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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, December 01, 2003

Getting the details all wrong: Mistaking the history of Apple Computer
Christoph Dernbach writes a stirring history of Apple Computer for the E-Commerce Times. There's just one problem: It's riddled with innacuracies. Let's take a look.

- "'If you stay at Pepsi, five years from now all you'll have accomplished is selling a lot more sugar water to kids. If you come to Apple you can change the world,' [Steve] Jobs is famously attributed as saying [to John Sculley, who finally agreed to join Apple]. According to Sculley himself, Jobs actually said, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" ("Odyssey" by John Sculley, page 90). Get the quotes right, please.

- "The scene is Santa Clara Valley, California, in 1976. Two Steves are busy at work in the garage. Their goal: the world's first personal computer." Actually, the "Two Steves" were in a garage in Santa Clara working on one of many personal computers that would arrive in the wake of the first personal computer, the Altair 8800. Like so many others, the "Two Steves" were influenced and excited by the actual first personal computer. The Altair, incidentally, was created in late 1974 and revealed to the world in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics (the cover even notes, "The World's First Microcomputer"). Other personal computers that appeared before the Apple I include the Wavemate Jupiter II, the Elektronika S5-01, the Sphere I, the DEC LSI-11 microcomputer (first 16-bit microcomputer), the IMSAI 8080, and the Processor Technology Sol.

- The two young entrepreneurs saw revenues of 7.8 million dollars in 1978. Actually, it was Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and financier Mike Markkula's $91,000 investment (plus the $250,000 in loans he secured) in Apple that saw revenues of whatever in whatever year. The "Two Steves" couldn't have made it without that one Mike's money. And how any history of Apple could ignore Markkula's crucial role is beyond me. Apple was not started by the two Steves: It was started by the two Steves and Mike Markkula.

And so on. Fortunately, there are a few facts in the article as well:

- "The introduction of Windows 95 in August 1995 established Microsoft and its Windows system as being on par with MacIntosh (sic)."

- "It would appear that, for now at least, the Apple will be forced to fill a niche market in the creative industries, for U.S. schools, and for users who are conscious of design and good taste."

Overall, a pointless article.

[ Posted at 3:37 PM | Permalink ]