Five ways Apple changed the tech industry

25 years of trail blazing

23 January 2009 15:30 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Apple's first Macintosh named computer was launched on the 24 January 1984. 25 years on, how has the Cupertino based company changed the industry? Here are five ways we think it's had an impact on our tech filled lives.

Usability has become everything
Arhh, the wonders of command line computing. It might have been handy for writing computer code that could make your PC beep after a certain length of time, but it wasn't very consumer or user friendly for those who didn't care about programming languages. Apple changed all that with their friendly looking desktop, and something called a mouse that you moved around your desk. The computer OS would never be the same again.

Design
If it wasn't making the [insert Apple product category in here] easy to use, Apple's mantra has always been about making things not only well designed, but looking "sexy". In the nineties it was the eMac - those brightly coloured Mac's that flew off the shelves like hot cakes. Then it was the "everything has to be white" years. Now we've got "everything must be brushed aluminium" phase. Thanks to Jonathan Ive, the company has, in virtually every instance, stayed one step ahead. Maybe a return to Black is next?

You don't need to invent it
That's right, shock horror, Apple rarely invents new products, but that doesn't seem to have bothered the millions of people who've bought "Apple" over the last 25 years. What Apple is incredibly good at though, is seeing what other companies in the sector do and then making it better. The iPod, the MacBook, the iMac, the iPhone - never the first, but you can't help compare everything else to them.

Consumers not geeks became the focus
Apple has always strived to open up the market to the average consumer and has achieved this by avoiding making products that are just tech spec heavy. This is the same case today as it was 25 years ago with Apple even going so far as not including technology that it might have done for the fear of confusing people. It's your mum they are after not you. It might seem like a simple idea now, but that idea was very novel 25 years ago.

Just the one product please
If you're asked to name an Apple product, it's an easy answer. That's because the models change but the name rarely does. The iPod is in its umpteenth iteration but it's still called the iPod. Try and find another company that does that. The Mac computer has had not just a year of branding, but 25 years and that's why it's a household name. For a long time other companies didn't get it opting instead for thousands of variants to their range of MP3 players or millions of models of computers. Sony or Dell anyone?

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