Since the introduction of the Macintosh 128K in 1984, Apple has struggled to gain significant personal computer market share. The original Mac lacked software, resulting in disappointing sales in 1985 when consumers realized the IBM PC had more software available. In 1985 Microsoft introduced the Windows GUI environment for the IBM PC. This ultimately ended with a lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft, in which Apple claimed rights to the graphical user interface; it resulted in a lost case for Apple, and Microsoft was given permission to continue selling their own graphical operating system. By 1985 only 500,000 Macintoshes had been sold. Originally Jobs had predicted five million would be sold within two years; sales eventually crossed the two million mark in 1988, and three years later the install base finally reached 5 million. By 1997 the Macintosh had over 20 million users[7]. As late 2003 Apple had 2.06% of the desktop share in the United States, which had increased to 2.88% by Q4 2004[8]. The actual installed base of Macintosh computers is extremely hard to determine, with numbers ranging from a conservative 3%[9] to a very optimistic 16%[10].

Advertising

Ever since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 commercial Apple has been recognized for its efforts towards effective advertising and marketing for the Macintosh. A "Macintosh Introduction" 20-page brochure was included with various magazines in December 1983, often remembered because Bill Gates was featured on page 15.[11]. In November that year, Apple spent more than US $2.5 million on all 39 advertising pages in a post-election special edition of Newsweek[12]. Connected to it was the "Test Drive a Macintosh" promotion; potential buyers with a credit card could trial a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a dealer afterwards. It began to look like a success with 200,000 participants, and Advertising Age magazine named as one of the 10 best promotions of 1984. However, dealers disliked the promotion and supply of computers was insufficient for demand, and many computers were returned in such a bad shape that they could no longer be sold.

In 1985, the "Lemmings" commercial aired at the Superbowl in 1985; Apple went as far as to create a newspaper advertisement stating "If you go to the bathroom during the fourth quarter, you'll be sorry". It was a large failure and did not capture nearly as much attention as the 1984 commercial did. Many more brochures for new models like the Macintosh Plus and the Performa followed. In the 1990s, Apple started the "What's on your Powerbook?" campaign, with print ads and television commercials featuring persons describing how the PowerBook helps them in their businesses and every-day lives. These included Frances Lear, Tama Janowitz, Michael O'Brien, Todd Rundgren, Art Monk, Martina Navratilova and Brian Durkin. In 1995 Apple responded to the introduction of Windows 95 with both several print ads and a television commercial demonstrating its disadvantages and lack of innovation. In 1997 the Think Different campaign introduced Apple's new slogan and in 2002, the Switch campaign followed.

Today, Apple focuses much of its advertising efforts around heavily hyped 'special events', and keynotes at conferences like the Apple Expo, and the MacWorld Expo. The events typically draw a large gathering of media representatives and spectators. In the past, special events have been used to unveil the Power Mac G5, the redesigned iMac, and many other Macintosh products.

Effects on the technology industry

Apple has introduced a number of innovations in direct relation to the Macintosh 128k that were later adopted by the rest of industry as a standard for the design of computers. Possibly Apple's number one effect on the industry was the first large-scale use of a graphical user interface in operating system software. Today, almost every mainstream operating system relies on a graphical user interface, and many operating systems still echo the design of the original Macintosh graphical user interface, such as the use of the "double click", "drag and drop", and the mouse used for them. The Macintosh 128k also introduced software which allowed WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text and graphics editing, alongside significant technical improvements such a long file names permitting whitespace and not requiring a file extension, 3.5" floppy disk drives as a standard component, 8-bit mono audio including built-in speakers, and an output jack as a standard feature.

The Macintosh platform has introduced many innovations and ideas that had significant effects on the computer industry, especially in the area of communications standards. One of the first was the Macintosh Plus, which successfully introduced the SCSI interface in 1986. The Macintosh IIsi and the Macintosh LC introduced standard audio in and out ports in 1990 — today these ports are standard on the large majority of computers. Beginning with the iMac in 1998, Apple made the Universal Serial Bus a standard and introduced FireWire, a high speed data transfer bus now popular in media-editing computers. Apple also innovated in the area of networking, with heavy marketing and early implementation of the existing standard IEEE 802.11b (AirPort) in the Macintosh portable lines in 1999. Additionally, the Macintosh platform introduced many of the storage devices that are now standard: In 1992, the Macintosh IIvx was the first computer to feature the CD-ROM drive as a standard feature. The iMac, debuting in 1998, was one of the first computers to have no floppy disk drive; today, almost no new computers come with one. Finally, the Power Macintosh G4 with its SuperDrive introduced the first easily affordable DVD-R drive in 2001.

Apple has also contributed heavily to the field of mobile computing, and many features of their mobile computers have become the norm. The PowerBook 100, 140, and 170 set the ergonomic standard for the placement of keyboard in 1991 by moving the keyboard behind a palm rest, rather then right at the bottom of the laptop. In 1991 the Powerbook 100 series featured the first built-in pointing device on a laptop: a trackball. The PowerBook Duo also introduced the idea of a dock/port replicator in 1992. One of the most important features ever added to the Macintosh PowerBook lineup was the first true touchpad as a pointing device on the PowerBook 500 in 1994; today, most laptops rely on it as their pointing device. More recently the PowerBook G4 became the first full-size laptop computer to feature a widescreen display, in 2003 it became the first laptop computer with a 17-inch display, and in 2004, it became the first laptop computer to provide dual-link DVI.

From Wikipedia.