Apple inc.

Apple inc. did not rise to prominence in the digital world for a second time because of Steve Jobs’ vision or Jonathan Ive’s design team. The creative team and the management at Apple inc. may be one of the best in Silicon Valley. They redefined several technology industries. However, the predominant notion floating around in the mainstream attributes Apple’s success to innovation only Apple inc. and Steve Jobs could have conceived. This is not true because consumer technology was always heading this way and with computers, Apple inc. may have been the first to recognize it.

It was a time of great change, a predestined course for the computer when a new generation of people were coming of age. Individuals who were not introduced to personal computers and cellphones after maturity, rather the new generation were born into the digital age. They learnt to type at around the same time they learnt to write long hand. They got their first cell phone for their sixth birthday and started surfing the web to complete school homework and chat with their friends on social networking sites. They were introduced to the Nintendo 64 and MSN messenger, and for later generations, the PS3 and Facebook, when they started school. For the new kid, the computer and the internet meant much more than a convenient and powerful tool. Their use transcended boundaries set by the working man and the grand economy. The role, the computer played in the 80’s and early 90’s is evident in the dull beige casing...folders, Microsoft Outlook and cluttered websites. Yes, they were for personal use and it was a period of great experimentation but our parents used computers in an entirely different way, if they were in front of their monitors all day long, it was for one reason only- work.

Then came along the new kids, the kids who grew up with computers, who learnt a  language to communicate with their computers and tailor the digital platform to better serve their creative interests. The placid personality of pure logic amplified the seemingly irrational complexity of emotional human nature, causing many to feel far more comfortable, communicating with each other using the new online realm, where we could meet strangers, talk to several people simultaneously, and still maintain our privacy. Fuck the body language and awkward gestures and pauses, the computer world was convenient and comfortable. Inside it, we were far more powerful, we could broadcast ourselves, design landscapes, make music with someone living on a different continent and always stay a click away from almost anything which could be digitized. Best of all, the computer world was poorly regulated (well until recently). It is with this generation that the computer was finally absorbed into culture and into society as an extension of the human mind and body, as a mechanised instrument useful in expanding every aspect of twenty-first century daily life. It moved away from the desk and into the bedroom, the couch and pocket. In this new world, where human beings grew up with personal machine aides, it is consequential that the industry would eventually manufacture computers which are aesthetically pleasing, intuitive and user friendly. We want the computer to meet the same criteria we wish upon ourselves; beauty, power, intelligence and functionality. Though our reasons for producing and consuming personal machines do get obscured and sometimes ignored when under the influence of a viral fad, there is a pattern which always emerges in the evolution of personal machines, be it computers, cell phones, cars or software. It travels far deeper into our psyche than any trend or promotional gimmick. When a machine is designed not to distract but to expand our reach...when its interface appears ideal to our senses and its complexity is defined, not by the manufacturer but by an intelligent society, acclimated to the man + machine equation, there is a real purpose for its creation.

Apple inc. and an increasing number of other consumer product manufacturers satisfy this need, but not because they introduced the idea of a beautiful and elegant machine to the consumer, the market potential had been set as soon as five year olds were handed a computer and cellphone, all that was needed was some time for them to grow a little older so Apple inc. and other companies could do what they did best, innovate and sell.

Steve Jobs may have figured this out back in ‘84 with the Macintosh 128K, and it was great but the world wasn’t ready then....it is now.