WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Macintosh Story Part 2 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.400 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.479 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.280 tech are you? It is time for a classic episode. Now. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.440 Last week we had the Macintosh Story Part one, so 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.320 today we're going to continue that with the McIntosh Story 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.520 Part two. If you have not heard part one, well 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.560 just check the publication from last Friday. You should be 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.600 able to pull that and listen to it. But originally 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.520 this episode published way back on June seventh, twenty seventeen. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:44.360 Hope you enjoy. 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.360 We covered how the mac was born out of strife. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.680 It was not an easy berth. As it turns out, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.560 there was a lot of argument going on arguing, i 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.800 should say, going on behind the scenes. It started off 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.040 as a low priced comput that was the intent that 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.760 was supposed to make personal computers more accessible to the 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.160 average person. And then Steve Jobs effectively took over the 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.200 project and changed it significantly. Rather than having a cheap machine, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.120 it became an expensive alternative to the IBM personal computer 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.600 that had just debuted in the early nineteen eighties. So 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.600 the IBM Personal computer came out and actually posed a 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.360 serious threat to Apple. The Macintosh was supposed to be 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.080 an answer to that. The Apple two and Apple three 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:37.520 lines were distinct, and more about them in a little bit, 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.480 But the Macintosh was really supposed to redefine computing and 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.280 to put Apple back on track to being ahead of 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:49.680 the game, as it were. But what actually happened next, Well, 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.400 we ended right around nineteen eighty five. Last time, nineteen 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.440 eighty four, nineteen eighty five. The Macintosh computer debuted in 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.480 nineteen eighty four, and Apple was trying to rebound from 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.400 a couple of bit blows. Now. That first one came 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.000 in nineteen eighty one. That's when IBM got involved in 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.360 the personal computer market with its own PC. Before long, 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.160 IBM PC sales were outpacing Apple to sales. And the 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:15.360 second blow came in nineteen eighty three. That's when Apple 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:20.720 launched Lisa. Lisa was a high end computer. It was 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.840 a project that was being pushed primarily by Steve Jobs, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.160 one of the co founders of Apple. Steve Jobs and 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.800 Steve Wozniak were the two Steves who founded the company. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.520 But Lisa was not a huge success. It had a 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:40.359 graphic user interface or gouey gui uh, and it had 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.440 a mouse, which was very innovative for the time. The 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.920 only other company that really played with graphic user interfaces 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.079 and a computer mouse was Xerox, and they had only 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.320 done it internally. They didn't make this a product that 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.799 other companies and consumers could go out and purchase. Apple 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:02.000 decided to change that. However, r Lisa had a really 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.200 hefty price tag. It was ten thousand dollars when it 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.760 went on sale, and it was meant for business applications, 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.600 but at that price, very few businesses were willing to 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.240 take the plunge. Remember those are nineteen eighty three dollars. 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:21.440 That's significant, even more so than ten thousand dollars is today. 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.760 Ten thousand dollars is already a huge amount of money. 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.120 If you adjust for inflation, you're talking around almost twenty 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:28.000 thousand dollars. 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:29.120 That's a lot. 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:34.280 So the GUI also ate up a lot of the 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.400 computer's processing power. So not only did it cost a lot, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.960 but the operating system alone took up so much of 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.480 the computer's processing power that you couldn't run very many 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:49.680 applications on top of it. And that's not a great 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.720 selling point. Like this is expensive, but at least you 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.560 can't run much software on it. That doesn't make a 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.840 really good tagline if you're trying to sell a computer, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.120 just an fyi in case you ever want to to 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.960 make and sell computers in the future. Then you also 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.720 had very few developers who were willing to put forth 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.720 the effort to create programs for a computer that was 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.840 so elite, so expensive that it had a very small market. 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.880 If you are in the business of making software and 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:21.960 you have a limited amount of time and money on 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.120 your hands, you want to dedicate that time and money 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.520 toward projects that are likely to give you the biggest profit. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.800 And if you're talking about the types of organizations that 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.479 are willing to lay down ten grand per computer, that's 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.279 a very small market. So software developers were not eager. 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.040 To jump on the bandwagon there. 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.359 So Lisa was effectively a flop. It was kind of 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.400 doomed from the start. Now, as I mentioned right at 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.560 the beginning of this episode, Steve Jobs effectively took over 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:52.880 the Macintosh project. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:54.560 Now, this was after. 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.279 The then CEO of Apple demanded that Steve Jobs stop 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:03.440 interfering with Lisa. Macintosh was a totally different project than 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.239 Steve Jobs once he was pulled off the Lisa project 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.520 and said, you can't bother them anymore, looked around, saw 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.520 the Macintosh project, which was completely independent, and said, I'm 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.120 going to make that my pet project. And so he 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.640 began to involve himself with, or, in the words of 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:25.719 some of his contemporaries at the time, interfere with the 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.960 Macintosh project. And as a result, McIntosh transformed from a 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.880 humble machine to an expensive consumer level device with a 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.479 guy and a mouse. It didn't have a graphic user 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.320 interface before Steve Jobs got involved. It was initially priced 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.880 at twenty four hundred and ninety five dollars, which is 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.720 expensive just for a basic computer today before you adjust 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.520 for inflation. If you do adjust for inflation, that's more 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.320 like five thousand, seven hundred bucks. That's a huge amount 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:54.960 of money. 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.239 To ask to pay for a PC. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.000 So if you wanted a Macintosh in nineteen eighty four 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.880 when they first launched, you'd be plopping down the equivalent 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.680 of fifty seven hundred dollars in today's money. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:06.800 And keep in mind that the. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.320 Original plan was that this computer was supposed to cost 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.080 five hundred dollars, which would be closer to twelve hundred 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.520 bucks today, which is still expensive. Obviously, if you wanted 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.240 to pay for a brand new computer, twelve hundred dollars 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.440 is closer to the top end of your basic machines. 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.200 I mean, obviously, you can trick out a machine to 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.440 be much more expensive than that if you want top 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:33.320 of the line processors, graphics cards, cooling systems, all that 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.120 sort of stuff. But if you're just buying off the shelf, 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.880 twelve hundred dollars is already pretty expensive. It's not the 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.000 top end, but it's healthy. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:43.120 Right Anyway. 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.400 That was the initial goal was a five hundred dollars 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.720 price point in nineteen eighty four dollars, which would be 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.200 about twelve hundred dollars today, and it. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:54.200 Blew that out of the water. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.640 I should point out, however, that this higher price tag 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.680 is not entirely the fault of Steve Jobs. I don't 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.320 want to give you that impression. It's true that Jobs 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.720 added a lot of features that necessitated a price hike. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:10.720 No matter what, it was going to cost more than 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.640 five hundred dollars because of the changes Steve Jobs made. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.760 But as for that price tag of twenty four hundred 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.920 ninety five dollars that credit really needs to go to 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:26.800 the then Apple CEO John Scully. Scully reportedly decided that 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.680 the initial price tag for the mac which was originally 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.920 going to be fifteen hundred dollars back in nineteen eighty four, 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.239 was too low. He actually said, fifteen hundred bucks, that's 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.200 that's not high enough for us to really see a 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.560 huge profit off that. So he knocked it up to 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.240 twenty four ninety five, and that way the Macintosh would 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.840 see a profit margin of fifty five percent, meaning you'd 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.560 make fifty five percent over what you paid to create 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.440 the computer. He didn't want to have a slim profit margin. However, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.200 of course, if you increased the price of a machine dramatically, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.760 then you're going to decrease the number of sales you make. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.240 So it's a very delicate balance figuring out how much 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.280 to price a product so that you get the maximum 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.880 amount of profit from your investment. And Scully decided to 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.880 go pretty hard for that investment with that fifty five 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:22.440 percent profit margin. And this also began Apple's long history 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.160 of being a company associated with the idea that its 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.680 hardware is overpriced. You've probably heard that if you've ever 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.560 taken any look into Apple products, that you're paying a 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.120 premium just for the Apple brand name because the products 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.240 are priced more than what they would be priced by 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.680 a competitor for an equivalent machine. That's not always the case, 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.960 by the way, but it happened frequently enough in Apple's 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:50.360 past that it became associated with the company's identity. People 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.200 thought of Apple as being an elite company, that you 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.920 were paying that extra price, and that you could be 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:01.160 saving money if you just went with a different computer manufacturer, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.200 which in some eras was absolutely true, just not in 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:10.520 all eras. Back in those earliest days of Macintosh, it 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.600 certainly was the case that is undeniable now. Initial reviews 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.160 of the Macintosh actually heaped a lot of praise on 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:22.080 the computer. Consumer Reports wrote an absolutely glowing review of 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:27.599 the original Macintosh, saying that the interface really transformed computing. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.120 The reviews stated that the interface, including the windows that 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.560 it would use the mouse that you would use to 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.200 navigate the guy, were more than just gimmicks, which you know, 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:40.320 you could have easily seen them as just being gimmicks. 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:45.199 Everyone else was used to using text based interfaces and keyboards, 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.760 so this wasn't a guaranteed success right all of the gate. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.199 But Consumer Reports said, no, they got it right. This 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.959 actually makes sense. They said that it actually transformed computing 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.440 from a system of Labrinthian rules to something that the 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:04.560 average per could easily grasp. A Macintosh wasn't a cryptic 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.760 machine that required the user to learn dozens of command 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.280 line terms, like you know, various file trees and ways 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.000 to navigate between different directories. You didn't have to do 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.719 that because it was all graphically presented for you and 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.720 you just click on whatever it was you needed. It 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.280 was a device that a novice could learn to navigate 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.280 within like half an hour of using it. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.640 There were some drawbacks, however. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.400 That same Consumer Reports review pointed out that the operating 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.560 system on the Macintosh took up an enormous amount of 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.120 the computer's processing power. The computer had enough memory to 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:41.280 store about eight and a half pages of text after 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:46.040 you factored in the operating system. That's text, not images 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.920 or video or audio. All of that stuff would come later. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.559 Just eight and a half pages of text. That's all 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.520 the memory it could have after you ended up booting 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:57.920 up the operating system. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:10:59.720 This was one of the reasons that I was. 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.960 A real snob about Guy interfaces or GUY based computers. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.199 I hated the day that my dad decided to install 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:12.200 Windows on our IBM compatible machine, which was similar in 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.040 many ways to the Mac operating system. And the reason 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.079 I was upset about it was because the Windows operating 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.960 system required so much of our computer's ability to process 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.080 information that it limited the kind of software we could 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.800 run on it. If your software required more than what 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.760 the computer could supply, you ran into problems, and I 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.520 attributed a lot of that to the operating system. I 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.480 much preferred DOSS, which was so slimmed down by comparison 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.000 that you could run lots of different software on it. Well, 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.120 the same thing was true with the early Mac operating system. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:52.040 It just hogged up a lot of the initial Macintosh's abilities. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.000 And to be fair, the original Macintosh only had one 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.160 hundred and twenty eight kilobytes of memory, so it wasn't 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.200 exactly packing an enormous amount of memory into that package. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.400 We're going to take a quick break talking about the 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.320 Macintosh in order to thank our sponsors. 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.360 More and more software. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.319 Developers began to create programs that could only run in 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.480 GUI environments, which kind of forced the issue to switch 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:32.199 from the DOSS and other operating systems that involved command 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:36.720 lines to shift over to graphic user interfaces because a 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.320 lot of software ended up only being compatible with graphic 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.800 user interface systems, and that helped force the issue. I 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.800 still am bitter about that, even though today I probably 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:48.640 wouldn't be able to. 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:49.679 If you put me in. 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.800 From an Apple two E or an early IBM PC 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.920 that was just running DOSS, I wouldn't remember any of 0:12:55.920 --> 0:13:02.160 the commands besides DR, which is directory DOS, I would 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.040 be lost. But I still am kind of bitter about 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.000 all this. Now, I also be fair. I'm an elitist 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.040 computer nerd type. I'm just an elitist computer nerd type 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.200 who lacks the information to be able to effectively be 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.760 an elitist, which is the saddest kind of nerd. Apple 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.920 obviously had really high hopes for that original Macintosh, but 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.280 they had also had really high hopes for Lisa, and 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:29.520 that didn't pan out back in nineteen eighty one, which 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.800 was back when the Macintosh was still in development. It 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.720 didn't debut till nineteen eighty four. Keep in mind, in 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.720 nineteen eighty one, Apple had a plan, and their plan 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.800 was that they would sell two point two million Macintosh 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.120 computers by nineteen eighty five by the end of nineteen 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.840 eighty five, but that plan was based upon a launch 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.280 date that would happen sometime in nineteen eighty two, because remember, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.640 back then, they were still looking at creating a cheap 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.040 alternative to the other computers like the Apple two and 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.240 other competing computers on the market, so they had high 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:08.880 hopes that they would be able to sell two point 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.800 two million units by nineteen eighty five. The computer wasn't 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.440 even available for purchase until nineteen eighty four, so that 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.800 set them back, and even if they had launched in 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.400 nineteen eighty two, they would have had to sell around 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.440 fifty thousand computers every month to hit that two point 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.520 two million mark within the end of nineteen eighty five. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.640 They did have an enormous start. The Macintosh marketing department 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.280 was great for the launch of the computer, and they 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.000 sold quite a bit when they first went on the 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.440 market because people were really excited about it. But after 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.960 that initial excitement, they weren't able to capitalize on creating 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.440 a momentum and it died off pretty quickly. The marketing 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:54.320 kind of failed after that initial launch. The Apple blew 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.400 too much money early on and didn't have enough to 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:04.080 support it throughout its an launch, So after a successful 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.320 couple of first months, sales dropped precipitously down to like 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:12.720 five thousand units a month, way below the number they 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.520 would need. So by the end of nineteen eighty five 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.880 they had not sold two point two million units as 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.720 they had originally planned. It was more like two hundred 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:27.120 and fifty thousand units, a huge shortfall. The Macintosh was 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.760 not quite a flop like Lisa, but it wasn't performing 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:35.160 as well in the market as Apple had hoped. Now 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.240 it was impressive, but it was suffering from a similar 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.400 issue as Lisa. It didn't have a lot of applications 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:46.000 available for it, not as many as the competing ibmpcs had. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.080 Apple's then CEO admitted as much later on John Scully. 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.480 He said, Yeah, we didn't do enough to develop software 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.160 to run this computer. So while the computer was nice 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.520 to look at, the graphic user interface was interesting, there 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.000 just wasn't a whole lot to do with it. You 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.960 didn't have things like spreadsheet programs. There was a severe 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.520 lack of utility with their computer. Really, they only had 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.840 two applications They had mac Wright which was a word 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.360 processing program, and they had mac Paint, which was a 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.120 simple graphics program, but that was about it. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.120 They didn't have the other stuff you would associate with 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:24.960 other computers. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.560 So while it was user friendly, it didn't have a 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.240 lot of usability to it, like there just wasn't enough 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:35.360 to do, so that also hurt Macintosh sales. Now you 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.640 might also remember from our last episode, Like I said, 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.360 the CEO of Apple at this time was John Scully, 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:45.400 whom Steve Jobs had lured away from Pepsi. The story 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.160 is that Scully was kind of in line to become 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.520 the chairman of the board over at Pepsi, but it 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.800 was on a much longer timeline than Scully wanted, and 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.000 that Steve Jobs was able to convince Scully to come 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.600 over by saying to him, do you want to spend 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.800 the rest of your life selling sugar water or do 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.400 you want a chance to change the world once again? 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.360 Steve Jobs master salesman. 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.120 He could really have a turn of phrase and get 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.199 you to believe in him even when the odds were 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.920 stacked against him. Scully himself would say that that phrase 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.240 really convinced him to come over to Apple, and he 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.440 said so in a documentary, so you can actually check 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:28.480 this out. It's a documentary titled Bloomberg Game Changers Steve Jobs, 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.240 so it's part of a series. It was a really 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.520 effective sales pitch, as it turns out, so Scully and 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.439 Jobs initially worked really well together leading up to the 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:41.879 Macintosh launch. Scully's predecessor was Mike Markula, which in the 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.280 last episode you might remember was the guy who stepped 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.920 in to remove Steve Jobs from the Lisa project. Markula 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.920 was an early investor in Apple and had transitioned from 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.200 CEO to board members, so he retired as CEO. He resigned, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.879 transitioning over to the board. He had told his wife 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.560 that he wasn't going to stay on with Apple for 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.760 very long, although he stayed on much longer than he 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.240 initially meant to. He just stayed on in the capacity 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.600 of member of the board as opposed to the CEO, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.639 and then John Scully took over the job as CEO. Now, 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.159 John Scully would serve as the CEO from about nineteen 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:27.440 eighty five to about nineteen ninety three ish. Ninety three 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.480 ninety four is really when we're looking at that transition. Effectively, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.720 ninety three Scully initially got along well with Jobs, but 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.960 when the Macintosh sales began to drop off, new tensions 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.240 developed between the CEO and Apple's co founder, and that's 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.119 not great when you have kind of clashing personalities at 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:48.560 the top level of your company. 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.520 Now, John Scully also has the dubious. 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:58.880 Distinction of being on the Worst American CEO's List curated 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.000 by Conde Nas. He's actually number fourteen on that list 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.880 back when they published it a few years ago. Now 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.560 more on why John Scully made that list as this 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:15.679 episode progresses. Apple at the time had not completely switched 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.320 over to the Macintosh line as its primary product, so 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.119 you might think, oh, it went Apple two to Apple 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.639 three to Macintosh and they discontinued the other computers, but 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.560 that's not true. They were actually producing different lines of 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:36.879 computers simultaneously, and Apple's structure was designed around this, where 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.119 each product had its own division, so it wasn't like 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.480 you had one big division of all these different products 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.439 grouped together. You had an Apple two division, an Apple 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.240 three division, and a Macintosh division. You also had a 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:55.920 Lisa division until they discontinued that product. So the Apple 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.840 two and Apple three computers continued to be manufactured and 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:03.639 sold by Apple side by side with Macintosh computers. The 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.920 Apple three ended up being a failure. It was a flop, 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.040 very much like Lisa. It just didn't do so well. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.200 It was meant to be, again, a business level machine, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.359 not a personal computer, and it was priced as such, 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.400 and there just wasn't enough there for businesses to jump 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.440 on board with it. There were cheaper IBM computers coming out, 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.520 so that was more attractive from an expense side of things. 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.960 And like Lisa, there weren't a lot of developers creating 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.520 software for the Apple three, so it didn't make a 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:36.520 whole lot of sense to invest in the Apple three 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.520 platform if the IBM computer platform cost less and had 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.560 more development. So companies weren't adopting the Apple three. But 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.680 the Apple two continued to hold its own, so it 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:54.480 was still a big product even as the Macintosh came online. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.080 The Apple two. 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.399 C computer debuted in nineteen eighty four. That was the 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.920 same year that the Macintosh came out, so Apple two 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.960 C stood for well, a more advanced Apple two computer. Actually, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.040 the letter system for Apple two computers is really confusing, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.440 because the Apple two E came out in nineteen eighty three, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.680 and then the Apple to C came out in nineteen 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:24.119 eighty four, so they weren't going in alphabetical order, and 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.600 that is a bit more than a bit confusing. But 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.520 the Apple two C was Apple's first compact model, so 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.359 the C kind of stood for compact. The computer's hardware 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.480 consisted of a case that had an incorporated keyboard and 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.920 a five and a quarter inch disk drive, and the 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.359 computer itself, which was separate from a monitor. It was 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.359 just the computer. You could slide that into a base 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.359 a stand essentially, and on top of the stand you 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.119 could put your monitor, so the computer would kind of 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:55.040 slot in underneath where the monitor was. The monitor would 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.760 not sit directly on top of the computer case itself. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.399 Apple would continue to make computers in the two C 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:09.080 line until nineteen ninety, so the Apple two continued to 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.359 go on sale to hit store shelves while the Macintosh 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:17.560 continued to evolve, so these separate products remained side by 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.720 side for quite some time. Apple launched an enhanced version 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.800 of the Apple Too E in nineteen eighty five, so 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:26.800 the two E continued as well. 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.359 It just got a bit of a beefier. 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.679 Version than the one that had launched a couple of 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.520 years earlier. It did not have a graphic user interface 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:40.320 like the Macintosh, and Apple would continue to make these 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.880 Apple Too computers available for quite some time. In fact, 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.520 that Advanced two E would continue to be on sale 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.680 until nineteen ninety three, so extending pretty far. Like you 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:55.320 would think that by ninety three you would have just 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.080 graphic user interface based computers, but you still had the 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.359 Apple two E Enhanced. And maybe one day I'll do 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.280 an episode dedicated just to those Apple line computers to 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:11.160 talk about the process of their evolution compared to Macintosh. 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:13.679 But that's not really what this episode's about. I just 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.600 went into touch base and explained that was going on 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:20.560 at the same time as the development for the mac Now, 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.159 in January nineteen eighty five, Apple tried to make the 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.960 best of a bad situation by launching the Macintosh Excel. 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:32.160 Only here's the thing. This was not the next Macintosh computer. 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.680 It was actually a rebranding of a different computer, namely 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.280 the Lisa Too. So remember the Lisa was a flop. 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.679 Then Apple decided to make a stripped down version of 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:46.879 the Lisa computer and sell it for a lower price 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:52.360 than that ten thousand dollars beast of a computer called Lisa. 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:55.960 Lisa too did not do well in sales either, so 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:59.280 then they rebranded it. They called it Macintosh. Xcel was 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:04.760 a Macintosh doing all right initially, but they weren't able 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:07.159 to move the Lisa two computers, so they rebranded it. 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:11.120 They called it the Excel, but it still didn't do 0:24:11.280 --> 0:24:14.919 so well, and by April nineteen eighty five they discontinued it. 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:18.360 They stopped making the Macintosh Excel. 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.359 They still had a ton of inventory, but they weren't 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:22.800 making more of them. 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.240 They were able to offload some of the Macintosh Excel 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.720 devices with some big sales deals, so for example, they 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:35.359 sold five thousand of the Excel macintoshes to a company 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:40.080 called Sun Remarketing back in nineteen eighty seven. But ultimately 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.240 a lot of those units never left Apple warehouses. 0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:45.240 They just sat there. 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:48.360 And so in nineteen eighty nine, they decided to take 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:51.760 a note from the video game crash of nineteen eighty three. 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:54.639 You might remember, Atari decided to get rid of a 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:58.159 lot of excess inventory by dumping them in landfills out 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:00.840 in the desert. Apple ended up doing the same thing, 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:03.760 only they dumped theirs in a landfill in Utah instead 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.840 of in a different state. So they all of those 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:11.440 Macintosh XL computers ended up in a landfill in Utah. 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.880 So somewhere in a Utah landfill, if you dig down, 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:19.879 you would be able to find old Macintosh XL Lisa 0:25:19.920 --> 0:25:25.160 to computers. But don't do that. We'd be a colossally 0:25:25.359 --> 0:25:28.800 bad idea and you could very easily injure yourself if 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:31.480 you dug in the wrong landfill. Phil, Plus you'd probably 0:25:31.480 --> 0:25:35.760 be trespassing. So I'm officially telling you do not go 0:25:35.960 --> 0:25:39.639 searching for the McIntosh XL because even if you. 0:25:39.720 --> 0:25:41.760 Found one, it wouldn't work. At this point. 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:46.199 It's been exposed to elements since nineteen eighty nine, so 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:47.920 you don't want one. 0:25:48.840 --> 0:25:49.480 Don't do it. 0:25:49.760 --> 0:25:52.440 If I hear about you doing it will be very 0:25:52.480 --> 0:25:55.840 put out. I've got a lot more to say about 0:25:55.920 --> 0:25:58.800 the history of the Macintosh from nineteen eighty four to 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.359 nineteen ninety seven, but before I get into the next segment, 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:13.919 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. All Right, So, 0:26:14.320 --> 0:26:17.640 a few months after the initial Macintosh hit store shelves, 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.760 Apple released an update called the Mac five twelve, also 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:25.920 known as the Fat Mac. This Macintosh had five hundred 0:26:25.920 --> 0:26:28.280 and twelve kilobytes of memory, that's why it was called that, 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:32.360 so significantly more memory than the initial Macintosh, which remember, 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:35.640 only had one hundred and twenty eight kilobytes. That additional 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:39.040 memory made it easier to develop programs for the Macintosh 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:42.600 because the operating system no longer hogged nearly all of 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:48.080 the system's memory. But that extra memory came at a cost. 0:26:48.280 --> 0:26:52.040 The fat max price tag was three thousand, three hundred 0:26:52.160 --> 0:26:56.760 dollars in nineteen eighty five. That's equivalent to nearly eight 0:26:56.920 --> 0:27:03.080 thousand dollars today. Incredibly expensive. Still, the fat mac had 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:07.840 a big advantage. It could actually do stuff pretty big 0:27:07.880 --> 0:27:10.320 when you compare it to the original Mac and some 0:27:10.560 --> 0:27:14.680 software and one additional piece of hardware really helped increase 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:18.840 the value of the Macintosh line. So on the software 0:27:18.880 --> 0:27:22.959 side you had stuff like Aldice page Maker. It eventually 0:27:23.040 --> 0:27:26.480 became Adobe page Maker, and it helped usher in a 0:27:26.520 --> 0:27:30.320 new era of computing. This was the era of desktop publishing. 0:27:30.800 --> 0:27:34.320 That was not a thing really before the Macintosh and 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:38.680 Aldie PageMaker made it a thing. So page Maker, if 0:27:38.680 --> 0:27:41.600 you've never used it, it's sort of a layout program. 0:27:41.640 --> 0:27:46.560 It allows you to lay out an attractive esthetic design 0:27:46.720 --> 0:27:50.439 to stuff like newsletters, flyers. 0:27:49.960 --> 0:27:51.720 That kind of thing. A program. If you wanted to 0:27:51.760 --> 0:27:52.880 make a program. 0:27:52.480 --> 0:27:56.520 For a play or some other event, you could use 0:27:56.560 --> 0:28:01.479 page Maker to size everything and position properly so that 0:28:01.560 --> 0:28:05.040 you had an attractive layout. And that meant that you 0:28:05.040 --> 0:28:08.239 could suddenly do this at home, where if you had 0:28:08.280 --> 0:28:10.800 the right equipment, or with a small business, you could 0:28:10.800 --> 0:28:13.280 do it there. You didn't have to go to a 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:18.360 larger publishing house and contract with them to make your stuff. 0:28:18.760 --> 0:28:22.600 This was revolutionary. It was one of the reasons why computers, 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:27.800 personal computers and small computers that businesses used were so popular. 0:28:28.040 --> 0:28:32.080 It meant that they gave these entities, whether they were 0:28:32.160 --> 0:28:35.840 individuals or small businesses, greater opportunities. 0:28:37.680 --> 0:28:39.640 So that was very popular. 0:28:40.160 --> 0:28:44.120 But there was also some other software that was helping out. 0:28:44.160 --> 0:28:47.480 In nineteen eighty five, Microsoft began to publish software for 0:28:47.520 --> 0:28:52.040 the Macintosh. So Microsoft and Apple haven't always had a 0:28:52.080 --> 0:28:58.160 contentious relationship. In fact, Microsoft has often in Apple's past 0:28:58.360 --> 0:29:02.520 helped the other company out with loans or with investments. 0:29:03.240 --> 0:29:06.240 It hasn't always been a I hate you, no, I 0:29:06.320 --> 0:29:10.120 hate you more kind of relationship. One of the earliest 0:29:10.160 --> 0:29:14.120 programs Microsoft made available for the Macintosh was Word one 0:29:14.200 --> 0:29:17.520 point oh, which was the first real competitor to Apple's 0:29:17.560 --> 0:29:22.680 own Macwright software and eventually overtook Macwright. People began to 0:29:22.720 --> 0:29:26.480 prefer Word one point oh and its later versions to 0:29:26.600 --> 0:29:31.560 the Macwright word processing program. Another program that came over 0:29:31.640 --> 0:29:35.640 to mac was the Excel one point oh software, the 0:29:35.720 --> 0:29:39.320 spreadsheet program. In fact, it came to the Macintosh first. 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:42.720 It was a Macintosh exclusive for a while in the 0:29:42.760 --> 0:29:45.560 early days. That was just the case because it wouldn't 0:29:45.600 --> 0:29:49.600 even come to Windows until late nineteen eighty seven. So 0:29:49.720 --> 0:29:52.840 Apple had a head start on Windows when it came 0:29:52.880 --> 0:29:55.720 to Excel. But there's a whole story that I've talked 0:29:55.720 --> 0:29:59.000 about in a previous episode about why that is, so 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:01.240 I'm not going to go into it here. On the 0:30:01.280 --> 0:30:06.120 hardware side was a device called the Laser Writer. This 0:30:06.280 --> 0:30:11.000 was a printer, a monstrously heavy printer. It weighed seventy 0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:15.800 seven pounds that's about thirty five kilograms, and it had 0:30:15.840 --> 0:30:19.680 a three hundred dots per inch resolution, pretty standard for 0:30:19.960 --> 0:30:23.080 printers of the day, and it cost a hefty amount 0:30:23.720 --> 0:30:29.000 seven thousand dollars. And let's adjust for inflation because I 0:30:29.080 --> 0:30:33.040 like to do that. That's about sixteen grand in today's dollars, 0:30:33.080 --> 0:30:37.760 sixteen thousand dollars for a printer. But you could network 0:30:38.160 --> 0:30:42.120 multiple Macintosh computers to this one printer, so that increased 0:30:42.120 --> 0:30:44.200 its value. You didn't have to buy a printer for 0:30:44.280 --> 0:30:48.360 every computer. If you had several computer workstations at your office, 0:30:48.680 --> 0:30:52.040 you could network them together to this printer and they 0:30:52.040 --> 0:30:54.280 could all print from the same printer. That was a 0:30:54.280 --> 0:30:58.640 pretty big deal, very novel concept when it came to 0:30:58.680 --> 0:31:02.000 this level of computer enterprise. Normally, you'd be paying a 0:31:02.040 --> 0:31:05.840 lot more money for a networked system that was created 0:31:06.360 --> 0:31:10.320 pretty much by contract for your company. So it meant 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:15.080 that Apple could actually compete in that space, and they 0:31:15.080 --> 0:31:18.760 could also print in different fonts. The earliest laser writer 0:31:18.920 --> 0:31:21.760 only a few different fonts, but that was still a 0:31:21.840 --> 0:31:25.680 huge advantage over older printers, remember like daisy wheel printers. 0:31:25.840 --> 0:31:28.880 Actually you may not remember daisy will printers. I do 0:31:29.000 --> 0:31:32.160 because I grew up with them. Those had a physical 0:31:32.240 --> 0:31:35.560 font on the device itself, so you couldn't really change it, 0:31:36.240 --> 0:31:40.760 but the laser writer could reproduce a few different fonts, 0:31:40.840 --> 0:31:43.320 giving you some options. And later versions of the laser 0:31:43.360 --> 0:31:47.360 writer and later versions of the operating system and the 0:31:47.360 --> 0:31:51.960 accompanying software would allow even more fonts, so that made 0:31:52.000 --> 0:31:55.880 desktop publishing even more attractive. So this combination of software 0:31:55.880 --> 0:32:00.640 and hardware suddenly made the Macintosh a more attractive device 0:32:00.800 --> 0:32:03.760 if you wanted to go into publishing. And this really 0:32:03.800 --> 0:32:10.080 begins the relationship Apple has with creators, people who are 0:32:10.080 --> 0:32:16.800 into graphics, eventually into film and audio. Apple kind of 0:32:16.920 --> 0:32:22.000 established that relationship with people at this stage, this early stage, 0:32:22.000 --> 0:32:23.040 with the fat Mac. 0:32:23.800 --> 0:32:26.760 It meant that you were catering. 0:32:26.360 --> 0:32:32.080 To people who didn't really feel comfortable with the IBM 0:32:32.120 --> 0:32:36.040 compatible approach to computing. They found it more intuitive to 0:32:36.040 --> 0:32:39.720 go to the Mac system and that would remain true 0:32:39.800 --> 0:32:44.120 for decades. In fact, for a long long time, Apple 0:32:44.240 --> 0:32:49.160 dominated when it came to production, particularly video and audio production. 0:32:49.280 --> 0:32:52.040 Here at how Stuff Works, our video. 0:32:51.760 --> 0:32:57.720 Department works almost exclusively on Macintosh computers. So even though 0:32:58.040 --> 0:33:01.080 I would argue PCs have caught up in a large 0:33:01.080 --> 0:33:03.680 part and software for the PCs have cut up in 0:33:03.760 --> 0:33:08.840 large part to Apple's dominant place in that market, there's 0:33:08.880 --> 0:33:13.000 still people who prefer the Apple approach, and to be honest, 0:33:13.000 --> 0:33:16.400 depending upon what format you're working in, Apple still. 0:33:16.200 --> 0:33:18.840 Does it better than PCs do. 0:33:20.000 --> 0:33:22.960 All of that began way back in nineteen eighty five, 0:33:23.400 --> 0:33:26.480 with the Fat Mac and the launch of the Laser Writer, 0:33:27.000 --> 0:33:29.960 and the launch of these software programs I've been talking about. 0:33:30.680 --> 0:33:32.320 On the corporate side. 0:33:32.200 --> 0:33:35.160 Nineteen eighty five was when Apple said goodbye to the 0:33:35.160 --> 0:33:40.320 co founders, but under very different circumstances. Steve Wozniak, who 0:33:40.360 --> 0:33:43.840 had mostly been away from Apple ever since he had 0:33:44.000 --> 0:33:47.760 suffered injuries in an airplane crash and had been working 0:33:47.840 --> 0:33:51.200 hard to recover from them. He left on his own 0:33:51.240 --> 0:33:54.320 accord in February nineteen eighty five, and he went back 0:33:54.360 --> 0:33:57.960 to college. Eventually he went into teaching and then began 0:33:58.000 --> 0:34:01.720 to do other stuff as well. Steve Jobs, however, didn't 0:34:01.720 --> 0:34:04.080 really have a choice in the matter, not really when 0:34:04.080 --> 0:34:08.800 you get down to it. After numerous teams reported being 0:34:08.920 --> 0:34:15.960 incredibly frustrated with Steve Jobs' managerial style, the executives of 0:34:16.000 --> 0:34:20.760 the company, primarily CEO John Scully, decided to effectively strip 0:34:20.800 --> 0:34:24.080 Steve Jobs of all of his power. They removed him 0:34:24.080 --> 0:34:27.000 from all the projects. They put him in an office 0:34:27.080 --> 0:34:31.320 in a building that was mostly deserted. Steve Jobs himself 0:34:31.320 --> 0:34:35.200 referred to it as Siberia and of course Steve Jobs 0:34:35.239 --> 0:34:38.680 is not one known for making melodramatic statements like that, 0:34:39.040 --> 0:34:41.719 so you know it had to be awful. But the 0:34:41.760 --> 0:34:44.000 point being the Steve Jobs had really very little to 0:34:44.000 --> 0:34:47.400 do with the company that he had helped create. He 0:34:47.440 --> 0:34:50.520 had been pulled away from it and removed more or 0:34:50.600 --> 0:34:54.680 less from power. Not everyone was upset about that, because 0:34:54.719 --> 0:34:57.280 so many people had had issues with his management style, 0:34:58.000 --> 0:35:02.280 but it still was a difficult story, right to say, 0:35:02.719 --> 0:35:06.960 we've decided this founder of our company shouldn't be involved 0:35:06.960 --> 0:35:12.160 in any of the company's projects, but was still effectively 0:35:12.200 --> 0:35:14.600 an employee of the company. He was still drawing a 0:35:14.640 --> 0:35:17.560 salary at that point. But Jobs decided he didn't want 0:35:17.600 --> 0:35:21.000 to just sit at a desk in an empty building 0:35:21.600 --> 0:35:24.960 and pull a salary from a company. He wanted to 0:35:24.960 --> 0:35:29.480 see if he could perhaps regain control of Apple, and 0:35:29.560 --> 0:35:31.600 so he went to some of the executives of Apple 0:35:31.640 --> 0:35:33.200 to see if any of them would support him and 0:35:33.200 --> 0:35:36.120 what would effectively be a coup to go to the 0:35:36.120 --> 0:35:39.200 board of directors demand that John Scully be removed as 0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:44.080 CEO and perhaps Steve Jobs would take his place. But 0:35:44.200 --> 0:35:47.440 one of the executives he went to felt very strongly 0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:51.520 that this was the bad decision. That person was Jean 0:35:51.640 --> 0:35:57.880 Louis Gaess. Now, Jean Louis Gassy was someone who had 0:35:58.200 --> 0:36:00.600 risen up in the Apple ranks. He was a manager 0:36:01.680 --> 0:36:04.880 in their various product division lines, and he did not 0:36:05.239 --> 0:36:09.239 like Jobs. Jobs and guess did not get along. So 0:36:09.560 --> 0:36:13.399 Guessay ended up going over to John Scully and tattletaled 0:36:13.840 --> 0:36:16.960 on Steve Jobs. He essentially told John Scully, who was 0:36:17.440 --> 0:36:19.920 off on a business trip, Hey, you should know this. 0:36:20.400 --> 0:36:24.240 Steve is going around stirring up trouble and he wants 0:36:24.320 --> 0:36:27.520 to try and go to the Board of directors and 0:36:27.560 --> 0:36:31.560 go over your head and replace you. John Scully rushed 0:36:31.600 --> 0:36:34.879 back to Apple. He called a meeting of the Board 0:36:34.880 --> 0:36:38.480 of directors. He was furious with Steve Jobs for what 0:36:38.640 --> 0:36:43.920 he saw as an act of disloyalty and dishonesty, and 0:36:44.120 --> 0:36:47.319 so they had it out in front of the Board 0:36:47.320 --> 0:36:51.680 of Directors. It was, by all accounts, an ugly confrontation, 0:36:52.560 --> 0:36:56.200 and ultimately John Scully was asking the Board of directors 0:36:56.200 --> 0:36:59.239 for essentially a vote of confidence and to say, you 0:36:59.280 --> 0:37:01.480 know who would they go. Would they side with Jobs 0:37:01.560 --> 0:37:07.920 or would they side with Scully? And then the board 0:37:08.080 --> 0:37:13.360 sided unanimously with John Scully. Every member of the board, 0:37:13.400 --> 0:37:18.040 including the people I've already mentioned in this episode, were 0:37:18.080 --> 0:37:22.040 on John Scully's side, and they effectively pushed Steve Jobs 0:37:22.040 --> 0:37:27.959 out of his company. Obviously, the story with Steve Jobs 0:37:28.000 --> 0:37:32.960 and Apple doesn't end here in nineteen eighty five. Will 0:37:33.080 --> 0:37:36.120 actually revisit Steve Jobs later on in this episode, but 0:37:36.160 --> 0:37:39.680 we've also covered this story in other episodes of Tech Stuff. 0:37:39.719 --> 0:37:42.800 So if you want to hear a really deep discussion 0:37:42.800 --> 0:37:46.120 about what Steve Jobs did in his years away from Apple, 0:37:46.560 --> 0:37:48.520 there are a couple of different places you can check out, 0:37:48.600 --> 0:37:50.399 or a couple different episodes you can check out. There's 0:37:50.440 --> 0:37:54.399 a two parter called How Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Work. 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:57.279 They published in two thousand and eight, so they were 0:37:57.360 --> 0:38:01.000 very early episodes of Tech Stuff Tech Stuff in two 0:38:01.000 --> 0:38:03.600 thousand and eight, so Chris Pollette and I talked about 0:38:03.600 --> 0:38:05.759 Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who had a lot of 0:38:06.200 --> 0:38:08.800 not just similarities, but a lot of they worked a 0:38:08.840 --> 0:38:12.120 lot together in those early days of Apple and Microsoft. 0:38:13.280 --> 0:38:14.640 So you can check out that two parter. 0:38:15.200 --> 0:38:18.080 And there's also a very sad episode titled One More 0:38:18.239 --> 0:38:22.080 Thing and that published in twenty eleven. Shortly after Steve 0:38:22.160 --> 0:38:25.759 Jobs passed away, and in those episodes, I really talk 0:38:25.840 --> 0:38:27.200 about what Steve Jobs. 0:38:26.920 --> 0:38:29.120 Did in his years away from Apple. 0:38:29.239 --> 0:38:31.160 So I'm not going to cover it here, but we 0:38:31.200 --> 0:38:34.680 will revisit Steve Jobs because he does factor back into 0:38:34.719 --> 0:38:37.840 Apple's history a bit later on. If you want to 0:38:37.880 --> 0:38:41.200 know more, check out those episodes I just mentioned. Now, 0:38:41.320 --> 0:38:45.960 Jobs would end up publishing letters of resignation. He sent 0:38:46.480 --> 0:38:49.920 letters of resignation to the press after he had effectively 0:38:49.920 --> 0:38:52.879 been forced out of his own company, so it's more 0:38:52.960 --> 0:38:56.600 like you can't fire me, I quit sort of thing. 0:38:57.600 --> 0:38:59.840 Presumably he did this in order to get the media 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:03.200 on his side, but it did not have the effect 0:39:03.360 --> 0:39:07.480 that he was hoping for. In fact, Apple stocks rallied 0:39:08.320 --> 0:39:11.560 as a result of Steve Jobs being pushed aside and 0:39:11.600 --> 0:39:16.360 sending out these resignation letters. Effectively, the market was saying, whew, 0:39:17.000 --> 0:39:18.680 we sure are glad you got rid of that guy. 0:39:19.880 --> 0:39:23.000 Not a great message to receive, not this big blow 0:39:23.080 --> 0:39:26.840 to the ego, I'm sure, but it gave Scully more 0:39:28.280 --> 0:39:32.920 confidence in his decisions, which would emerge in physical form 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:36.719 with the evolution of the Macintosh line. Now, one of 0:39:36.880 --> 0:39:40.719 the CEO's first acts once he had been confirmed as 0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:43.920 being the head of Apple, was to lead a massive 0:39:43.960 --> 0:39:46.879 reorganization at the company, and a lot of people say 0:39:46.880 --> 0:39:50.200 it was long overdue. So again, up to that point, 0:39:50.320 --> 0:39:53.880 Apple's org charts were based on products. If you worked 0:39:53.880 --> 0:39:56.160 in the Apple two line, you were in one division. 0:39:56.200 --> 0:39:57.759 If you worked on the Apple three line, you were 0:39:57.760 --> 0:40:00.080 in another division. If you worked on the Macintosh you 0:40:00.120 --> 0:40:02.600 were in yet another division, and so on and so forth. 0:40:03.320 --> 0:40:05.920 Each department was separate from all the others. 0:40:05.960 --> 0:40:08.280 And John Scully said, this doesn't make any sense. 0:40:08.640 --> 0:40:12.040 What we should do is have a big product development 0:40:12.120 --> 0:40:15.400 department and everyone who works on various products will be 0:40:16.040 --> 0:40:22.040 inside this structured department with a manager overseeing that product 0:40:22.280 --> 0:40:24.040 or product development overall. 0:40:24.520 --> 0:40:27.720 So everyone would have a single boss. 0:40:27.840 --> 0:40:30.520 They would report to, who in turn would report to 0:40:30.600 --> 0:40:33.319 John Scully as CEO. Then you would also have a 0:40:33.360 --> 0:40:36.360 department just for sales. You would have a department just 0:40:36.400 --> 0:40:39.759 for marketing, and these departments would work together, but they 0:40:39.760 --> 0:40:43.440 wouldn't be dependent upon individual products. It would largely be 0:40:43.640 --> 0:40:49.160 these big divisions within Apple. So essentially he was saying, 0:40:49.320 --> 0:40:53.400 let's go to your traditional corporate structure. It wasn't like 0:40:53.440 --> 0:40:55.840 he was inventing a new type of leadership. This is 0:40:55.880 --> 0:40:59.319 something that's common across corporations all over the world. 0:41:00.160 --> 0:41:02.239 So he was just saying, let's. 0:41:02.120 --> 0:41:05.120 Go to that because it makes more sense. It streamlines things, 0:41:05.400 --> 0:41:10.640 people know who they report to. There's not this compartmentalized 0:41:12.320 --> 0:41:15.799 structure between different products. People can actually communicate with each other. 0:41:16.160 --> 0:41:19.000 We can make sure that people working on one product 0:41:19.280 --> 0:41:21.440 are not stepping on the toes of people who were 0:41:21.440 --> 0:41:23.879 working on another product. Everyone can talk to each other, 0:41:25.080 --> 0:41:28.399 and then ended up being viewed as a positive move 0:41:28.680 --> 0:41:31.400 in the market. Again, people thought this guy knows what 0:41:31.440 --> 0:41:35.480 he's doing, and they felt confident in Apple's performance because 0:41:35.520 --> 0:41:41.120 of this restructuring, Apple stocks would end up performing really 0:41:41.160 --> 0:41:44.880 well over the next few years. Meanwhile, Jean Luis Gesay 0:41:45.360 --> 0:41:48.760 that manager I was talking about who tattletaled on, Steve Jobs, 0:41:49.040 --> 0:41:51.080 became the manager for the product's division. 0:41:51.120 --> 0:41:52.200 Effectively, he took. 0:41:52.120 --> 0:41:56.239 Over the position that Steve Jobs was inhabiting before he 0:41:56.360 --> 0:42:00.359 was stripped of all of his responsibilities. So Guess became 0:42:00.400 --> 0:42:02.960 the manager for product division and decided to make a 0:42:03.000 --> 0:42:05.400 major change to the Macintosh line. 0:42:05.840 --> 0:42:07.239 So remember that last. 0:42:06.960 --> 0:42:10.360 Mac was the Fat Mac or the Mac five twelve. 0:42:10.960 --> 0:42:15.239 The next computer in that line was the Mac Plus. Now, 0:42:15.280 --> 0:42:18.320 Apple introduced this in nineteen eighty six, and it looked 0:42:18.480 --> 0:42:21.359 identical to the Fat Mac. If you were to put 0:42:21.360 --> 0:42:23.279 two side by side, you probably wouldn't be able to 0:42:23.320 --> 0:42:26.040 immediately tell them apart unless you could actually read the 0:42:26.080 --> 0:42:31.080 designation on the case. But inside it was actually quite 0:42:31.120 --> 0:42:35.080 different from the fat Fat Mac. So, for one thing, 0:42:36.000 --> 0:42:38.960 the Fat Mac was not meant to be expandable. Steve 0:42:39.040 --> 0:42:42.760 Jobs hated the idea of users being able to alter 0:42:43.080 --> 0:42:47.759 the computers that Apple designed. He wanted to have closed systems, 0:42:48.239 --> 0:42:51.960 meaning that you bought a computer, that's the computer you 0:42:52.040 --> 0:42:52.640 got to use. 0:42:52.960 --> 0:42:54.799 You didn't get to expand it in. 0:42:54.719 --> 0:42:57.880 Any way unless you were to go to a third party, 0:42:57.920 --> 0:43:03.360 and that would violate your warranty. The Macplus was different, 0:43:03.360 --> 0:43:07.400 and it was actually expandable. You could upgrade your machine 0:43:07.400 --> 0:43:09.600 if you wanted to. It was the first Macintosh to 0:43:09.760 --> 0:43:13.840 feature a small computer system interface, also known as a 0:43:13.920 --> 0:43:19.000 scuzzy drive SCSI. But people call it scuzzy, not that 0:43:19.080 --> 0:43:23.480 it was scuzzy, it's just how we pronounce it. It's 0:43:23.520 --> 0:43:27.000 actually a set of parallel interface standards that allow you 0:43:27.040 --> 0:43:30.920 to connect other devices to a computer. So a scanner 0:43:31.400 --> 0:43:34.839 an external hard drive printer's that sort of thing. 0:43:35.160 --> 0:43:36.920 It's just meant to be kind of a. 0:43:36.920 --> 0:43:43.920 Universal plug for certain types of computer peripherals. I talked 0:43:43.920 --> 0:43:46.200 a little bit about it in a recent episode about 0:43:46.280 --> 0:43:50.800 USB's when I was comparing USBs to serial and parallel ports. Anyway, 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:55.279 the scuzzy would remain a feature in every Mac that 0:43:55.320 --> 0:44:01.319 would follow from that point until nineteen ninety eight. You 0:44:01.320 --> 0:44:06.000 could also upgrade the memory of the Macplus. The Macplus 0:44:06.000 --> 0:44:09.160 would come with a whole megabyte of memory. Remember, the 0:44:09.200 --> 0:44:12.440 previous fat Mac had five or twelve kilobytes. Megabyte was 0:44:12.480 --> 0:44:15.440 another big jump up, but you could expand that to 0:44:15.640 --> 0:44:19.840 up to four megabytes using a thirty pen memory module 0:44:20.239 --> 0:44:25.879 that was easily pluggable into the Macintosh system. You didn't 0:44:25.960 --> 0:44:28.600 have to do any crazy soldering or anything like that. 0:44:28.760 --> 0:44:32.640 It had an expansion slot you could plug these chips into. 0:44:32.800 --> 0:44:35.640 Previous Apple devices didn't allow you to upgrade your memory, 0:44:35.680 --> 0:44:37.719 so what you bought was what you got, unless you 0:44:38.000 --> 0:44:41.200 again went to a third party and had it professionally altered. 0:44:42.760 --> 0:44:46.400 So this was a huge departure from Steve Jobs's philosophy. 0:44:46.920 --> 0:44:51.800 Guessay's approach was almost one hundred eighty degrees different from jobs, 0:44:51.800 --> 0:44:54.960 and would continue to be different from jobs over the 0:44:55.040 --> 0:44:58.600 next few years. The Macplus also included a keyboard with 0:44:58.640 --> 0:45:01.120 some features that we now consider to be pretty much 0:45:01.239 --> 0:45:06.360 standard for keyboards, like arrow keys and a number pad. Obviously, 0:45:06.400 --> 0:45:08.920 not all keyboards have those, especially for things like laptops. 0:45:08.960 --> 0:45:11.040 You might not have a number pad on all laptops, 0:45:11.400 --> 0:45:16.080 but for your standard PC keyboards, the kinds for desktops, 0:45:16.800 --> 0:45:19.640 you pretty much find arrow keys and number pads on 0:45:19.680 --> 0:45:24.200 most of those these days. But this was novel thinking 0:45:24.360 --> 0:45:26.600 back in nineteen eighty six, so it was something that 0:45:26.640 --> 0:45:29.680 differentiated the Mac Plus from other computers on the market. 0:45:29.960 --> 0:45:33.320 And it also ran the third generation of Max operating system, 0:45:33.360 --> 0:45:37.720 which was then called System three. This was before Apple 0:45:37.800 --> 0:45:41.759 started calling the operating system mac os, they just called 0:45:41.800 --> 0:45:45.560 it System and you could use double sided floppy discs 0:45:45.719 --> 0:45:48.160 with this device, which allowed you to store a wopping 0:45:48.239 --> 0:45:53.400 eight hundred kilobytes of data per disc. I remember those days, 0:45:54.480 --> 0:45:56.520 but anyway, that was a big thing back then. Having 0:45:56.520 --> 0:46:00.000 a double sided disc effectively doubling the amount of information 0:46:00.120 --> 0:46:01.359 you could save on a disc. 0:46:01.840 --> 0:46:03.600 That was a huge space saver. 0:46:03.840 --> 0:46:06.359 Otherwise you had to have twice as many of those 0:46:06.680 --> 0:46:11.120 stupid discs, and that was a pain in the butt. Later, 0:46:11.200 --> 0:46:15.080 in nineteen eighty six, Apple discontinued the Fat Mac and 0:46:15.200 --> 0:46:18.800 replaced it with the five twelve K, which was similar 0:46:18.800 --> 0:46:21.560 to the Mac Plus. So you had the Macplus, which 0:46:21.600 --> 0:46:24.319 was sort of the high end machine, and then they said, well, 0:46:24.320 --> 0:46:26.560 the Fat Mac doesn't really measure up to the Macplus. 0:46:26.600 --> 0:46:29.080 We'll make a new version of the Fat Mac called 0:46:29.160 --> 0:46:32.839 Mac five twelve K. It did not have some of 0:46:32.880 --> 0:46:35.440 the elements that the Macplus had. It didn't have the 0:46:35.440 --> 0:46:40.160 scuzy port, and it didn't have the expandable memory capability. 0:46:40.200 --> 0:46:44.799 It had those older traditional Apple style memory chips, and 0:46:44.880 --> 0:46:47.680 as you might imagine, that didn't measure up well with 0:46:47.719 --> 0:46:51.000 the Macplus in the market. So you had consumers or 0:46:51.040 --> 0:46:55.840 small businesses mainly and larger looking at the Macplus versus 0:46:55.920 --> 0:46:58.399 the Mac five twelve k E and they said, why 0:46:58.400 --> 0:47:00.279 would I go with the five twelve K E which 0:47:00.320 --> 0:47:03.799 has fewer features than the Macplus. So ultimately the five 0:47:03.920 --> 0:47:08.000 twelve KE did not sell very well. The Macplus, however, 0:47:08.400 --> 0:47:12.479 was a very popular product within the Apple line, in fact, 0:47:12.520 --> 0:47:16.800 so much so that it would become the longest lived 0:47:17.000 --> 0:47:20.359 computer in the Macintosh line, meaning it was the one 0:47:20.400 --> 0:47:26.040 that Apple produced the longest amount of time, from nineteen 0:47:26.080 --> 0:47:29.920 eighty six to nineteen ninety, so four years of producing 0:47:29.960 --> 0:47:32.520 the same computer. That's a long time in computer terms, 0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:37.280 because parts become obsolete so quickly, right processors get faster, 0:47:37.640 --> 0:47:40.440 we can put more memory into these machines, but the 0:47:40.480 --> 0:47:45.640 Macplus would stay on store shelves largely unchanged from nineteen 0:47:45.680 --> 0:47:50.279 eighty six to nineteen ninety. Now at this stage, I 0:47:50.280 --> 0:47:52.960 should mention that I'm not going to cover every single 0:47:53.800 --> 0:47:56.719 variation of the Macintosh in this episode. 0:47:56.760 --> 0:47:58.600 I know it sounds like it because. 0:47:58.320 --> 0:48:02.000 I've started with the big one so early on, but 0:48:02.080 --> 0:48:03.399 that would just be ridiculous. 0:48:03.560 --> 0:48:05.680 If I were to do that, it would eventually just. 0:48:05.719 --> 0:48:09.680 Lead to me reading off specs for different computers, and 0:48:09.680 --> 0:48:13.640 that would get incredibly boring incredibly fast. I do want 0:48:13.680 --> 0:48:16.800 to cover some of the big changes that happened throughout 0:48:17.000 --> 0:48:20.399 Apple's history and the history of the Macintosh, but I'm 0:48:20.400 --> 0:48:25.120 not going to cover every variation of every entry into 0:48:25.120 --> 0:48:29.120 the Macintosh line. There are lots of them, so many 0:48:29.160 --> 0:48:31.000 that it actually became a problem for Apple. 0:48:31.040 --> 0:48:32.520 But I'll go into that in a little bit. 0:48:33.600 --> 0:48:35.680 I'm just going to try and get a deeper understanding 0:48:35.719 --> 0:48:37.719 of not just the growth of the personal computer market, 0:48:37.800 --> 0:48:40.560 but the evolution of Apple as a company. So that 0:48:40.600 --> 0:48:44.440 being said, nineteen eighty seven saw some milestones in Apple history. 0:48:44.520 --> 0:48:48.799 For one thing, Apple built the one millionth Macintosh in 0:48:48.880 --> 0:48:51.880 nineteen eighty seven. Now that was a bit behind schedule, 0:48:51.920 --> 0:48:54.839 because you remember, way back in nineteen eighty one, they 0:48:54.840 --> 0:48:58.000 were hoping to sell two point two million Macintosh computers 0:48:58.120 --> 0:49:00.600 by the end of nineteen eighty five. It is nineteen 0:49:00.600 --> 0:49:04.240 eighty seven, and they've just built the one millionth Macintosh, 0:49:04.560 --> 0:49:07.080 so they're well behind what they were hoping for back 0:49:07.120 --> 0:49:10.560 in nineteen eighty one. However, that being said, this was 0:49:10.560 --> 0:49:14.200 a totally different world nineteen eighty seven. You saw massive 0:49:14.239 --> 0:49:17.839 competition in the market. Not only did IBM have its 0:49:17.920 --> 0:49:20.000 own personal computers out there, but you had all the 0:49:20.080 --> 0:49:25.480 clones of IBM computers, the IBM compatible computers, because IBM 0:49:25.600 --> 0:49:29.080 licensed that technology to other companies. So there was a 0:49:29.080 --> 0:49:31.759 lot of competition in the space. So hitting that one 0:49:31.800 --> 0:49:35.279 million mark was still impressive, even though it was much 0:49:35.400 --> 0:49:41.080 later than what they had hoped for, and it was significant. 0:49:41.320 --> 0:49:45.320 So that year Apple introduced new computers in the Macintosh line. 0:49:45.680 --> 0:49:48.319 In nineteen eighty seven, they launched the Mac se and 0:49:48.360 --> 0:49:53.200 the Mac two. As in the Part two son of Mac, 0:49:53.920 --> 0:49:55.880 it was the Roman numeral two as well, kind of 0:49:55.880 --> 0:49:58.839 similar to how they did Apple one, Apple two, Apple three. 0:50:00.080 --> 0:50:03.240 We start seeing the Macintosh regularly shortened to just Mac. 0:50:03.719 --> 0:50:06.920 At this point, very few people started referring to them 0:50:06.920 --> 0:50:08.160 as Macintosh computers. 0:50:08.200 --> 0:50:09.600 They just called a max really. 0:50:09.680 --> 0:50:13.799 After the first Macintosh, that became pretty standard, and the 0:50:13.840 --> 0:50:16.960 Mac two marked another big departure from the original Macintosh 0:50:16.960 --> 0:50:20.480 design jobs and wanted the mac to be that closed system. 0:50:20.520 --> 0:50:25.040 Like I mentioned, the Mac two had six expansion slots 0:50:25.080 --> 0:50:28.400 that could support all sorts of stuff, including different types 0:50:28.440 --> 0:50:31.440 of video cards, which was a huge departure for Apple, 0:50:31.880 --> 0:50:35.279 plus different types of network cards, scuzzy drives, that sort 0:50:35.320 --> 0:50:40.440 of stuff. It could also display color the video cards. 0:50:40.640 --> 0:50:42.560 If you had the right video card in the right monitor, 0:50:42.600 --> 0:50:44.640 you could have a color display, which was a first 0:50:44.640 --> 0:50:48.080 for Macintosh computers, and it pushed the Macintosh from the 0:50:48.400 --> 0:50:52.080 monochromatic world to the world of glorious color, with up 0:50:52.160 --> 0:50:56.160 to sixteen million different colors that could be displayed, which 0:50:56.200 --> 0:51:00.719 was actually pretty impressive back in the mid eighties. Later on, 0:51:00.920 --> 0:51:03.640 that would be dwarfed by what you could achieve with 0:51:04.400 --> 0:51:08.799 high end video cards and monitors. In nineteen eighty eight, 0:51:08.960 --> 0:51:12.520 Apple's Macintosh line continued to evolve, but there weren't really 0:51:12.560 --> 0:51:16.080 any major developments like the ones I just mentioned. Instead, 0:51:16.280 --> 0:51:19.840 it was mostly revisions and evolutions of the line, but 0:51:19.920 --> 0:51:24.560 not revolutions on the software side. The operating system grew, 0:51:24.680 --> 0:51:27.080 with System six coming out toward the end of nineteen 0:51:27.120 --> 0:51:30.240 eighty eight, but apart from the first Apple CD ROM 0:51:30.360 --> 0:51:34.279 drive launching, nothing huge really happened in the macline in 0:51:34.360 --> 0:51:36.319 eighty eight, and the same is true for eighty nine, 0:51:36.440 --> 0:51:39.200 with one major exception. That was the year that Apple 0:51:39.239 --> 0:51:44.120 introduced the mac Portable. So this wasn't really a laptop computer. 0:51:44.600 --> 0:51:46.799 I mean, you could call it a laptop computer, but 0:51:46.840 --> 0:51:51.000 really it was more of a portable Macintosh computer. In 0:51:51.120 --> 0:51:54.080 theory you could call it laptop, but only in theory 0:51:54.200 --> 0:51:57.760 because the thing weighed nearly sixteen pounds or about seven 0:51:57.840 --> 0:52:01.840 point two six kilograms, which is a pretty weighty machine 0:52:01.840 --> 0:52:05.880 to call a laptop. It was also bulky and was 0:52:05.920 --> 0:52:09.440 about the size of a standard briefcase. In other words, 0:52:09.480 --> 0:52:12.319 it was a giant compared to the Mac Air that 0:52:12.360 --> 0:52:15.080 you could find today. The Mac Portable had a lead 0:52:15.239 --> 0:52:18.239 acid battery, which is the same sort of battery you 0:52:18.280 --> 0:52:22.400 can find in your standard gas powered automobile, like a 0:52:22.480 --> 0:52:25.880 car battery that's also lead acid. That's the type of 0:52:25.880 --> 0:52:29.600 battery the first Mac Portable had. Now, it did allow 0:52:29.640 --> 0:52:31.920 you to have about ten hours of battery life, so 0:52:32.000 --> 0:52:35.120 that's nice. But it added to that significant weight where 0:52:35.160 --> 0:52:37.680 it was a rather i should say it made up 0:52:37.680 --> 0:52:39.759 a significant portion of that weight. 0:52:41.200 --> 0:52:43.760 There were two main keyboard layouts you could get. 0:52:44.280 --> 0:52:46.719 One had a numeric keypad and the other one had 0:52:46.760 --> 0:52:49.760 a track ball which would replace the need for a mouse. 0:52:50.000 --> 0:52:53.360 So track ball sort of like the old centipede arcade machines, 0:52:53.400 --> 0:52:56.440 And if you don't know what that is, ask your parents. 0:52:57.200 --> 0:53:00.600 There were This was another one of the ideas of 0:53:01.160 --> 0:53:06.960 Jean Louis Gassay, so he decided that the portable computer 0:53:07.040 --> 0:53:09.920 was an interesting approach. He had already made a decision 0:53:09.960 --> 0:53:12.880 to stick with Apple. He had received an order an 0:53:12.880 --> 0:53:17.680 offer rather from Commodore. Commodore was making the Amiga line 0:53:17.719 --> 0:53:21.040 of computers and they wanted Guess to come over as 0:53:21.080 --> 0:53:23.880 the new head of Commodore. But he actually turned the 0:53:23.880 --> 0:53:27.200 company down initially and said that he wanted to stick 0:53:27.239 --> 0:53:30.400 with Apple, and so he really pushed for the portable Mac. 0:53:32.719 --> 0:53:36.480 It had pretty impressive specs for the time. Apple said 0:53:36.480 --> 0:53:40.279 they spared no expense, they made no accommodation for the 0:53:40.280 --> 0:53:45.680 fact that was portable. They didn't want to compromise on quality, 0:53:46.239 --> 0:53:48.880 and in fact, the specs were pretty impressive even for 0:53:49.000 --> 0:53:52.720 just a regular desktop machine. However, it meant that the 0:53:52.760 --> 0:53:57.120 device was incredibly expensive. Again not as surprise with Apple, right. 0:53:57.239 --> 0:54:00.560 So its price tag was six thousand, five one hundred 0:54:00.640 --> 0:54:04.960 dollars for this portable machine in nineteen eighty nine, So 0:54:05.000 --> 0:54:08.240 if we look at inflation, that's about thirteen thousand dollars. 0:54:08.480 --> 0:54:11.000 He would have to pay thirteen grand to get this 0:54:11.080 --> 0:54:11.719 portable Mac. 0:54:12.200 --> 0:54:16.000 Now, there was a call for portable machines because more 0:54:16.040 --> 0:54:19.000 and more companies wanted people to be able to take 0:54:19.120 --> 0:54:21.880 a machine into the field. You might work for a 0:54:21.880 --> 0:54:26.200 company like a utility company, and having a computer that 0:54:26.280 --> 0:54:29.440 your employee could take with him or her on a 0:54:29.480 --> 0:54:33.719 service call was incredibly valuable. So there was a need 0:54:33.760 --> 0:54:36.960 for portable machines. People had a desire for them. There 0:54:37.000 --> 0:54:40.800 was a market there, But thirteen thousand dollars. 0:54:40.360 --> 0:54:42.160 For a portable mac. 0:54:43.320 --> 0:54:45.880 Was a super steep price, and you might not be 0:54:45.960 --> 0:54:48.920 surprised to hear that not very many of them were 0:54:48.960 --> 0:54:52.480 sold as a result. In fact, Apple sales in general 0:54:52.520 --> 0:54:55.400 were not doing well that year. It marked the first 0:54:55.440 --> 0:55:00.040 time Apple had an actual drop in sales figures. We 0:55:00.080 --> 0:55:04.120 were selling fewer computers than they had in the previous year. 0:55:04.920 --> 0:55:08.360 The following year, Gasse announced his retirement from Apple and 0:55:08.480 --> 0:55:12.760 vacated the head of product development, So he only lasted 0:55:13.080 --> 0:55:16.719 a little bit longer than Steve Jobs himself did. Now, 0:55:16.840 --> 0:55:20.000 nineteen ninety also saw a big shift due to outside competition. 0:55:20.200 --> 0:55:26.279 That's because in nineteen ninety Microsoft launched Windows three point zero. Now, 0:55:26.320 --> 0:55:29.600 the previous incarnation of Windows had really not made a 0:55:29.680 --> 0:55:34.800 huge impact on Macintosh sales. Consumers had not really adapted 0:55:34.840 --> 0:55:38.960 and adopted the Windows platform. But Windows three was a 0:55:38.960 --> 0:55:44.400 different story. Windows three and IBM compatible machines were starting 0:55:44.400 --> 0:55:47.520 to become more popular, and from this point forward, I'm 0:55:47.560 --> 0:55:50.760 just going to call those PCs. We'll talk about max 0:55:50.880 --> 0:55:54.320 versus PCs. I don't like that because I think personal 0:55:54.360 --> 0:55:57.560 computer is too broad a term to just refer to 0:55:57.640 --> 0:56:01.759 Windows based machines. But just for simplicity's sake, We're going 0:56:01.840 --> 0:56:03.799 to do that for the rest of this episode. So 0:56:04.560 --> 0:56:08.200 PCs were really selling well, and Windows three point zero 0:56:09.239 --> 0:56:13.520 was a dominant operating system, again a graphic user interface 0:56:13.920 --> 0:56:17.000 similar to what you would find on the Macintosh. There 0:56:17.000 --> 0:56:21.960 were even people arguing that Microsoft was copying no Macintosh, 0:56:21.960 --> 0:56:25.120 but the development of Windows was happening at around the 0:56:25.160 --> 0:56:28.880 same time as the development of the Macintosh guy, And 0:56:29.320 --> 0:56:32.920 to be honest, both companies really owed a huge debt 0:56:33.120 --> 0:56:37.480 to Xerox because it was Xerox's Park, the R and 0:56:37.560 --> 0:56:41.560 D arm of Xerox that developed the graphic user interface. Anyway, 0:56:42.960 --> 0:56:45.880 the ibmpcs had a huge advantage over Macintosh in that 0:56:45.880 --> 0:56:49.080 they were less expensive. You could buy an IBMPC for 0:56:49.120 --> 0:56:51.719 a fraction of what it cost to buy a Macintosh. 0:56:51.880 --> 0:56:54.400 Then you can get your graphic user interface with Windows 0:56:54.440 --> 0:56:55.240 three point zero. 0:56:56.280 --> 0:56:57.239 In fact, within a. 0:56:57.160 --> 0:57:00.560 Couple of years, you would have about five copies of 0:57:00.600 --> 0:57:03.840 Windows three point zero for every Macintosh that was being sold. 0:57:04.719 --> 0:57:10.399 That's not great if you're Apple. I should also point 0:57:10.440 --> 0:57:13.720 out that even at this point, as late as nineteen ninety, 0:57:13.800 --> 0:57:17.920 I still hated Windows because I still hated the idea 0:57:17.920 --> 0:57:20.480 of having to surrender so much of my computer's operating 0:57:20.520 --> 0:57:24.480 system or so much of my computer's processing power to 0:57:24.640 --> 0:57:28.040 the operating system. So I was still being an elitist 0:57:28.080 --> 0:57:30.400 computer snob in those days, although I had to give 0:57:30.400 --> 0:57:33.400 in because more and more games were only Windows compatible, 0:57:33.400 --> 0:57:35.240 and if I'm going to be honest, that was my 0:57:35.400 --> 0:57:38.960 main concern with PCs back in the day. Wasn't so 0:57:39.080 --> 0:57:42.000 much concerned about the productivity software. But if I couldn't 0:57:42.040 --> 0:57:48.080 play my Ultima series of games, I got grouchy anyway. 0:57:48.480 --> 0:57:50.600 Nineteen ninety remember it was also the year that the 0:57:50.640 --> 0:57:54.600 Macplus finally got discontinued from Apple. They decided to stop 0:57:54.640 --> 0:57:56.720 selling it, to stop making it, but it had a 0:57:56.800 --> 0:57:59.680 four year run, so that was really strong. Now I've 0:57:59.680 --> 0:58:03.200 got or to say about this period in Apple and 0:58:03.280 --> 0:58:06.080 Macintosh history, but before I get to that, let's take 0:58:06.080 --> 0:58:08.560 another quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:58:18.000 --> 0:58:19.720 Within two years, so. 0:58:19.760 --> 0:58:22.080 Essentially, by the time it gets to nineteen ninety two, 0:58:22.080 --> 0:58:25.280 Windows machines were outnumbering McIntosh machines by that factor of 0:58:25.320 --> 0:58:28.600 five to one, and that was super bad news for Apple. 0:58:28.760 --> 0:58:33.520 Apple stock price suffered dropping twenty percent, so the value 0:58:33.520 --> 0:58:37.640 of the company decreased by one fifth. Because of this 0:58:37.800 --> 0:58:41.400 issue and other issues going on in Apple, so the 0:58:41.400 --> 0:58:42.040 company was. 0:58:41.960 --> 0:58:45.360 In a dangerous time in its history. 0:58:45.480 --> 0:58:48.120 It really led to an overall operational loss and it 0:58:48.200 --> 0:58:54.120 was pretty ugly. Stockholders were demanding that something change. So 0:58:54.240 --> 0:58:56.600 John Scully was on the way out at this point 0:58:56.720 --> 0:59:01.480 because the performance of the company was suffering. He was 0:59:01.560 --> 0:59:05.080 being blamed for a lot of that, and so he 0:59:05.200 --> 0:59:08.680 left in nineteen ninety three. But just before he left, 0:59:09.360 --> 0:59:13.120 Apple was still trying to right the ship. 0:59:13.560 --> 0:59:13.720 Right. 0:59:13.800 --> 0:59:15.720 The ship was starting to list. They were trying to 0:59:15.720 --> 0:59:20.240 get it back on track. I'm mixing metaphors, sue me. 0:59:20.880 --> 0:59:24.520 Apple introduced System seven, so this was the next generation 0:59:24.560 --> 0:59:28.800 of its operating system, and it introduced AutoMac support from 0:59:28.840 --> 0:59:33.880 multiple simultaneous applications, so you could run numerous programs at 0:59:33.880 --> 0:59:39.680 the same time. It also introduced its QuickTime software in 0:59:39.760 --> 0:59:42.960 nineteen ninety one, and Apple Max began to run on 0:59:43.120 --> 0:59:47.160 the Motorola six eight zero three zero processors. And I'm 0:59:47.200 --> 0:59:49.200 sure there's an easier way of saying that, and I'm 0:59:49.240 --> 0:59:51.760 sure the computer geeks out there in the audience who 0:59:51.760 --> 0:59:54.160 are familiar with these processors, these are the ones that 0:59:54.960 --> 0:59:58.640 Max ran on the sixty eight thousand processors that Motorola 0:59:58.720 --> 1:00:01.800 made since the beginning. I'm sure there's an easier way 1:00:01.800 --> 1:00:04.280 of saying them, and I apologize for not knowing that, 1:00:04.680 --> 1:00:07.760 but I'm just going to stay them the long way anyway. 1:00:09.680 --> 1:00:12.920 The Apple introduced the Macintosh Quadra seven hundred and the 1:00:12.960 --> 1:00:16.400 Quadra nine hundred computers in ninety one, which were meant 1:00:16.480 --> 1:00:19.400 to be new product lines within Macintosh, although they didn't 1:00:19.440 --> 1:00:22.880 last very long. They ran on Motorola six to eight 1:00:23.000 --> 1:00:26.560 zero four zero processors, which are comparable to the four 1:00:26.600 --> 1:00:30.000 eighty six processors that Intel was producing at the time. 1:00:30.400 --> 1:00:34.240 So you had Microsoft and Windows that were paired up 1:00:34.240 --> 1:00:37.640 with Intel, and you had Apple pairing up with Motorola, 1:00:37.840 --> 1:00:40.880 trying to make sure that its computers were of a 1:00:41.000 --> 1:00:47.720 comparable comparable level of quality to the top of the 1:00:47.720 --> 1:00:52.960 line IBM compatible machines. Apple introduced a new type of 1:00:52.960 --> 1:00:56.400 computer called the PowerBook, which was a line of truly 1:00:56.480 --> 1:00:59.480 portable computers. These were more These were closer to being 1:00:59.560 --> 1:01:02.960 laptop than that portable Mac was. Remember the portable Mac 1:01:03.040 --> 1:01:06.439 was really just a portable Mac, but the power Book 1:01:06.480 --> 1:01:07.280 was meant to be more. 1:01:07.200 --> 1:01:07.840 Of a laptop. 1:01:08.280 --> 1:01:12.120 The first of the power Books, or rather the lowest 1:01:12.280 --> 1:01:16.080 in the whole line. The cheapest was not actually made 1:01:16.120 --> 1:01:20.160 by Apple. Apple contracted with Sony, and Sony made the 1:01:20.200 --> 1:01:23.640 power Book one hundred. This is unusual because most Apple 1:01:23.680 --> 1:01:27.480 products are manufactured by Apple itself, but that wasn't true 1:01:27.480 --> 1:01:30.640 for the power Book one hundred. The battery on the 1:01:30.640 --> 1:01:33.520 power Book one hundred would last a whole two hours 1:01:33.880 --> 1:01:37.040 without being plugged in. It didn't sell as well as 1:01:37.040 --> 1:01:38.880 some of the higher end models because it just didn't 1:01:38.920 --> 1:01:41.640 have the features. The power Book one forty and the 1:01:41.680 --> 1:01:44.720 one seventy were launched at around the same time, and 1:01:44.760 --> 1:01:47.520 they sold better than the power Book one hundred did. 1:01:47.960 --> 1:01:50.360 The form factor of these ended up kind of defining 1:01:50.440 --> 1:01:53.280 the look of laptops in the future. So if you 1:01:53.400 --> 1:01:57.440 unfolded the screen, the keyboard sat back toward the screen, 1:01:58.000 --> 1:02:00.760 so typically the way you would open up laptop, and 1:02:00.800 --> 1:02:02.920 you know how the keyboard is back in the back section. 1:02:03.200 --> 1:02:06.520 In the front section there was space for a first 1:02:06.520 --> 1:02:09.440 of track ball, so again kind of like centipede ask 1:02:09.480 --> 1:02:12.560 your parents, and then later on a trackpad, which is 1:02:12.560 --> 1:02:15.240 what you find standard on most laptops today. 1:02:15.680 --> 1:02:16.760 Well, it was the power. 1:02:16.520 --> 1:02:19.760 Book that kind of defined that form factor and most 1:02:19.840 --> 1:02:22.880 laptops following followed along behind it. 1:02:22.920 --> 1:02:26.600 They didn't really change that up because it just made sense, 1:02:27.120 --> 1:02:28.920 but it was the power book that really introduced that. 1:02:31.040 --> 1:02:36.919 Now beyond this, you also had in nineteen ninety one 1:02:37.200 --> 1:02:42.800 an alliance between Apple, IBM, and Motorola. They called it 1:02:42.840 --> 1:02:48.800 the AIM Alliance, AIM standing for Apple, IBM, Motorola cute right. 1:02:49.400 --> 1:02:53.040 The aim of aim yakidishmacaee doo. 1:02:53.640 --> 1:02:56.480 Was building new hardware and software to act as a 1:02:56.480 --> 1:03:00.160 platform for the next generation of computers and to and 1:03:00.720 --> 1:03:05.720 as a direct competitor with Windows and Intel. So they 1:03:05.760 --> 1:03:09.600 wanted to make their own version of the partnership that 1:03:09.680 --> 1:03:13.720 Microsoft had with Intel and make it a competing standard. 1:03:14.000 --> 1:03:16.480 They called it PREP, which added. 1:03:16.280 --> 1:03:19.440 In uppercase P and uppercase are a lowercase E and 1:03:19.480 --> 1:03:24.160 an uppercase P. It stood for power PC Reference Platform. 1:03:24.240 --> 1:03:26.960 It was intended to serve as that competitor, and the 1:03:26.960 --> 1:03:29.880 goal was to create a new operating system that Apple 1:03:29.880 --> 1:03:32.720 would be in charge of. So Apple would provide the 1:03:32.760 --> 1:03:36.760 operating system and it would run on Risk based processors 1:03:36.760 --> 1:03:41.400 that's RISC, and those would come from IBM and Motorola. 1:03:41.960 --> 1:03:47.080 Apple's code named operating system was called PINK and why Well, 1:03:47.080 --> 1:03:49.400 that goes back a little bit earlier in Apple's history. 1:03:49.440 --> 1:03:53.560 So when Apple was planning out future projects several years 1:03:53.960 --> 1:03:58.160 before this happened, they would write down ideas on one 1:03:58.240 --> 1:04:02.520 of two different colors of note cards. If the ideal 1:04:02.640 --> 1:04:05.640 was considered to be easy to implement, If engineer said, yeah, 1:04:05.680 --> 1:04:07.880 we can knock that out and it won't cost too 1:04:07.960 --> 1:04:10.400 much and it won't take up too much time, those 1:04:10.440 --> 1:04:13.280 ideas went on blue note cards, meaning these are going 1:04:13.320 --> 1:04:16.040 to be easy for us to do. If it was 1:04:16.120 --> 1:04:19.360 considered a challenging idea that was going to require more time, 1:04:19.640 --> 1:04:22.760 more effort, and therefore it was going to cost more internally, 1:04:23.200 --> 1:04:27.040 they would write it down on a pink note card, saying, yeah, 1:04:27.040 --> 1:04:28.880 this is going to be harder to do. It might 1:04:28.920 --> 1:04:31.720 still be worth it, but it's going to be hard. 1:04:32.280 --> 1:04:32.680 Well. 1:04:32.920 --> 1:04:36.000 The operating system was code named Pink because it was 1:04:36.040 --> 1:04:39.360 written down on a pink note card. Creating the next 1:04:39.400 --> 1:04:44.600 generation operating system, one that wasn't rooted in the system 1:04:44.800 --> 1:04:47.440 versions that had been on Macintosh up to that point 1:04:47.880 --> 1:04:50.720 was going to take a lot of development time and effort, 1:04:51.360 --> 1:04:55.919 so it was code named Pink. Now, sadly, prep never 1:04:56.040 --> 1:04:58.600 really meshed you never got a point where you had 1:04:58.600 --> 1:05:00.960 the hardware and software married to together to make this 1:05:01.600 --> 1:05:02.960 rival to Windows Intel. 1:05:03.920 --> 1:05:06.440 So ultimately the project was a failure. 1:05:06.520 --> 1:05:08.840 But one thing that did come out of it was 1:05:08.880 --> 1:05:12.320 a new type of processor called the power PC processor, 1:05:12.560 --> 1:05:16.200 and those would eventually find their way into mac computers. 1:05:17.080 --> 1:05:19.800 In nineteen ninety two, Apple introduced a line of Macintosh 1:05:19.840 --> 1:05:23.840 computers called the Performa line, and this was McIntosh's effort 1:05:23.840 --> 1:05:27.680 to actually say, hey, let's make something for the average consumer. 1:05:28.040 --> 1:05:32.320 Most Macintosh computers were so expensive and so specialized that 1:05:32.360 --> 1:05:35.680 they were just going to a narrow niche market. We're 1:05:35.680 --> 1:05:39.280 talking about those creators I mentioned earlier and small businesses, 1:05:39.680 --> 1:05:42.240 but that meant they were passing up the opportunity to 1:05:42.360 --> 1:05:46.160 really target personal computer owners. They had mostly targeted those 1:05:46.200 --> 1:05:48.640 through the Apple two line. But now the Apple two 1:05:48.680 --> 1:05:53.120 line was dead. It had discontinued, and really it ended 1:05:53.120 --> 1:05:56.480 in nineteen ninety three when Apple two E Enhanced stopped 1:05:56.480 --> 1:05:59.200 being made, although there were a couple of other variations 1:05:59.200 --> 1:06:01.640 in the Apple two that lasted a bit longer. But 1:06:01.720 --> 1:06:04.720 they wanted to tackle that same market with the Macintosh line, 1:06:05.280 --> 1:06:06.960 so they launched the Performa series. 1:06:07.200 --> 1:06:07.960 So what was it. 1:06:08.800 --> 1:06:12.600 The Performance Series was really just rebranded older models of 1:06:12.680 --> 1:06:13.880 Macintosh computers. 1:06:14.320 --> 1:06:15.760 So the Macintosh. 1:06:15.320 --> 1:06:18.040 Computers that debuted a couple of years earlier but now 1:06:18.160 --> 1:06:22.480 had slower processors compared to the most up to date models, 1:06:22.920 --> 1:06:27.479 they got rebranded as Performa models of Macintosh and put 1:06:27.480 --> 1:06:31.520 on the market. However, Apple dumped a whole bunch of 1:06:31.560 --> 1:06:35.000 different models at the same time, and that really confused 1:06:35.040 --> 1:06:38.720 consumers in the marketplace. Imagine going to a store and 1:06:38.800 --> 1:06:43.080 seeing eight different variations of the same basic computer and 1:06:43.120 --> 1:06:48.040 not really understanding what differentiated one from another. That's kind 1:06:48.040 --> 1:06:50.880 of what happened with the Performa series. It just added 1:06:50.920 --> 1:06:55.280 more confusion in the marketplace, and ultimately consumers just weren't 1:06:55.360 --> 1:06:58.440 sure about which computer they should pie, and not a 1:06:58.480 --> 1:07:02.720 lot of them got sold. So Apple decided, hey, let's 1:07:02.960 --> 1:07:06.360 clear up the confusion, and they produced a half hour 1:07:06.600 --> 1:07:12.120 infomercial explaining the different Performa models, and you can find 1:07:12.120 --> 1:07:15.200 it online. So if you've got half an hour to 1:07:15.280 --> 1:07:18.320 kill and you want to see how Apple tried to 1:07:18.400 --> 1:07:23.000 explain this Performa series to consumers, search for it online. 1:07:23.040 --> 1:07:23.640 You can find it. 1:07:23.640 --> 1:07:26.520 It's usually divided up into multiple parts, but you can 1:07:26.520 --> 1:07:30.320 find the performa series of videos that made up a 1:07:30.360 --> 1:07:34.160 half hour infomercial. Now, the next person to step in 1:07:34.280 --> 1:07:36.960 as leader of the company, remember Scully had left in 1:07:37.040 --> 1:07:41.160 ninety three, was Michael Spindler. He came from Apple's European 1:07:41.240 --> 1:07:45.240 operations division and he worked his way up the chain there. 1:07:46.600 --> 1:07:51.000 His term was one of real controversy. It wasn't as 1:07:51.280 --> 1:07:54.680 a smooth transition, and it wasn't without issues. 1:07:55.320 --> 1:07:58.240 In fact, there were rumors that he was discussing. 1:07:57.720 --> 1:08:01.400 The possibilities of a takeover with other companies like Sun 1:08:01.400 --> 1:08:05.840 Microsystems or IBM, and he also oversaw projects at Apple 1:08:05.880 --> 1:08:10.480 that ultimately failed, like Apple's Newton project. I know I've 1:08:10.560 --> 1:08:14.160 mentioned Newton in previous episodes of Tech Stuff. I think 1:08:14.160 --> 1:08:16.439 we might have even done a full episode about the Newton, 1:08:17.120 --> 1:08:21.040 which is kind of a sad and comical story simultaneously. 1:08:21.560 --> 1:08:23.960 But that was the little handheld device that was meant 1:08:24.000 --> 1:08:26.800 to be able to recognize handwriting and other and have 1:08:26.880 --> 1:08:33.960 other features as well, that ultimately had its ambitions were 1:08:34.000 --> 1:08:37.160 beyond its own grasp. Let's be kind and call it that. 1:08:37.600 --> 1:08:44.360 But that's another story. So the nickname for Michael Spindler 1:08:44.520 --> 1:08:48.559 was the Diesel. I don't know what that says about 1:08:48.600 --> 1:08:51.120 his character, but I have a feeling that I probably 1:08:51.400 --> 1:08:56.200 wouldn't be compatible with someone whose nickname is the Diesel, 1:08:56.560 --> 1:09:01.960 unless it was Kevin Nash, because we have a mutual 1:09:02.040 --> 1:09:06.679 love of professional wrestling. Now, Spindler would end up being 1:09:06.800 --> 1:09:09.800 replaced by the Board of directors a few years later 1:09:09.880 --> 1:09:12.759 in nineteen ninety six, and the board of directors chose 1:09:12.880 --> 1:09:17.639 Gil Emilio to step in as CEO. Gill Emilio had 1:09:17.680 --> 1:09:22.520 come from National Semiconductor before joining Apple, and Emilio himself 1:09:22.800 --> 1:09:25.479 would also get replaced by the Board of directors in 1:09:25.560 --> 1:09:28.400 nineteen ninety seven. But more on that in a little bit. 1:09:28.479 --> 1:09:31.880 Let's get back to the timeline of Macintosh. So we 1:09:32.000 --> 1:09:35.000 left off in nineteen ninety four, just took a break 1:09:35.040 --> 1:09:38.360 to talk about the shuffle at the CEO level over 1:09:38.360 --> 1:09:40.800 the next couple of years, which really tells you that 1:09:40.840 --> 1:09:42.679 Apple was in trouble. 1:09:43.200 --> 1:09:45.960 When you see a company changing CEO. 1:09:45.760 --> 1:09:49.000 So rapidly because the board keeps replacing it, that's not 1:09:49.120 --> 1:09:52.320 a great sign. Doesn't show a lot of confidence at 1:09:52.320 --> 1:09:55.000 the Board of directors level, and it probably reflects a 1:09:55.080 --> 1:09:58.360 lack of confidence at the shareholder level. But the show 1:09:58.439 --> 1:10:02.160 had to go on. So what was happening Macintosh. Well, 1:10:02.160 --> 1:10:06.000 in nineteen ninety four, Apple made a big move that 1:10:06.640 --> 1:10:10.679 was a defining moment in the Macintosh line. They decided 1:10:10.680 --> 1:10:13.519 to move away from those Motorola processors I talked about 1:10:13.560 --> 1:10:17.080 a minute ago, and switched to the power PC processors, 1:10:17.080 --> 1:10:21.920 which remember were still developed partially by Motorola in partnership 1:10:21.960 --> 1:10:24.519 with IBM. So it's not like they were turning their 1:10:24.560 --> 1:10:27.960 back on Motorola. Rather they said, from this point forward, 1:10:28.000 --> 1:10:30.720 our architecture is going to depend upon this type of 1:10:30.760 --> 1:10:34.840 computer processor instead of this other type of computer processor. 1:10:35.280 --> 1:10:38.439 But that meant big changes all down the line of 1:10:38.479 --> 1:10:42.360 the Macintosh. Now, they were hoping that the power PC 1:10:42.600 --> 1:10:47.679 processors would be able to rival Intel's x eighty six chips. 1:10:48.040 --> 1:10:50.720 Those are the for eighty six's, the pendums and so on, 1:10:51.800 --> 1:10:55.000 So that was the hope, and they actually stuck with 1:10:55.040 --> 1:10:59.000 power PC processors all the way from nineteen ninety four 1:10:59.040 --> 1:11:01.840 to two thousand and six, and then they changed again. 1:11:02.520 --> 1:11:05.000 That's a story for later now. 1:11:05.040 --> 1:11:07.960 The first mac to feature a power PC processor was 1:11:08.000 --> 1:11:13.240 the Macintosh sixty one hundred, which also ran macOS nine. 1:11:13.400 --> 1:11:15.920 It was the latest version of Apple's operating system. Although 1:11:15.960 --> 1:11:18.759 it wasn't called macOS nine, it was really System nine. 1:11:19.080 --> 1:11:21.960 It was the first computer to actually run System nine. 1:11:22.680 --> 1:11:27.920 Oddly enough, Apple also released a second version of this 1:11:28.320 --> 1:11:32.920 specific computer with a completely different chip architecture. 1:11:33.439 --> 1:11:35.400 So you had the power Pc version. 1:11:35.479 --> 1:11:37.920 Of the sixty one hundred, but you also had an 1:11:38.000 --> 1:11:41.360 Intel for eighty six version of the sixty one hundred. 1:11:41.960 --> 1:11:44.400 For the first time, Apple decided to try and go 1:11:44.560 --> 1:11:49.160 with an IBM compatible route, So this version of the 1:11:49.200 --> 1:11:53.720 Mac sixty one hundred had an Intel forty forty six microprocessor. 1:11:53.800 --> 1:11:57.320 It was DOS compatible. It could run both mac OS 1:11:57.320 --> 1:12:01.439 and Windows simultaneously. Later on on Macintosh users would have 1:12:01.479 --> 1:12:04.160 to do this by setting up a virtual machine that 1:12:04.200 --> 1:12:07.840 would run an instance of Windows over on top of 1:12:07.880 --> 1:12:11.400 the Mac hardware. This was also a time when Apple 1:12:11.439 --> 1:12:13.559 began to stray further away from the concept of making 1:12:13.680 --> 1:12:17.200 as much in house as it could, and it was 1:12:17.240 --> 1:12:19.479 a big departure from the way Steve Jobs had run 1:12:19.560 --> 1:12:22.720 things back when he was still part of the company. Now, 1:12:22.720 --> 1:12:26.000 the power Pc hardware was incompatible with software that was 1:12:26.040 --> 1:12:29.840 written for Macintosh computers running the older Motorola chips. You 1:12:29.920 --> 1:12:33.960 often find this if you change processor types. That change 1:12:33.960 --> 1:12:37.880 in architecture requires software to behave a different way in 1:12:38.000 --> 1:12:41.200 order for stuff to get done. So if you were 1:12:41.200 --> 1:12:45.240 trying to run an older Macintosh program on a power 1:12:45.360 --> 1:12:49.479 PC Macintosh, you had to have an emulator. This is 1:12:49.520 --> 1:12:54.759 a piece of software that simulates the way other hardware runs. 1:12:54.880 --> 1:12:58.040 You might remember I did an episode all about video 1:12:58.040 --> 1:13:01.799 game emulators. The same thing is true for operating system 1:13:01.800 --> 1:13:06.439 emulators or chip emulators. So you had this software that 1:13:06.600 --> 1:13:10.760 was replicating the way old Motorola chips ran, but it 1:13:10.800 --> 1:13:14.120 would allow the software to run on a power PC 1:13:14.479 --> 1:13:18.200 processor computer. In other words, you just had to have 1:13:18.280 --> 1:13:20.439 this other piece of software to kind of act as 1:13:20.439 --> 1:13:23.800 an interpreter so that you could get stuff done on 1:13:23.840 --> 1:13:26.800 your new machine. Now, the good news was the power 1:13:26.800 --> 1:13:30.280 PCs were so powerful, these power macs as they came 1:13:30.360 --> 1:13:34.559 to be called, were so powerful that it didn't slow 1:13:34.760 --> 1:13:38.760 down the processing of these older mac programs. So the 1:13:38.800 --> 1:13:44.120 emulator wasn't so processor heavy that it was impacting the 1:13:44.160 --> 1:13:46.799 way the program ran. It would actually run more smoothly 1:13:47.240 --> 1:13:50.599 on these power PC programs or power pc machines than 1:13:50.600 --> 1:13:53.000 they would on the older Motorola machines. So that was 1:13:53.040 --> 1:13:56.400 a good story, right. You don't want your emulator to 1:13:56.400 --> 1:13:59.639 slow stuff down, because then people get the implication that 1:13:59.840 --> 1:14:02.760 the brand new computer they just bought is slower than 1:14:02.760 --> 1:14:07.320 their old computer. That's a bad thing. So luckily the 1:14:07.360 --> 1:14:11.000 emulator ran really efficiently and it didn't slow things down. 1:14:12.280 --> 1:14:14.400 In nineteen ninety five, that's when things kind of went 1:14:14.439 --> 1:14:17.759 bonkers over at Apple. For the first time ever, Apple 1:14:17.880 --> 1:14:23.600 licensed other companies to allow them to bring Macintosh compatible 1:14:23.680 --> 1:14:27.720 machines to market, So this was the era of the Macclone. 1:14:28.600 --> 1:14:32.120 They allowed other companies to license the hardware and software 1:14:32.320 --> 1:14:35.559 and make their own versions of the Macintosh computer, although 1:14:35.560 --> 1:14:38.800 they would be called different things. This, by the way, 1:14:38.840 --> 1:14:41.599 ignores the fact that PowerBook one hundred was built by Sony, 1:14:41.640 --> 1:14:45.000 but that was built by Sony for Apple. In this case, 1:14:45.160 --> 1:14:48.400 I'm not talking about companies that were building machines for Apple. 1:14:48.720 --> 1:14:51.320 I'm talking about companies that would license the technology to 1:14:51.360 --> 1:14:54.720 build their own version of the Macintosh and sell it 1:14:54.760 --> 1:14:59.400 to consumers. The first was the Radius System one hundred 1:14:59.640 --> 1:15:02.160 from a company called Radius, and it was similar to 1:15:02.520 --> 1:15:06.599 Apple's own PowerMac eighty one hundred. The specs were very close, 1:15:07.080 --> 1:15:10.960 but the computer itself was housed in a tower style case, 1:15:11.360 --> 1:15:13.679 so very different from Apple's approach where they would try 1:15:13.720 --> 1:15:16.800 and put the monitor and the computer case all in 1:15:16.880 --> 1:15:20.000 one unit. That was typical for most of Apple's computers. 1:15:20.080 --> 1:15:21.920 Not all of them, but a lot of them. 1:15:22.360 --> 1:15:23.639 This was totally different. 1:15:23.680 --> 1:15:26.360 It was more like your standard IBM compatible where you 1:15:26.400 --> 1:15:30.759 had a tower desktop. So it was a big departure 1:15:30.800 --> 1:15:36.679 from Apple's esthetic. There were other computers that also launched 1:15:36.720 --> 1:15:39.120 at this time that were clones the Macintosh, because there 1:15:39.120 --> 1:15:42.760 were other companies that licensed the technology from Apple, and 1:15:43.240 --> 1:15:46.479 perhaps Apple was hoping to dominate the market again and 1:15:46.520 --> 1:15:50.600 make enough money off the licenses to justify their use. Unfortunately, 1:15:51.320 --> 1:15:55.080 Apple ended up cutting off its nose to spite its face. 1:15:55.680 --> 1:16:01.280 In this case, they licensed the technology manufacturers, but that 1:16:01.400 --> 1:16:06.320 gave companies the opportunity to produce cheaper machines running Apple 1:16:06.360 --> 1:16:09.680 hardware and software. So you could run Macintosh programs on 1:16:09.720 --> 1:16:13.680 these computers because they were clones of the mac not physically, 1:16:13.920 --> 1:16:17.880 but from a hardware and software standpoint, they were, and 1:16:18.000 --> 1:16:20.519 they were able to sell them for less expensive prices 1:16:20.560 --> 1:16:24.280 than what Apple was demanding. So Apple ended up undercutting 1:16:24.320 --> 1:16:27.880 its own sales because it authorized these other users. These 1:16:27.880 --> 1:16:35.360 other manufacturers to make Macintosh compatible computers. So why would 1:16:35.439 --> 1:16:37.880 you go and buy what appears to be an overpriced 1:16:37.920 --> 1:16:40.439 machine from Apple if you can go to one of 1:16:40.439 --> 1:16:45.040 its competitors and buy a comparable machine for much less money. 1:16:45.320 --> 1:16:48.040 If you are a consumer or a business, it makes 1:16:48.080 --> 1:16:50.320 more sense to go the other route, to go the 1:16:50.400 --> 1:16:54.519 cheaper route. As long as you're reasonably sure that the 1:16:54.560 --> 1:16:57.200 machine is a good one, that's what you're gonna do. 1:16:57.240 --> 1:16:59.600 And in fact, that's what Apple saw. They saw a 1:16:59.600 --> 1:17:02.880 lot of consumers going to these competitors rather than going 1:17:02.920 --> 1:17:06.439 to Apple. Now, one benefit was that they had a 1:17:06.479 --> 1:17:11.519 lot more people buying into the Apple ecosystem, But because 1:17:11.560 --> 1:17:15.439 Apple wasn't controlling that hardware, they weren't seeing any money 1:17:15.479 --> 1:17:18.519 off of it, besides that initial licensing fee that they 1:17:18.640 --> 1:17:24.040 charged companies in order to produce these clones. So in 1:17:24.080 --> 1:17:27.920 the long run it ended up hurting Apple. It was 1:17:28.320 --> 1:17:31.840 hurting their sales, although it did mean that more people 1:17:31.880 --> 1:17:35.160 were getting familiar with the Macintosh program and the Macintosh 1:17:35.200 --> 1:17:40.400 platform because suddenly they could afford a Macintosh, even though 1:17:40.400 --> 1:17:44.120 it wasn't an official Apple Macintosh. 1:17:44.320 --> 1:17:46.679 This is one of those decisions. 1:17:46.080 --> 1:17:50.240 That Apple executives today probably look back on and shake 1:17:50.320 --> 1:17:53.879 their heads and mumble about it, because it really affected 1:17:53.920 --> 1:17:57.439 profits over at Apple. By nineteen ninety six, Apple was 1:17:57.479 --> 1:18:00.160 looking for the next generation of operating systems because in 1:18:00.360 --> 1:18:03.160 didn't work out. So they said, we need a next 1:18:03.200 --> 1:18:06.800 generation operating system. Our system series is starting to show 1:18:06.800 --> 1:18:10.320 its age. We need a new operating system. But to 1:18:10.439 --> 1:18:12.799 spend the money in time to develop an in house 1:18:13.280 --> 1:18:15.800 is not really practical. So they started looking outside the 1:18:15.800 --> 1:18:18.599 company and saying, well, what else is out there that 1:18:18.640 --> 1:18:23.680 maybe we could acquire and then use in future Macintosh computers. 1:18:24.920 --> 1:18:28.599 They looked at two different companies, and here's the funny thing. 1:18:29.280 --> 1:18:34.200 Each of those companies was founded by a former Apple executive. 1:18:34.880 --> 1:18:40.640 The first company was B Incorporated. That's b Inc. And 1:18:40.720 --> 1:18:45.360 they created the BOS or BOS if you prefer. This 1:18:45.479 --> 1:18:49.920 company was founded by Jean Louis Gassa, so remember the 1:18:49.960 --> 1:18:52.400 head of product development from a few years ago who 1:18:52.479 --> 1:18:57.920 stepped down. The other big contender was next Step, the 1:18:57.920 --> 1:19:00.599 next Step operating system, which was from a company called 1:19:00.680 --> 1:19:04.759 next and that company was founded by drum roll please 1:19:06.520 --> 1:19:11.120 Steve Jobs. So once again you had guess a versus Jobs. 1:19:11.600 --> 1:19:15.200 With the two operating systems that could potentially power the 1:19:15.240 --> 1:19:21.360 next generation of Macintosh computers. Now ultimately, spoiler alert, Apple 1:19:21.400 --> 1:19:24.799 decided that they would go with Next. They decided against 1:19:24.800 --> 1:19:28.320 bios and decided the next step was the operating system 1:19:28.360 --> 1:19:31.880 they wanted. So instead of setting up a licensing deal, 1:19:32.160 --> 1:19:35.599 they did something a little different. They didn't just license 1:19:35.640 --> 1:19:40.880 the technology from Next. They acquired Next. They spent a 1:19:40.880 --> 1:19:44.679 lot of money doing it too. They spent nearly four 1:19:44.720 --> 1:19:48.519 hundred and thirty million dollars on the purchase, and they 1:19:48.520 --> 1:19:51.120 threw in one and a half million shares of Apple 1:19:51.240 --> 1:19:54.760 stock as well. Now keep in mind Apple stock at 1:19:54.800 --> 1:19:57.519 this point was suffering, but it was one and a 1:19:57.560 --> 1:20:00.280 half million shares. If they could turn things around, and then, 1:20:00.320 --> 1:20:03.839 spoiler alert, they totally did that, million and a half 1:20:04.040 --> 1:20:08.320 shares of Apple would be worth way more money. So 1:20:08.479 --> 1:20:10.680 Steve Jobs came along as part of this part of 1:20:10.680 --> 1:20:13.960 the deal, They essentially bought Steve Jobs back to Apple 1:20:14.200 --> 1:20:16.600 because he was the founder of Next and he was 1:20:16.640 --> 1:20:19.280 part of that company, so they acquired the company. Steve 1:20:19.360 --> 1:20:23.120 Jobs comes on, so he would return to Apple in 1:20:23.200 --> 1:20:26.880 nineteen ninety seven after a very long hiatus or as 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:31.320 he might refer to it as banishment, and he returned 1:20:31.360 --> 1:20:34.800 initially as a consultant, but Apple was reeling. The stock 1:20:34.880 --> 1:20:35.679 price had hit. 1:20:35.600 --> 1:20:38.439 A twelve year low, and the board of. 1:20:38.400 --> 1:20:43.000 Directors had decided eventually that they needed to replace gil Emilio. 1:20:43.479 --> 1:20:45.880 And in fact, there was one person who was really 1:20:46.000 --> 1:20:50.040 arguing for this, and that person was a Steve Jobs. 1:20:50.840 --> 1:20:53.160 So Steve Jobs goes to the board directors and says, hey, 1:20:53.200 --> 1:20:56.080 you are in real trouble. The decisions that have been 1:20:56.160 --> 1:20:58.280 made over the past few years have been disastrous for 1:20:58.320 --> 1:21:00.679 this company and they are leading it to the brink 1:21:00.760 --> 1:21:01.600 of bankruptcy. 1:21:02.160 --> 1:21:04.200 You got to get rid of gill Emilio. And the 1:21:04.240 --> 1:21:04.519 board of. 1:21:04.520 --> 1:21:07.439 Directors agreed and they put Steve Jobs in charge as 1:21:07.560 --> 1:21:11.759 interim CEO. But that's that's what and last Steve Jobs 1:21:11.800 --> 1:21:15.920 would eventually become the actual CEO, not just an interim CEO, 1:21:16.680 --> 1:21:19.320 and would end up taking control of the company he 1:21:19.360 --> 1:21:21.400 had co founded a. 1:21:21.360 --> 1:21:22.479 Couple of decades earlier. 1:21:23.479 --> 1:21:26.720 And uh yeah, it was a total different story for 1:21:26.800 --> 1:21:30.439 Apple from that point forward. But that's the tale for 1:21:30.520 --> 1:21:35.000 another episode. All right. That concludes this text of classic 1:21:35.040 --> 1:21:39.200 episode The Macintosh Story Part two. Next Friday we will 1:21:39.240 --> 1:21:40.400 continue with part three. 1:21:40.600 --> 1:21:42.880 Then we'll be all up. 1:21:42.720 --> 1:21:46.280 To date as of twenty seventeen, and nothing's happened since then, Right, 1:21:46.360 --> 1:21:49.760 so we're good. I'm kidding, of course, but I hope 1:21:49.760 --> 1:21:52.120 you enjoyed this classic episode, and I'll talk to you 1:21:52.160 --> 1:22:02.760 again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For 1:22:02.880 --> 1:22:07.720 more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:22:07.840 --> 1:22:09.839 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.