In July '95, Apple Computer was Prepping its Brand New Mac OS,
FireWire was an Emerging Technology, and iPods... (What iPods?)

by Joe Leo, Columnist

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Of course, Apple was always ahead of its time. They were selling their new QuickTake 150 Digital Camera, mainly geared toward businesses. At a price tag of just under $1000 that let you store up to 32 sharp and high-res images of 640x480! (You know that the first digital camera was invented by Apple, right? Then Kodak followed suit... Apple, always ahead!).

No FireWire or USB 2.0 high-speed connectivity yet, or any USB for that matter. In fact, Apple had created the FireWire technology, but it was? Not good enough to replace SCSI at the time, and would only be good for interfacing with multimedia devices such as digital cameras, with its speeds topping out at 12.5 MBps. It was relatively an unknown!

And what of "The Mac's New Face"? It was still a year away. Macworld's Galen Gruman reported at the time, "It will do more. It should crash less and use less RAM... 'It' is the next generation of the Macintosh Operating System, a major reworking of the OS." It was code-named "Copland."

As has always been the case, "You may be expecting Copland to deliver a radically new way to interact with your computer--after all, Windows 95 will bring radical changes to PC users--but Apple is doing something more important: making the Mac OS more stable and more flexible in ways that you'll appreciate after you've used it awhile."

In a twist of fate--if this was the year 2007--Apple was very secretive about its Copland operating system. "Apple stuck to its policy of remaining silent about its plans to counter Windows 95, until the Microsoft marketing juggernaut built up so much pressure that Apple had to reassure its customers and third-party developers."

Macworld's summary? "Apple will have to play catch-up to OS/2 and Windows 95." (Ouch!).

Gruman also wrote, "Windows is getting its third major face-lift in six years... Even UNIX interfaces are looking rather slick these days. And the Macintosh Operating System? Its look and feel hasn't changed significantly since Apple added color in 1987."

The last word (from him, not us)? "Copland will not be the last Mac OS... where Copland is heading is impressive, and if Apple can get the Mac OS there, the Mac should enjoy a lasting, fundamental competitive advantage for multimedia, home, international, and publishing use. Here's hoping!"

No wonder why people bashed the Mac so much. Those on the PC-side of the market.

However, let's get back to reality here. This is not July 1995. This is July 2007. Today, Windows is the operating system that hasn't radically changed since Windows 95. Even critics of Vista say it's still very much the old Windows underneath its eye candy hood. Unlike Mac OS X which has the eye candy on the surface, but an advanced UNIX-based operating system under its hood.

Because Apple designs from the ground up, it's "Why Apple Keeps Bobbing to the Top."

Just the other day, Peter Burrows of Business Week Online writes for MacNewsWorld, that, "There's something more fundamental and more sustainable in Apple's profit growth than chip prices or product mix. The latest quarter shows that Apple is gaining leverage from its unique cupboard of technologies."

Burrows continues, "Apple increasingly is creating its products from the same set of ingredients." Something he says in a positive way, but to which Apple has been criticized for in terms of a business model. How they create the software, hardware, and control the whole package.

Though he says the iPhone is not the direct cause, he says that the iPhone gets his idea across. "The iPhone illustrates the point: It runs the same Mac operating system software, the Safari browser, and the same iTunes music software as all of the company's computers."

It just works, right?

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