The Apple Macintosh Computer

Paper Summary:

In this article the writer looks at how the Mac revolutionized relations between people and computers. The writer discusses the development of the Apple Macintosh Computer, as well as its historical significance. Specifically, the paper traces the rise of the Mac from the first crude conceptions of an "integrated" and user-friendly computer in the 1970s to its dramatic explosion upon the scene in early 1984 to its gradual evolution ever since. In so doing, the paper emphasizes the incremental nature of Mac's maturation over time and how the new product debilitated the old print publishing industry by giving ordinary citizens access to tools once wholly the preserve of "big-city" publishing and printing houses. Finally, and most importantly, the paper touches upon what the Mac has meant to "people/computer" relations over the last 22 years. The writer maintains that the Mac has brought hi-tech into the typical home and made computers, quite literally, a part of the family.

From the Paper:

"1979 constitutes the great leap forward for Apple and for personal computer technology. As mentioned above, 1979 was the year wherein Apple employee Jef Raskin suggested to his superiors that Apple create a new "all-in-one" computer capable of reaching out to the average person. By September of that year, approximately four months after Raskin's initial proposal, the company's board has approved a research project centered on Raskin's idea. Shortly thereafter, Jobs and the company's lead software engineer, Bill Atkinson, visit Xerox's PARC lab in Palo Alto, California, and come up with some ideas that will prove critical in the maturation of the still-embryonic Macintosh (it may be inferred that Jobs and Atkinson saw the applicability of visual icons to their own computer design when examining Xerox's products, but the source does not make an explicit linkage). In any case, May of the following year sees Apple boldly announce at the National Computer Conference that it has come up with something called the Apple III - a new operating system with a "built-in" disk controller and peripheral slots."

Sample of Sources Used:

• 1980-1989: The 'desktop' era jars a traditional industry. (1999). Graphic Arts Monthly, 71(12): CP24-25.
• Conan, Neal. (2004, January 20). Interview: Experts discuss the 20-year history of the Macintosh computer. Talk to the Nation (NPR). Retrieved October 27, 2006, from Newspaper Source database <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=6XN200401201501&site=ehost-live?>
• Levy, Steven. (1994). Insanely Great: the Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. USA: Viking-Penguin.
• Snell, Jason, Levy, Steven, Kawasaki, Guy, Engst, Adam C., Ebert, Roger, Ihnatko, Andy, Dvorak, John C., and Pfiffner, Pamela. (2004). "The 20 years of the Mac." MacWorld, 21(2): 68-72.
• Whitley, Bill. (2005). An apple a day. Consumer, 448: 32-33.

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