was unavoidable but have my fondest memories in the “iPod/ OS X Era”. I would obsess over Apple keynotes and just be amazed at the look and features of OS X while I looked around Apple.com.
I bought my first Mac used from a friend, a PowerMac G4 “Digital Audio” that had OS X Panther(10.3) on it and I was in love. Shortly after I bought the 3rd gen iPod that came with the dock and everything else, and a year or two after the iPod mini. I look very fondly on that era probably because it was when I was getting out of high school and heading to college, where i could see all kinds of other different cool Macs!
Anyways, let me know what you think of my random writing exercise, if you agree, disagree, etc. Warning: you might find this long.
Obviously the beginning, if you even remember this era you are truly an OG. Most of us weren’t even born, which obviously encompasses Apple I and the Apple II, more importantly. Much of the success in this era hinged not only on the hobbyist/hackers/nerds, but also on the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc. Steve Wozniak was the the brains and Steve Jobs was the muscle. Or heart and soul. Whatever analogy you’d like to use.
A sort of short era, this is when Apple was rapidly expanding, Jobs hired John Sculley to be CEO, and Apple obviously brought the GUI to the masses, specifically the Macintosh to the forefront of the company.
The Apple II helped Apple chug along due to initial poor sales of the Macintosh. Despite being revolutionary it had very little software its for year and cost about $2500 with little to no expandability. Also of note from this era was the now iconic, “1984” commercial.
In this era desktop publishing turned out to be the killer app Macintosh needed to push it to the success that Jobs had hoped. Sculley expanded the Macintosh line, and kept the Apple II going for businesses and specifically education as a low cost alternative to Macs. At the end of this era, the very meme-able Newton was also launched, and was the main product category/innovation brought within that time.
Several awful decisions along with one terrible CEO and another so-so one. Overpriced computers, misjudging the market, licensing out MacOS (and the way they did it was terrible), and a huge perception that Apple was greedy with overcompensated CEOs, a bunch of crappy computers, and expanding into a bunch of strange markets from cameras to game consoles.
Most of this was under the guy that replaced Sculley, Michael Spindler. One of his better decisions however was transition to the PowerPC chips. While it was a rough transition at the time, in the long run it was a good call.
The second half of this era last only a few months under the guy that replaced Spindler as CEO, Gil Amelio. As Gil once said, “That ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction.” He essentially is referring to the fact that Apple was in deep trouble, he had to figure out a way to save it, and to keep its biggest assets from sinking with the ship.
At the time the biggest contributor to Apple’s woes outside of the company was Microsoft and it’s ever popular Windows 95 which had basically caught up, and in some ways excelled past the aging Mac OS that hadn’t really done much for a while. Apple’s own efforts (Copland) were a bust so ultimately they bought NeXT Computers and along with it, Steve Jobs.
Having to think fast, the board ousted Gil Amelio and put Jobs in charge. Jobs orchestrated massive layoffs, axed nearly all of Apple’s projects, and refocused the company around an identity, decree and marketing campaign, “Think Different”.
Rapidly the NeXT team, cut the products and software down focusing mainly on two “pro” and two “consumer” computers. The product that really kicked it off is also the only one Apple makes all these years later, the iMac. It was unlike anything Apple or the rest of the industry had made before and it’s style defined late 90’s tech thanks to the prolific Jony Ive. Apple also was masterful in explaining the benefits of using the custom PowerPC chips they made with IBM and Motorola, marketing them as G3, and G4.
They made stop gap version of MacOS with great features that tided people while they worked there strategy out for the NeXT Openstep OS to ultimately become OS X and laid the ground work for their digital lifestyle suites with iLife software. A lot of these great products were shown off by Phill Schiller, sometimes also acting as a foil to Jobs in some demos. Schiller became a huge part of Apple under Jobs as well as under Tim Cook in the future. Nowadays he is semi-retired but still holds a position at Apple under the rare title of “Apple Fellow”, an honor he also shares with Apple’s co-found Steve Wozniak.
By the time OS X was ready to roll around no one wondered if Apple was going to survive and instead wondered what astonishing magic they would reveal next.
An incredible era that began with the realization of the “Digital Lifestyle” strategy and the Apple Stores which came at a time where places like Gateway (remember them?) was flailing and several other computer retails were also crashing. Both bets paid off for Apple of course.
Mac OS X solidified itself in this era and was just a total change of how people thought of what an OS could be in terms of usability and style. It of course is now the basis of all of Apple’s OS platforms. Some of the most basic stuff in the OS that we take for granted today, were game changing back then. Apple also introduced Safari which would become the basis of several modern web browsers until many of them forked off from Apple’s own WebKit.
The biggest star however was the iPod and shortly after the iTunes music. The two in tandem changed the way we listen and buy music and gave Apple even more cool points with consumers of all ages thanks in part to their iconic iPod silhouette ads. iPods came in all shapes and sizes, at a rapid pace. Big, small, full featured, screen less, you name it and they were always incredibly desirable and came in a range of prices as well. If you didn’t have an iPod you sucked lol.
To top the era off was the introduction of the ill-faded PowerMac G5–at the time touted as the world’s first 64-bit consumer PC as well as the fastest (that didn’t last long) but it had a lot of problems, and showed a lot of the holes in a hardware strategy that relied on IBM/Motorola and lead to the rise of Intel in Macs. As a side note the G5’s processor was the basis of the console generation that brought as PS3 and Xbox 360, the PowerMac G5 was in fact the basis of early Xbox 360 development kits. Not to brag, but I got to be one of the first outside of a developer to play an Xbox 360 game, and it was running on this early hardware!
The iPod was sold to a whole bunch of millennials that used those colorful cool iMacs in schools, and once they hit college or a new job, opted for Macs thanks to the surprising/unsurprising switch to Intel processors. For many newcomers these were reasonable to buy thanks to the insurance policy of software like Boot Camp and at the time, super fast and power efficient Intel chips.
Shortly after, the iPhone changed the world, and both of these had rapid yearly improvements in software and hardware, culminating in the iPad and Apple ultimately changing it’s name from Apple Computers Inc. to Apple Inc.
For many, the age of the rebels and the David fighting Goliath had passed, punctuated with becoming the world’s most valuable company; finally proving to be better than all the Goliaths it “fought” in the past. An epilogue to this era is obviously the resignation of it’s CEO and ultimately his untimely death.
With the passing of Steve Jobs the company kind of found itself in disarray and looking for it’s footing again. Improvements to the computers, and doing what the people wants (smaller or bigger iPads or phones) definitely helped them chug along just fine. One of the strangest things to happen in this era at the time was the acquisition of Beats by Dre. Another tech that was great at the time but lagged behind quickly was Siri, one of the more major project Jobs was a part of before his death.
But then there were several missteps; the “trash can” Mac Pro, the removal of ports from the Macs and iPhones (ultimately mimicked by other companies), and increasing pressures on their labor practices that weren’t so easily shooed away without Jos there.
Some of the biggest hurt or call for celebration depending on who you ask was the terrible Apple Maps roll out, and the ouster of Apple software head Scott Forstall, once saw as CEO in waiting. This lead to Jony Ive having full control over all aspects of the user experience and the redesign of all the OS platforms starting with iOS7, for better or worse.
This era was kicked off in a big way with Apple Music, and the Apple Watch launching in 2015 both were incredibly costly bets that allegedly didn’t pay off as quickly as Apple had hoped, especially since they were the two biggest products in a post-Jobs era.
Now services and wearables are combined are more than Mac or iPad sales. Unfortunately this era also saw the death of two of the stars that helped make Apple what it was; the iPod and iTunes (well pretty much). We did see a rising star that also helped Apple and in many ways took the spot of Forstall, and that is “Hair Force One” himself, Craig Federighi.
To me this has been the most bitter sweet era for several reasons. It began during the pandemic and honestly nowadays being an Apple fanboy almost seems well, a foregone conclusion? The only place Apple can go at this point is down and is constantly the target of regulation. Apple controls whole global supply chains now, something even when they toppled Microsoft in value ten years prior they didn’t have the power to do.
If Steve Jobs was the heart, then it also lost it’s soul with Jony Ive, since he has left the company. I feel like his influence and even some of his actual designs (newest iMac, Mac Pro, OS designs, etc) will keep it the design powerhouse it is but for many “design is dead” at Apple. The person in charge of design now (Jeff Williams) is an operations guy after all.
The star of this era so far, and arguably the sweetest thing to happen to Apple in almost 10 years, was the switch to Apple Silicon in the Mac, lead by Johnny Srouji a rising star at Apple. To many this is a game changer akin to the iPhone due to the huge leap we initially had and the fact that it keeps up and sometimes even exceeds the best chips Intel develops, especially in mobile computers.
I think that 2023 is an appropriate place to end this era because good or bad, regulation will begin hitting Apple hard by next year and we will see them enter a new product category that has the most naysayers and disinterest of this new project, (myself included to an extent) than any period of time I can recall. If you made it this far…what should I do with this piece, if anything at all? I have been thinking of creating a site or blog or something…
I bought my first Mac used from a friend, a PowerMac G4 “Digital Audio” that had OS X Panther(10.3) on it and I was in love. Shortly after I bought the 3rd gen iPod that came with the dock and everything else, and a year or two after the iPod mini. I look very fondly on that era probably because it was when I was getting out of high school and heading to college, where i could see all kinds of other different cool Macs!
Anyways, let me know what you think of my random writing exercise, if you agree, disagree, etc. Warning: you might find this long.
The Beginning
1976-1982Obviously the beginning, if you even remember this era you are truly an OG. Most of us weren’t even born, which obviously encompasses Apple I and the Apple II, more importantly. Much of the success in this era hinged not only on the hobbyist/hackers/nerds, but also on the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc. Steve Wozniak was the the brains and Steve Jobs was the muscle. Or heart and soul. Whatever analogy you’d like to use.
The Lisa/Macintosh Era
1983-1985A sort of short era, this is when Apple was rapidly expanding, Jobs hired John Sculley to be CEO, and Apple obviously brought the GUI to the masses, specifically the Macintosh to the forefront of the company.
The Apple II helped Apple chug along due to initial poor sales of the Macintosh. Despite being revolutionary it had very little software its for year and cost about $2500 with little to no expandability. Also of note from this era was the now iconic, “1984” commercial.
The Sculley/ Expansion Era
1986-1993In this era desktop publishing turned out to be the killer app Macintosh needed to push it to the success that Jobs had hoped. Sculley expanded the Macintosh line, and kept the Apple II going for businesses and specifically education as a low cost alternative to Macs. At the end of this era, the very meme-able Newton was also launched, and was the main product category/innovation brought within that time.
The Dark Ages
1993-1997Several awful decisions along with one terrible CEO and another so-so one. Overpriced computers, misjudging the market, licensing out MacOS (and the way they did it was terrible), and a huge perception that Apple was greedy with overcompensated CEOs, a bunch of crappy computers, and expanding into a bunch of strange markets from cameras to game consoles.
Most of this was under the guy that replaced Sculley, Michael Spindler. One of his better decisions however was transition to the PowerPC chips. While it was a rough transition at the time, in the long run it was a good call.
The second half of this era last only a few months under the guy that replaced Spindler as CEO, Gil Amelio. As Gil once said, “That ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction.” He essentially is referring to the fact that Apple was in deep trouble, he had to figure out a way to save it, and to keep its biggest assets from sinking with the ship.
At the time the biggest contributor to Apple’s woes outside of the company was Microsoft and it’s ever popular Windows 95 which had basically caught up, and in some ways excelled past the aging Mac OS that hadn’t really done much for a while. Apple’s own efforts (Copland) were a bust so ultimately they bought NeXT Computers and along with it, Steve Jobs.
Think Different/iMac/Resurgence Era
1997-2000Having to think fast, the board ousted Gil Amelio and put Jobs in charge. Jobs orchestrated massive layoffs, axed nearly all of Apple’s projects, and refocused the company around an identity, decree and marketing campaign, “Think Different”.
Rapidly the NeXT team, cut the products and software down focusing mainly on two “pro” and two “consumer” computers. The product that really kicked it off is also the only one Apple makes all these years later, the iMac. It was unlike anything Apple or the rest of the industry had made before and it’s style defined late 90’s tech thanks to the prolific Jony Ive. Apple also was masterful in explaining the benefits of using the custom PowerPC chips they made with IBM and Motorola, marketing them as G3, and G4.
They made stop gap version of MacOS with great features that tided people while they worked there strategy out for the NeXT Openstep OS to ultimately become OS X and laid the ground work for their digital lifestyle suites with iLife software. A lot of these great products were shown off by Phill Schiller, sometimes also acting as a foil to Jobs in some demos. Schiller became a huge part of Apple under Jobs as well as under Tim Cook in the future. Nowadays he is semi-retired but still holds a position at Apple under the rare title of “Apple Fellow”, an honor he also shares with Apple’s co-found Steve Wozniak.
By the time OS X was ready to roll around no one wondered if Apple was going to survive and instead wondered what astonishing magic they would reveal next.
iPod/ OS X Era
2001-2005An incredible era that began with the realization of the “Digital Lifestyle” strategy and the Apple Stores which came at a time where places like Gateway (remember them?) was flailing and several other computer retails were also crashing. Both bets paid off for Apple of course.
Mac OS X solidified itself in this era and was just a total change of how people thought of what an OS could be in terms of usability and style. It of course is now the basis of all of Apple’s OS platforms. Some of the most basic stuff in the OS that we take for granted today, were game changing back then. Apple also introduced Safari which would become the basis of several modern web browsers until many of them forked off from Apple’s own WebKit.
The biggest star however was the iPod and shortly after the iTunes music. The two in tandem changed the way we listen and buy music and gave Apple even more cool points with consumers of all ages thanks in part to their iconic iPod silhouette ads. iPods came in all shapes and sizes, at a rapid pace. Big, small, full featured, screen less, you name it and they were always incredibly desirable and came in a range of prices as well. If you didn’t have an iPod you sucked lol.
To top the era off was the introduction of the ill-faded PowerMac G5–at the time touted as the world’s first 64-bit consumer PC as well as the fastest (that didn’t last long) but it had a lot of problems, and showed a lot of the holes in a hardware strategy that relied on IBM/Motorola and lead to the rise of Intel in Macs. As a side note the G5’s processor was the basis of the console generation that brought as PS3 and Xbox 360, the PowerMac G5 was in fact the basis of early Xbox 360 development kits. Not to brag, but I got to be one of the first outside of a developer to play an Xbox 360 game, and it was running on this early hardware!
iPhone/ intel/ iPad/ Apple Inc Era
2006-2011The iPod was sold to a whole bunch of millennials that used those colorful cool iMacs in schools, and once they hit college or a new job, opted for Macs thanks to the surprising/unsurprising switch to Intel processors. For many newcomers these were reasonable to buy thanks to the insurance policy of software like Boot Camp and at the time, super fast and power efficient Intel chips.
Shortly after, the iPhone changed the world, and both of these had rapid yearly improvements in software and hardware, culminating in the iPad and Apple ultimately changing it’s name from Apple Computers Inc. to Apple Inc.
For many, the age of the rebels and the David fighting Goliath had passed, punctuated with becoming the world’s most valuable company; finally proving to be better than all the Goliaths it “fought” in the past. An epilogue to this era is obviously the resignation of it’s CEO and ultimately his untimely death.
The Mourning Era
2011-2014With the passing of Steve Jobs the company kind of found itself in disarray and looking for it’s footing again. Improvements to the computers, and doing what the people wants (smaller or bigger iPads or phones) definitely helped them chug along just fine. One of the strangest things to happen in this era at the time was the acquisition of Beats by Dre. Another tech that was great at the time but lagged behind quickly was Siri, one of the more major project Jobs was a part of before his death.
But then there were several missteps; the “trash can” Mac Pro, the removal of ports from the Macs and iPhones (ultimately mimicked by other companies), and increasing pressures on their labor practices that weren’t so easily shooed away without Jos there.
Some of the biggest hurt or call for celebration depending on who you ask was the terrible Apple Maps roll out, and the ouster of Apple software head Scott Forstall, once saw as CEO in waiting. This lead to Jony Ive having full control over all aspects of the user experience and the redesign of all the OS platforms starting with iOS7, for better or worse.
Apple Watch/ Wearables/ Services Era
2015-2019This era was kicked off in a big way with Apple Music, and the Apple Watch launching in 2015 both were incredibly costly bets that allegedly didn’t pay off as quickly as Apple had hoped, especially since they were the two biggest products in a post-Jobs era.
Now services and wearables are combined are more than Mac or iPad sales. Unfortunately this era also saw the death of two of the stars that helped make Apple what it was; the iPod and iTunes (well pretty much). We did see a rising star that also helped Apple and in many ways took the spot of Forstall, and that is “Hair Force One” himself, Craig Federighi.
Apple Silicon/ Tech Titan/ Lost Jony Era
2020-2023To me this has been the most bitter sweet era for several reasons. It began during the pandemic and honestly nowadays being an Apple fanboy almost seems well, a foregone conclusion? The only place Apple can go at this point is down and is constantly the target of regulation. Apple controls whole global supply chains now, something even when they toppled Microsoft in value ten years prior they didn’t have the power to do.
If Steve Jobs was the heart, then it also lost it’s soul with Jony Ive, since he has left the company. I feel like his influence and even some of his actual designs (newest iMac, Mac Pro, OS designs, etc) will keep it the design powerhouse it is but for many “design is dead” at Apple. The person in charge of design now (Jeff Williams) is an operations guy after all.
The star of this era so far, and arguably the sweetest thing to happen to Apple in almost 10 years, was the switch to Apple Silicon in the Mac, lead by Johnny Srouji a rising star at Apple. To many this is a game changer akin to the iPhone due to the huge leap we initially had and the fact that it keeps up and sometimes even exceeds the best chips Intel develops, especially in mobile computers.
I think that 2023 is an appropriate place to end this era because good or bad, regulation will begin hitting Apple hard by next year and we will see them enter a new product category that has the most naysayers and disinterest of this new project, (myself included to an extent) than any period of time I can recall. If you made it this far…what should I do with this piece, if anything at all? I have been thinking of creating a site or blog or something…
