The Macintosh Turns 30

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The Macintosh turns 30 today. Oddly enough, it still has about the same market share as it did three decades ago. :D

A typical application on a 128K Mac had about 85K of memory available; the rest was used by the system, mostly for the bitmap display. A simple calculation shows that copying a 400K disk should involve about 5 or 6 swaps. Five disk swaps was barely tolerable, but, as early Finder users will remember, occasionally it would take well over 20 disk swaps.
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I did like this statement from an Apple exec:

“To say [OS X and iOS] should be the same, independent of their purpose? Let’s just converge, for the sake of convergence? [It’s] absolutely a nongoal,” said Federighi. “You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS."
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Burn.
 
I remember the ads pretty well for the launch of the Mac. It was certainly the computer that everyone wanted at the time, but no way I could afford one.
 
Apple's domestic Mac sales surge 28.5% as overall PC market shrinks 7.5%

Total Apple device sales will equal Windows PCs this year, predicts analyst
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Peak Windows was back in 2004, where the ratio of Windows PCs to Macs was 56:1. By last year, that ratio had fallen to just 18.8:1
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pxc said:
I did like this statement from an Apple exec:

“To say [OS X and iOS] should be the same, independent of their purpose? Let’s just converge, for the sake of convergence? [It’s] absolutely a nongoal,” said Federighi. “You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS."
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Burn.
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Can we get this guy/gal to me the new Microsoft CEO? Then again they likely have too much sense to ever be hired by Microsoft.
 
So basically Apple just admitted that iOS is garbage.
 
Megalith said:
So basically Apple just admitted that iOS is garbage.
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It will be interesting to see how this all goes. Even though Windows 8 is facing a lot of heat with many desktop users, some of these cheap Bay Trail tablets are pretty compelling considering what they can do for the. I don't see Apple sitting by year after year while Microsoft refines the hybrid concept with Apple's only response being slightly improved hardware from a year ago.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1040573474 said:
Can we get this guy/gal to me the new Microsoft CEO? Then again they likely have too much sense to ever be hired by Microsoft.
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My thoughts exactly.
 
Megalith said:
So basically Apple just admitted that iOS is garbage.
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Nope, they just take a logical approach to UI. Make a UI that fits the purpose of the specific device rather than shoehorn something completely wrong into everything.

At least Microsoft seems to get the message and will be backpedaling on the nonsense they pulled with Windows 8.
 
MostComfortable said:
At least Microsoft seems to get the message and will be backpedaling on the nonsense they pulled with Windows 8.
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They're not really backpedaling, there's no Metro off switch on the way from any of the more reliable rumor sources out there. There is method to this madness, and indeed it does pose a threat to the iPad that could become problematic for Apple. If a device similar in size and battery life and cheaper than the iPad has a good deal of its abilities plus those of a desktop, and those do exist today, there's going to be a decent sized group that's going to go for that device simply because of the economics involved.

I'm not saying that the iPad is going to die or anything like that, simply that there is more competition that will limit it's growth even more on top of what Android devices have already done.
 
I had a amiga system early on and laughed at people that would pay high costs for a pos apple product. Later on I started building my own pc's and still laughed at people that purchased apple products. Up to this day I still build my own pc's and laugh at people that purchase apple products. Guess some things never change :)
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
An iDevice is not in the same market as a desktop or laptop computer.
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I've always found it interesting that some will compare mobile device sales, be it iOS or Android, to Windows desktop sales and then say that Microsoft got it all wrong with the hybrid approach to Windows 8 and say that Microsoft should have followed Apple with two completely different OSes. In a way they may be right as that's just another way to sell something to consumers though in the end the Microsoft approach has much more potential of being economically to consumers.
 
Microsoft's main problem: mobile devices are getting better at doing PC-level tasks at a faster rate than PCs are getting better at mobile tasks.

At any rate, happy birthday, Mac. Windows and much of the computing industry owes a lot to you.
 
Aurelius said:
Microsoft's main problem: mobile devices are getting better at doing PC-level tasks at a faster rate than PCs are getting better at mobile tasks.
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That's not an easy argument to make. Yes there are a lot more tablet apps for iOS and Android than 8, but this time last year there wasn't even a first party Facebook app for Windows 8. And the cheapest Windows 8 devices this time last year were roughly $500. Now they are half the price and twice as fast and come in 8" sizes which is kind of the sweet spot for tablets. And some of these 8" devices have HDMI and can run plenty of desktop apps natively with solid performance on an external HD screen. There are no $300 mobile OS tablets that even begin to run natively with decent performance full MS Office or Libra Office or Open Office or Photoshop or Visual Studio or Eclipse or have a built in touch browser with Flash support or fill in the blank.
 
yelsewshane said:
I had a amiga system early on and laughed at people that would pay high costs for a pos apple product. Later on I started building my own pc's and still laughed at people that purchased apple products. Up to this day I still build my own pc's and laugh at people that purchase apple products. Guess some things never change :)
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Well, you definitely started out well with that Amiga. Got to say I miss my Amiga 500 with hard drive and OS 2.04.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Lol. "Total Apple DEVICE sales will equal Windows PC's this year."

An iDevice is not in the same market as a desktop or laptop computer.

Your post reeks of fanboyish non-sense and a vain attempt to make Apple desktop and laptop computers look more competitive than they actually are.
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Apparently your own fanboyism clouded your eyes to the first link I posted about recent Mac sales vs PC sales, and to the quote I placed underneath that graph which only mentions the part of the graph that compared PCs vs Mac sales.. that since 2004 the ratios of PCs sold to Macs sold was decreasing..

Peak Windows was back in 2004, where the ratio of Windows PCs to Macs was 56:1. By last year, that ratio had fallen to just 18.8:1
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You can decided for yourself how relevant that entire chart is or isn't but it does seem to chronicle the fact that just about as many iDevices are being sold as PCs, and that this gap has been closing for the past 10 years. If you read the article linked to that graph, the author was focusing on "platform products" and acknowledges that Windows tablets and phones were not included in that graph "but given the very limited success of Windows mobile devices to date, correcting that wouldn’t change the patterns too much". Yes I believe that chart isn't an entirely "oranges to oranges" comparison, which is why I only highlighted (with the above quote) the PC vs Mac portion.

I am sure a spirited debate would transpire about whether an iDevice is or is not in the same market as a computer. Just let me end with this purely anecdotal evidence of my wife who stopped using her desktop computer entirely once she received an iPad, and is on her second one now. Seems as if that $500 she spent on that second, newer iPad would have, in the past, gone instead towards either a laptop or desktop PC.

Funny that this tread was started ABOUT the Macintosh but most of the comments have been concerning Windows. And I get criticized for posting something that actually documents info about the Macintosh over it's 30 years lifespan.
 
heatlesssun said:
Read this thread, you were the FIRST person to bring Windows into this discussion!:D
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Correction, you were the first person to bring Windows into this discussion by name. pxc was the first to raise the subject of Windows with his quote from the Apple exec what didn't mention Windows by name but was obviously talking about Windows.
 
yelsewshane said:
I had a amiga system early on and laughed at people that would pay high costs for a pos apple product. Later on I started building my own pc's and still laughed at people that purchased apple products. Up to this day I still build my own pc's and laugh at people that purchase apple products. Guess some things never change :)
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I build my own cars from scratch! and laugh at people who buy one. :)
 
ScottSwing said:
No, they just said they aren't trying to turn Mac into a mobile OS like the disaster that Windows 8 is.
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On the mobile side, Windows 8 doesn't seem to be anywhere as controversial as it is on the desktop. Seriously, who is opposing cheap, light, thin and battery efficient tablets that can run anything an iOS or Android device can plus desktop software that those devices never could at the same price points? The issue with Windows 8 is on the desktop that Windows has owned for decades.
 
30 years old, damn...and so useless now. Nothing has changed for it. :p
 
heatlesssun said:
On the mobile side, Windows 8 doesn't seem to be anywhere as controversial as it is on the desktop. Seriously, who is opposing cheap, light, thin and battery efficient tablets that can run anything an iOS or Android device can plus desktop software that those devices never could at the same price points? The issue with Windows 8 is on the desktop that Windows has owned for decades.
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The only controversy I could point to with windows in mobile is the hooplah over Surface RT vs Surface Pro, and why MS didn't think it was important to differentiate the two more clearly. Otherwise, I think a lot of the backlash was undue. MS made bad decisions, but the pack-mentality of uberdorks on teh interwebz was disproportional to the changes in 8 vs. previous versions (IMHO).
 
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