The Apple IIc
28 years ago, Apple produced its first portable computer: the Apple IIc. Weighing in at just under 8 pounds, one had to lug it about in a cooler-sized shoulder bag.
The IIc cost $1,300, excluding peripherals (a joystick would have set you back $60.00 more). Despite this, the IIc was intended to make computing accessible to everyday consumers. Its user manual endeavored to convince non-technical audiences that the Apple IIc was both practical and entertaining. When buying a IIc, you “chose a philosophy — that using a computer is fun.”
It’s unlikely that non-techie users knew what to do with the included modem. Although the IIc predated the internet, you could still use it to dial into bulletin board systems to exchange messages and downloads with others, at the time a realm exclusive to geeks.
Steve Jobs, however, knew that connectivity was destined to become a major selling feature of personal computers, which likely explains its early inclusion in the Apple II computer series. In 1985, he had the following prescient conversation with Playboy:
Jobs: “So far [the personal computer] is more of a conceptual market than a real market. The primary reasons to buy a computer for your home now are that you want to do some business work at home or you want to run educational software for yourself or your children. If you can’t justify buying a computer for one of those two reasons, the only other possible reason is that you just want to be computer literate. You know there’s something going on, you don’t exactly know what it is, so you want to learn. This will change: Computers will be essential in most homes.”
Playboy: “What will change?”
Jobs: “The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people ‐‐ as remarkable as the telephone.”
Playboy: “Then for now, aren’t you asking home-computer buyers to invest invest $3000 inwhat is essentially an act of faith?
Jobs: “In the future, it won’t be an act of faith.”
Tags: Apple Computer, ipad, Steve Jobs
This post is categorized in: Business, Entertainment
Of course, no one thought we would have to have faith in extremely overpriced versions of sub standard PC hardware in a really shiny box for those who like to have their computers match their belts.