Apple has come a long way
June 30th, 2007 by admin
I know, many of you probably don’t want to hear about the iPhone – but hey, the IRAF installers and IDL tips are all still here, so I can post about what I want. You don’t like it? Make your own Mac IRAF site. 
Anyway, I’m not really going to post about the iPhone persay, but I was thinking on Friday how Apple much has transformed in the last 10 years. Would anyone have believed it in 1997 if you told them massive lines and massive media attention would surround the release of any Apple product? OS X didn’t exist, the Mac was struggling, the Newton was .. not a success.
Now, the Mac is healthier than ever – Apple rules the music player market with the iPod and is set to, at the very least, transform the expectations of mobile phone users. Personally, I don’t think the $600 iPhone is going to change the world, but the $300 iPhone Nano (or whatever they’ll call it) sure will. Just as it took a while for the iPod to truly explode, I would imagine the same is true of the iPhone.
There was a line in this sci-fi TV show, back in the 90s, “Seaquest DSV,” which referenced some future buyout of “Apple Computer” buying Microsoft, and – especially at the time (and even, frankly, now) it was laughable. I remember thinking “no way the Macintosh will ever be that big.” And, it probably never will be. But, it never occured to me Apple would create other, non-Macintosh things that would prove so succesful. (Though, arguably the iPhone is Mac-like in that in runs OS X.)
Obviously, here at Mac Singularity we care about OS X and the boon it is the productivity of our astronomical research. But for me, as a lifetime Apple user, it’s quite a trip to see them create so much attention and in general, have so much success. It’s been quite a ride from Wired urging us to pray for Apple’s survival.
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