In the beginning there was International Business Machines (IBM) and they dominated a business they had practically invented themselves in the 1950s. For them computing was all about corporate mainframes, data and text based terminals.
Then thirty years ago today, on January 24, 1984, Apple launched an innovative machine that would revolutionise computing. Two days earlier a TV commercial showing a George-Orwell-esque society of 1984 and directed by Ridley Scott introduced the idea of the Macintosh that would save the world from IBM, or as they were also known, “Big Brother”.
The original Mac had no operating system with separate applications. It was really one integrated system with a graphic user interface, a word processor and a graphics application and it was completely different from other existing text based micro computers. Almost all the power of the micro processor was used to power the graphics user interface, which was operated by a mouse. The machine was based on Steve Jobs idea that personal computing was for everyone, and it would revolutionise the world. Below is the epic video commercial. Enjoy!