You said — “No one cared about Apple...”
—
Now, what made Apple “take off” was “Visicalc”... that really got Apple going. It had the major marketshare before the IBM PC began cutting into it...
A quote out of a page on Apple and Visicalc...
The program went on sale in November of 1979 and was a big hit. It retailed for US$100 and sold so well that many dealers started bundling the Apple II with VisiCalc. The success of VisiCalc turned Apple into a successful company, selling tens of thousands of the pricey 32 KB Apple IIs to businesses that wanted them only for the spreadsheet.
By the end of 1979, IBM took note of the uptick in sales of Apple IIs to businesses and began Project Chess, which would ultimately be released as the IBM PC.
In 1981, Software Arts made over $12 million in royalties from VisiCalc. It became Personal Software’s flagship product, financing the groundbreaking VisiOn office suite and GUI. Just before the release of VisiOn, Personal Software was renamed VisiCorp.
Dan Bricklin became widely recognized in the computer business for his contributions. He was awarded the White Elephant by industry pioneer Adam Osborne for inventing the electronic spreadsheet.
[ http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/visicalc-origin-bricklin.html ]
Of course, it was much later that the Macintosh was introduced and that’s where I *finally* got into the picture, with my own desktop model...
Also, Apple Computer put in a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal welcoming IBM into the desktop computer business. It read as follows...
Welcome, IBM. Seriously. Welcome to the most exciting and important marketplace since the computer revolution began 35 years ago. And congratulations on your first personal computer. Putting real computer power in the hands of the individual is already improving the way people work, think, learn, communicate, and spend their leisure hours. Computer literacy is fast becoming as fundamental a skill as reading or writing. When we invented the first personal computer system, we estimated that over 140,000,000 people worldwide could justify the purchase of one, if only they understood its benefits. Next year alone, we project that well over 1,000,000 will come to that understanding. Over the next decade, the growth of the personal computer will continue in logarithmic leaps. We look forward to responsible competition in the massive effort to distribute this American technology to the world. And we appreciate the magnitude of your commitment. Because what we are doing is increasing social capital by enhancing individual productivity. Welcome to the task. Apple.
And today — Apple is still busily producing better and better desktop computers, laptops, iPods and iPhones... and where is IBM as far as these desktop computers are concerned...?
—
IBM PC: the end of an era
By Joe Barr on December 04, 2004 (8:00:00 AM)
Commentary: So IBM is looking for a way out of the PC business. Big Blue’s personal computer division is going to be sold. It’s hard to believe after all these years, even though the PC business at IBM has never really recovered from the kidney-punch Microsoft delivered to it by withholding licensing for Windows 95 until 15 minutes prior to launch. The malignant monopoly was just as open to the possibility of competition in those days as it is today, so IBM had to be punished for daring to push OS/2.
For those of us old enough to have already been in the personal computer market before IBM’s entry, the launch of IBM’s personal computer was a signal-event. In one fell-swoop, all of our arguments to management and fellow workers about the importance of personal computing were magnified and validated.
I had been using a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 at work, writing my own applications for it which I used to track work flow. It stood out in the office like a Dallas Cowboys fan in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Less than a year after the launch of the IBM PC, I was officially part of a team developing new applications for it. And this was at EDS, a firm best known for its COBOL and mainframe skills. The point being that prior to IBM’s entry into the field, personal computers were nowhere. Following the entrance of the IBM PC, they were everywhere.
Revisionist historians of the personal computing revolution might have you believe that it was a firm in Redmond that led the way, but don’t you believe it. Microsoft has never led, and indeed in the beginning they were simply going along for the ride. The problem is that while IBM was providing the leadership — and completely upsetting the apple cart as it did so — it had no idea at all of the consequences of its actions and decisions.
The selection of an unknown vendor to provide the operating system is but one such example. How about the opening of the system unit and the publication of the BIOS code? In those days, if you dared to open the case on a Radio Shack system, you immediately voided the warranty. IBM chose not just to open the case, but to invite others to build hardware you could put inside it. Not until it got hit with the backlash from trying to extort money from those same vendors with its MCA licensing did IBM realize it was too late to try to close the box again. Open was already on the loose.
There were a few missteps along the way: the PC Jr, for one. But I have stronger memories of the good things like the rock-solid good clickiness of those big, heavy AT keyboards, and of the quality and innovation embodied in a long line of Thinkpad laptops.
It’s been a good run. IBM — without ever intending to do so — has turned the computing world upside down. I’m sad after all this time to see them go. After all, IBM was also the first major player in the industry to begin to appreciate the second revolution in personal computing. The one involving free software projects like Linux and Apache.
[ http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/40808 ]
—
Apple is still going strong!