Introducing The Macintosh, a New Product From Apple
My name is Benjamin Christopher. I write the 35MM of Heaven column on show business and film news, as well as the upcoming “God of Geek” technology column. I also run the Why Didn’t I Think of That? Blog. The following is adapted from my latest feature for the WDITOT blog, and will give you a taste of what to expect for my upcoming weekly technology column here at The Heated Forest.
In the early 80′s, something very special was going on in the Xerox PARC laboratories. Xerox PARC had designed the first graphical interface for a computer. What’s a graphic interface? You know when your computer breaks, and all you can see is white text on a black or blue screen? It’s the opposite of that. Files appeared as little file icons on a virtual desktop. It was like nothing that had ever been invented. And two men took notice- Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
By took notice, I mean- they stole it. Flat out. Jobs went off to work on the Apple Lisa, and following that, the Macintosh computer. A year after the Macintosh, Gates released Windows 1.0.
Jobs would later try to sue Gates, saying the Windows was a rip-off of the Macintosh. To this, Gates responded, “No, Steve, I think its more like we both have a rich neighbor named Xerox, and you broke in to steal the TV set, and you found out I’d been there first, and you said. ‘Hey that’s no fair! I wanted to steal the TV set!’”
But it’s not important who stole what. It’s not even important who did it better. The question is: Who sold it better. In the mid 1980′s the answer to that question was a resounding Apple.
Most people are familiar with Apple’s infamous “1984″ commercial that ran during the Super Bowl, less than a month prior to the launch of the first Macintosh.
Well that‘s a little out of date. I mean, really. Do you think a George Orwell reference would ever come close to a Super Bowl commercial these days?
But the commercial is notable, among other reasons, because not once did it show the product, and yet it promised to change the way people looked at and felt about personal computers.
And the crazy things is… it did. The original Macintosh was the first commercially successful personal computer with a mouse and graphic interface. No lines of code scrolling on a black screen. Clean, user-friendly windows, files, and folders. But what I find more interesting than their infamous Super Bowl commercial is an insert featured in Newsweek in Fall of that year.
See, while normal people are sleeping, I’m watching 26 year old footage of Apple Product Announcements. During a 1984 announcement of the Apple IIc, a nearly prepubescent Steve Jobs took the stage to talk about the Macintosh personal computer, a product they had released less than 100 days earlier. Amidst the fifteen minutes of amusingly outdated computer graphics and tech-talk, Jobs read the audience an excerpt from a letter he received from the Vice President of Marketing for McDonalds, congratulating the Macintosh division on their marketing efforts, most notably an insert from Newsweek that ultimately convinced the McDonalds VP to go out and buy his own Mac.
You can hear Steve Jobs reading the letter here:
Steve Jobs at an Apple press event, circa 1984
Here are the highlights:
Dear Mr. Jobs,
From one who appreciates outstanding consuming marketing i congratulate those at your company, and your dealers responsible for the marketing of Macintosh. And from one who has wanted to be sold a personal home computer, I thank the same marketing people at Apple for developing the advertising insert which I recently found in Newsweek magazine. It did what no other computer advertising nor editorial information has done to date: it provided the reasons and rationale which I needed to justify acquisition of a personal computer… Your Macintosh advertising has sold me, and you’ve shown your industry how to advertise personal computers to real people.
Well, this got me pretty curious about that Newsweek insert, so I tracked it down.
When looking at the advertisement, keep in mind that 1984 was a whole world away from today. It’ wasn’t just a mouse and “desktop” that was new to people. It was personal computers in general. The idea of a computer for personal use had been pure science fiction until maybe a decade prior. The majority of Americans didn’t own, and–frankly–didn’t want or need a computer. Rather than market themselves to the techies who were already buying computers, Apple decided to win over the people who were on the fence about owning their own personal computer.
Throughout it, the Macintosh is painted as “different.” Furthermore, regular computers are portrayed as being totally out of touch with the majority of computers.
“If Macintosh seems extraordinarily simple,” it explains, “it’s probably because conventional computers are extraordinarily complicated.” This fed right into the number one barrier between consumers and personal computers of the day: Computers were seen as being too complicated. Apple ads pandered to this perception, and used it to their advantage. “If you can point, you can use a Macintosh,” one of the Newsweek ad’s headings reads.
When they’re at their best, Apple knows exactly who their market is, and how to appeal to them. Their customers are intelligent and creative, they use their computers for business and entertainment, and they’re generally middle/upper class. They’re the people Apple is addressing near the end of the Newsweek insert when they say, “Of course, the real genius of Macintosh isn’t its serial ports or its polyphonic sound generator. The real genius is that you don’t have to be a genius to use a Macintosh. You just have to be smart enough to buy one.”
No more wondering where the notion that Mac users are elitist, technically incompetent, artsy liberals came from. Turns out it was all part of the master plan from the get-go.
Note: Check out a young Bill Gates wearing a Macintosh shirt on page 15. Good times.
The Newsweek ad affected more than just the VP of Marketing for McDonalds; For the first few years after its launch, the Macintosh enjoyed unprecedented sales.
But the Mac’s success didn’t last long. As the 80′s turned into the 90′s, Windows and IBM products became the business standard, and Apple’s share of the market nearly collapsed. Apple was able to eventually regain traction and essentially reinvent its brand. But that, of course, is a story for another day.
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