A woman runs through the darkness with a hammer in her hands. She is chased by masked policemen. Gray people around. Everyone is the same, listening to the leader's speech, which is displayed on a huge screen. A woman runs into the great hall and throws a hammer at the screen. Explosion. If someone thinks this is a scene from a sci-fi movie, they're not wrong. The voiceover says: “On January 24, Apple Computer will present the Macintosh. You'll find out why 1984 won't be like '1984' at all.” A rainbow bitten apple appears on the screen.
This is an advertisement shot by Ridley Scott, director of such classics as “Alien – the Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo” and “Blade Runner”.
Computers from the garage
Indeed, 1984 was a breakthrough year in Apple's history. The announced Macintosh, although it did not impress with its technical parameters, became a hit due to the use of a graphical interface and a mouse. Apple computers have reached the mass user. This gave the company a temporary advantage in the fledgling market.
However, its origins date back to 1976, when Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne started producing computers in the garage of Jobs' parents. On April 1, they founded the Apple Computer Company. Wayne is probably still kicking himself to this day because he quickly withdrew from the joint venture and sold his 10 percent. shares for $800 Apple is currently worth almost $4 trillion.
— Apple has been on the computer market, or rather the technology market, for half a century. That's a huge time frame for a logarithmically evolving industry. In the early 1970s, the computer was associated with a large device locked in secure rooms, with access only to state and military elites. The hippie counterculture initiated great changes, also seeing computers as tools for self-fulfillment and communities with unlimited access to technology. It was on this basis that the first Apple 1 computer was created in 1976. Jobs and Wozniak did not invent the personal computer, but they popularized it and infused spirit, freedom and art into a machine filled with silicon chips – says Jacek Łupina, founder and curator of the Apple Museum Polska, one of the richest private collections of hardware, software and artifacts related to the history of Apple.
Marketing visionary
Was Steve Jobs, most closely associated with Apple, really a visionary? There are probably as many opinions on this subject as there are users of Apple equipment. However, it is safe to say that he was a very talented marketer who knew how to instill in customers the need to buy his products. Let's go back to the reference-packed 1984 ad.
The hammer thrown at the leader symbolized liberation from corporate conformism and the totalitarian control of Big Brother. Macintosh is a rebellion against the monotony and domination of IBM computers at that time, a promise that personal computers will bring freedom to people.
This marketing skill is noticed even today.
Apple ad: boys take photos of girls at night. They are so smooth, young and pretty, and so diverse. They skateboard through the city, they want to prove something to me. I took a screenshot of a meme with mine, then it broke on the pavement…
– says rapper Taco Hemingway in the song “Pakiet Platinum”.
Apple has been great at marketing for years. The company claims that it does not pay for product placement in films and series. It's hard to believe it when we remember the scene from the series “Californication”, in which the main character, writer Hank Moody, throws a broken laptop (IBM, of course) and goes to the Apple store for a new one. Here there is a sequence of close-ups and various shots in which the hero is happy like a child at the smooth operation of the equipment. The brand new MacBook stays with our hero until the end of the series.
Another interesting fact is the so-called no villain clause in the entertainment industry. The bottom line is that villains can't use iPhones on screen. I know I've just spoiled your enjoyment of watching crime films… Apparently that's why the crime series “Knives Out” stopped showing smartphones from a company from Cupertino on the screen. According to the British research company Concave Brand Tracker, dealing with the entertainment media market, Apple was the most frequently presented brand in 2023, and has remained at the top since 2014.
Steve JobsAnton_Ivanov / Shutterstock
Jobs's strongest point was his power of persuasion and brutal honesty. In 2001, before anyone had heard of streaming audio, Jobs built Apple's strength on the iPod. Music could be purchased in the iTunes store (or ripped from existing CDs). This shopping system was parodied in the animated series “The Simpsons”. Lisa, the younger daughter of the Simpsons, becomes addicted to buying Mapple songs and apps. At the end of the episode, he must work off the debt generated. Steve Mobbs, the head of the company, shows no mercy: “I know our posters say 'Think Differently', but our real slogan is 'We Don't Accept Returns'.” Interestingly, the creator of “The Simpsons” collaborated with Apple in 1989 on the brochure “Who Needs a Computer, Anyway? A Student's Guide”.
However, before iTunes launched, Jobs met with musicians and convinced them to accept his idea. One such person was the outstanding trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. According to the jazzman, Jobs talked about his idea for two hours: “He acted like he was possessed. After a while, I started looking at him and not at the computer because I was so fascinated by his passion.” Jobs also used this passion when presenting new products and software. Many anecdotes, as well as Jobs's biography, prove that he was not a mild-mannered person.
His black turtleneck didn't come out of nowhere either. As usual, it was about being contrarian. When Apple kicked Jobs off the board, he wore colorful suits and colorful shirts to promote his startup NeXT. It was supposed to be serious and original, but it looked quite peculiar. Someone finally told Jobs that a self-respecting manager must always look the same. Basically, it was about subdued suits typical of the business world. Jobs then allegedly ordered dozens of the same black Issey Miyake turtlenecks and the same number of Levi's 501 jeans. The inspiration was the uniforms worn by Sony factory workers after the war. The businessman's goal was to emphasize that he and his products are different from the competition.
Few people know that Jobs was behind the Pixar animated film studio. In 1986, after being fired from Apple, he bought the computer graphics division of George Lucas's company, Lucasfilm. For a few years, he added millions to this business from his own pocket, and in 1995 he released his first film, “Toy Story”. The animation's box office success made him a billionaire and restored his reputation as a business visionary. This resulted in him returning to Apple two years later and saving it from bankruptcy. It can be said that without “Toy Story” the world of electronics would look different today. Neither the iPod, which paved the way for streaming, nor the iPhone, which contributed to the popularization of smartphones, nor the iPad, a tool eagerly used by artists, graphic designers and pilots, would have been created.
Heritage
— By introducing the Apple ll computer in 1977 with the words “Personal Computer” on its packaging, Apple opened the door to progress and creativity. The year 1983 was a breakthrough because with the Apple Lisa computer, the GUI, a graphical user interface that was operated using a mouse instead of arrows and commands typed on a keyboard, was popularized. Introduced in 1984, the Macintosh and the Apple LaserWriter printer contributed to the digital printing revolution, the emergence of small businesses and publishing houses, transforming the publishing and graphic design industries. The iMac G3 from 1998 not only saved the company from bankruptcy, but also gave users quick and easy access to the Internet, which stimulated the economic boom and the expansion of the WWW. In the following decades, Apple showed trends and introduced innovative products that often became the canon of consumer electronics design – says Jacek Łupina, the founder of the Apple museum.
The brand's success in the late 1990s was based not only on technology, but also largely on the appearance of the devices. The mentioned iMac G3 computers were colorful, translucent, with an all-in-one case. At a time when gray-beige cases dominated the market, the iMac G3 seemed like a machine from another planet. Jony Ive was responsible for this groundbreaking design, and a few years later he designed the iPod and then the iPhone.
Applebluestork / Shutterstock
— Design has been what has distinguished Apple products for decades. As it turns out, this is the key to the wallets of people who value not only performance and parameters. Apple has always walked proudly in front of the line, leading subsequent manufacturers to try to imitate the design and solutions popularized by the company, better or worse. Widespread – because Apple wasn't the inventor of many of them. Jobs has proven himself as a visionary many times, he was the first to notice the huge potential in various inventions, which he then successfully combined into a whole, creating a modern, efficient and beautiful product. Apple products are always more than just a processor, graphics card and RAM, says Jacek Łupina.
Each device has its fans and opponents. Apple, along with Google and Microsoft, is one of the undisputed leaders of the technology industry, but over 50 years of its existence it has had many failures. The ailments of subsequent smartphones are legendary – the iPhone 4 had a problem with the antenna and lost coverage. The company suggested that users were holding the phone incorrectly. iPhone 6 Plus was bending in my pocket. Non-ergonomic mice have also become a legend. The slow evolution of subsequent products over the last decade is a source of ridicule from users. This is probably due to the fact that accountants rule in corporations.
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The company has never been successful with “revolutionary” products. The failure of the Apple III computer almost drowned it in 1980. In 1993, the Newton minicomputer with a touch screen and handwriting recognition was shown. This one worked so badly it became meme. There was also an attempt at your own game console, but the price was too high. Apple's Bandai Pippin console cost twice as much as PlayStation. 42,000 were sold worldwide. copies. The first PlayStation sold 100 million units. However, it is worth remembering that only those who do nothing do not make mistakes.
— Not everyone sees this uniqueness and not everyone needs it, but a large community of fans has grown up around Apple and its products. Apple is a very interesting path, trodden by people with extraordinary skills and vision, bringing to the market creative, simple tools with great attention to design and user experience. Devices such as iBook, colorful iMac or iPod seem cheerful and consumer-friendly – sums up the founder of Apple Muzeum Polska.
