Meet the Apple 32 SuperMicros
In the original press release from January 1984 one could read that the
Macintosh, along with three powerful new Lisa 2 computers, forms the basis of the Apple 32 SuperMicro family of computers. All systems in the family run Macintosh software.
and that
“We believe that Lisa Technology represents the future direction of all personal computers,” said Steven P. Jobs, Chairman of the Board of Apple. “Macintosh makes this technology available for the first time to a broad audience–at a price and size unavailable from any other manufacturer. By virtue of the large amount of software written for them, the Apple II and the IBM PC became the personal-computer industry’s first two standards. We expect Macintosh to become the third industry standard.”
This was actually a marketing attempt Apple made to capitalize on the distinction between the old 8 and 16 bit and the newer and more powerful 32 bit microcomputers and at the same time a way to present the Mac and the Lisa together to help a bit with the (poor) sales of its’ first computer with a GUI.
The “Apple 32 SuperMicros” monicker was actually used internally at Apple since November 1983 and than used in some of the promotional material the following year, grouping the Mac with three Lisa configurations (without an external hard drive, and with a 5 MB or 10 MB ProFile drive).
The brochure scans are taken from ballistikcoffeeboy ’s photostream on Flickr.
The people behind the Macintosh
“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay. I can’t spend enough time here, unfortunately, because I have other responsibilities. But every spare moment I have, I dash back because this is the most fun place in the world.
This is the neatest group of people I’ve ever worked with. They’re all exceptionally bright, but more importantly they share a quality about the way they look at life, which is that the journey is the reward. They really want to see this product out in the world. It’s more important than their personal lives right now.
The Apple II had a magical feel about it. You couldn’t quantify it, but you could tell. The Macintosh is the second thing in my life that’s ever felt that way. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often. You know somehow that it’s the start of something great. So everyone wants it to be perfect and works really hard on it. Everyone feels a personal responsibility for the product.
The Macintosh is the future of Apple Computer. And it’s being done by a bunch of people who are incredibly talented but who in most organizations would be working three levels below the impact of the decisions they’re making in the organization. It’s one of those things that you know won’t last forever. The group might stay together maybe for one more iteration of the product, and then they’ll go their separate ways. For a very special moment, all of us have come together to make this new product. We feel this may be the best thing we’ll ever do with our lives.”
Steve Jobs in 1984 in the first issue of Macworld
Happy birthday, Macintosh!
The motherboard pictured was gently provided by Maurizio Buso
iPhone sales so far
Let’s take a look at Apple’s Quarterly financial Reports on the iPhone, straight out of their press releases archive (I’ve put numbers in bold):
June 2007: Apple Reports Third Quarter Results
iPhone is off to a great start—we hope to sell our one-millionth iPhone by the end of its first full quarter of sales—and our new product pipeline is very strong.
October 2007: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.
January 2008: Apple Reports First Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 2,315,000.
April 2008: Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,703,000.
July 2008: Apple Reports Record Third Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone™ units sold were 717,000 compared to 270,000 in the year-ago-quarter.
October 2008: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone units sold were 6,892,000 compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.
January 2009: Apple Reports First Quarter Results
Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
Let’s add those thousands: 1119+2315+1703+717+6892+4363
This brings us to a grand total of 17.109 millions of iPhones sold so far (at the end of January 2009) by Apple since its launch on 29 June, 2007.
Note: feel free to use this data analisys but please credit and link back to the Stories of Apple website.
And you’ll see…
Written by Steve Hayden and Lee Clow, produced by Chiat/Day and directed by Ridley Scot with a budget of 900.000 USD the “1984″ Macintosh spot was “officially” shown on 22 January 1984 during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, a match between the Washington Redskins and theTampa Stadiums.
The ad, which was then broadcast in a shortened 30 seconds version, borrowed the core of George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and its dystopian future under a “Big Brother”, unanimously perceived as an allusion to IBM, Apple’s adversary on the market.