Larry Magid: Apple's Mac Turns 30
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— It was 30 years ago that the Apple's Mac computer was officially introduced. Back then I wrote in the Los Angeles Times that I rarely get excited about new computers, but the Macintosh had started a fever in Silicon Valley that was hard not to catch.
I went on and on about how impressed I was with the mouse, how you could click on icons, and how that would make things happen. Prior to that time, as a user of the IBM PC, I had to learn to type obscure commands in order to get the computer to do anything.
When the Mac came along, all you had to do was point and click. Not to mention you could copy graphics from MacPaint into MacWrite and adjust the fonts. Whatever you saw on the screen was what you got on the printer. That may not be big news today, but back in 1984 it was a really big deal.
The Mac really lit the fire under Microsoft that inspired them to come out with Windows. It really took years before Windows was even anywhere close to being as good as a Mac.
Really if you think about it; the iPhone, Android or any smartphone or tablet were all influenced by the Mac. Everything we do with accessible computing technology is based on icons or tiles. It really fundamentally changed the way we interact with computers.
The cost of those original Macs; about $2,000.