Documents offer glimpse into Apple's early days

[AppleInsider]

The Computer History Museum of Mountain View, California has put on display a pair documents from Apple's early years, outlining the company's strategic planning, optimism, and doubts as it embarked on a mission to forever change the world with its line of Macintosh computers.

The first is a Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum from 1977, donated by one of Apple’s initial investors, Mike Markkula, while the second is a Macintosh Business Plan from 1981, donated by Dan Kottke, the company's first employee.

The Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum outlines the offering of up to 150,000 shares of common stock, supported by an evaluation of the market and competitors in relation to Apple’s products and strategy. This was the first offering of shares for the fledgling company following its founding by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Among the risk factors listed at the start of the document are an acknowledgement of the company’s newness without an established history on which forecasts could be based, as well as a management team that was "young and relatively inexperienced in the high volume consumer electronics business."

The memo goes on to describe the primary target market – the Personal Computer Market. With a home computer, the average consumer could reap such benefits as "personal pleasure and enjoyment," "elimination of wasted paper, energy and storage space," and an "improved standard of living." However, developing this market was seen as a significant challenge, requiring at least two hours of discussion to "convince 'Joe Average' that he needs a computer." Apple planned to rely on mass media outlets to reach out to consumers to provide this education.

The documents outline current and planned products in detail, showing the existing Apple II computer with a manufacturing cost between $300 and $400, with key features such as dual-mode color graphics and fan-less cooling, putting it an estimated 12 months ahead of competing products. The Apple IIA, with manufacturing costs between $225 and $300, would yield a gross profit of up to $700 with a planned retail price of $995. Several peripheral releases planned through 1978 are also itemized, including items like a Telephone Interface Board and a Voice Recognition System.

In targeting the Personal Computer Market, Apple expected its primary competition to come from Commodore Business Machines and Tandy Corporation, but expressed optimism in relation to Apple products with more expandability and better-trained service staff. In relation to the Tandy TRS 80 machine, the competitor analysis goes so far as to state that the Apple IIA will "definitely outsell the TRS 80 'hands down' regardless of the large number of potential retail locations in the Radio Shack chain." Texas Instruments and Atari are mentioned as upcoming competitors with the ability to obtain substantial shares of the market.



The memo also reveals philosophies that appear to exist at Apple to this day. Described in the Appendix, the Apple Software Bank – a repository of software created both by users and Apple – was created to "increase the usefulness and enjoyment of the Apple II system" and "with the user in mind." In describing the distribution strategy, the desire to "insure that each customer establishes a positive on-going relationship with the local Apple dealer" is expressed as a key approach.

The 1981 Business Plan document provides detailed information on Apple’s product line at the time, lining up each in a price Band among competitor products and touting that "the advantage of a product line is that each individual product does not have to do everything." Each product is also targeted at specific market segments, such as managers, secretaries, and home businesses, and related software for each is also considered.



New products, peripherals, and software, including the 300 baud Mac Phone and Mac Writer application, are mapped out through the second quarter of 1983, and projected total headcount in the Macintosh Organization at the end of 1981 is 63 employees, up from 16 at the time the business plan was written.

A list of open issues at the end of the document, however, reveals significant concerns, showing that the Macintosh manufacturer had not yet been selected and a question on the reasonableness of the planned schedule. The plan closes with an almost-whimsical image of a man seated at a table with an apple on the plate before him and the pronouncement "We will announce no Apple before its time" -- a a parody off an Orson Welles commercial from the early 80’s.



The two documents can be seen online in PDF format.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[801]

These plans will never work!

[lilgto64]

any one else notice that the Mac 2 mentions a Flat Panel Display - I guess he got it kinda close - the 20th Anniversary Mac was the first with a flat panel display as standard equipment, right?

[chronster]

"We will announce no Apple before its time."

LOL some things never change

[ejulien]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The plan closes with an almost-whimsical image of a man seated at a table with an apple on the plate before him and the pronouncement "We will announce no Apple before its time."
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ][/c]

The image of the man is actor/director Orson Wells from a Paul Masson commercial. The commercial ends with the claim, "We will sell no wine before its time." You can see the commercial on YouTube.

[FuturePastNow]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The Apple IIA, with manufacturing costs between $225 and $300, would yield a gross profit of up to $700 with a planned retail price of $995

Nice to see some things never change

[Dr Millmoss]

Originally Posted by chronster

"We will announce no Apple before its time."

LOL some things never change

It's funny because it's true.

BTW, for those who aren't old enough to remember, the picture is a caricature of Orson Wells, as he appeared in the Paul Masson wine TV commercials of the time, where he says "we will sell no wine before its time."

[mikeyrad]

Originally Posted by ejulien

The image of the man is actor/director Orson Wells from a Paul Masson commercial. The commercial ends with the claim, "We will sell no wine before its time." You can see the commercial on YouTube.

Gawd, is this a sign of getting old(er) or what? I thought that everyone knew the Orson Welles commercial for Paul Masson wines until I Wikipediaed him. He died in 1985!

[matthawaii]

Interesting how Wozniak is not mentioned in the org chart.

I wonder if that is his shyness coming through.

[iCarbon]

it amazes me to think thatr people invested in these guys -- based on these documents, they sound worthless...

goes to show why I'm not a venture capitalist!!!!!

[chronster]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

It's funny because it's true.

BTW, for those who aren't old enough to remember, the picture is a caricature of Orson Wells, as he appeared in the Paul Masson wine TV commercials of the time, where he says "we will sell no wine before its time."

I recognized the image, I just couldn't remember where. I'm not old enough to remember the commercial, but somehow I recognized that image. Thanks for shedding some light

edit:
I think I remember him from the muppets actually. He was on a VHS my mom recorded off TV and I watched a lot as a very young kid.

[matthawaii]

Originally Posted by matthawaii

Interesting how Wozniak is not mentioned in the org chart.

I wonder if that is his shyness coming through.

I guess not so interesting as Woz was not on the mac team

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

It's funny because it's true.

BTW, for those who aren't old enough to remember, the picture is a caricature of Orson Wells, as he appeared in the Paul Masson wine TV commercials of the time, where he says "we will sell no wine before its time."

Ah - Orson Welles for Paul Masson and John Houseman for Smith-Barney. Those were the days...

[Dr Millmoss]

Back then, many regarded the Paul Masson commercials as an indication of how low Wells had sunk in his career by that time. I prefer to remember him as Harry Lyme in "The Third Man."

[Maestro64]

Originally Posted by lilgto64

any one else notice that the Mac 2 mentions a Flat Panel Display - I guess he got it kinda close - the 20th Anniversary Mac was the first with a flat panel display as standard equipment, right?

Actually, apple attempted to put the TFT LCD display used in the first lugable laptop computer in the original Mac with the 9in black & White CRT, what really happen was it made more sense to make the lugable then an actual original mac.

Those times lines was off by a few years, 87/88 was the time they explored the Mac with the LCD.

grant it the cost targets was way off, I think my Mac 128 cost me $3200.

[JohnnyKrz]

What is the VLC? I can find nothing about it and I don't remember anything about it.

[Maestro64]

Originally Posted by JohnnyKrz

What is the VLC? I can find nothing about it and I don't remember anything about it.

Very Low Cost

it never happen that is way, it was a vision

[mstone]

Originally Posted by Maestro64

Actually, apple attempted to put the TFT LCD display used in the first lugable laptop computer in the original Mac with the 9in black 7 White CRT, what really happen was it made more sense to make the lugable then an actual original mac.

Those times lines was off by a few years, 87/88 was the time they explored the Mac with the LCD.

grant it the cost targets was way off, I think my Mac 128 cost me $3200.

Back then the CRTs all had really curved glass screen and people used to refer to the new high quality CRTs as flat screen since there was very little curve to them. This was probably the intended reference not LCD flat screen. I don't think anyone was selling LCD in the 80s. But yeah the costs were really high. I paid around $7,000 for the first Mac II with B/W monitor, there was no color option.

Interesting story on that one. I ordered it before it was available and the computer store, I think ComputerLand, called me and said my computer had arrived. I drove down to the store about ten minutes away. When I arrived the salesman said that each store only received one Mac II and the owner of the store had taken it home for himself so I was SOL basically. I told him to call the owner at home and ask him to return the computer to me since I had already paid for it. Along with a Laserwriter and a scanner, PageMaker 1.0 and Illustrator 1.0 for a total of around $17,000. So he called the owner and surprisingly they returned the computer to me the next day.

[slapppy]

Its facinating to see all this stuff for the Mac. Even documentation right down to the creators or individual programmers of the Mac. Detail account that show how each elements were created by a certain group or individual.

Weird stuff is, where are these kinds of documents from Microsoft. From MS-DOS to Windows 1, 3 and 95? Not general outlines, but details like the Macintosh history.

[Dr Millmoss]

Originally Posted by mstone

Back then the CRTs all had really curved glass screen and people used to refer to the new high quality CRTs as flat screen since there was very little curve to them. This was probably the intended reference not LCD flat screen. I don't think anyone was selling LCD in the 80s. But yeah the costs were really high. I paid around $7,000 for the first Mac II with B/W monitor, there was no color option.

A couple of historical points of order:

- The Macintosh II did indeed have a color card option.
- The Macintosh Portable was released in 1989, and had a 9.8" LCD display. All that for only $6,500!

[mstone]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

A couple of historical points of order:

- The Macintosh II did indeed have a color card option.
- The Macintosh Portable was released in 1989, and had a 9.8" LCD display. All that for only $6,500!

Actually when it was pre ordered there was no color monitor or card available. After the original release however, within a month or so, it was updated to color.

[Dr Millmoss]

Originally Posted by mstone

Actually when it was pre ordered there was no color monitor or card available. After the original release however, within a month or so, it was updated to color.

Ah. Well, a color monitor was only for rich people anyway. I had a 19" greyscale monitor on my IIx and thought I was in geek heaven.

[mstone]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

Ah. Well, a color monitor was only for rich people anyway. I had a 19" greyscale monitor on my IIx and thought I was in geek heaven.

That was a great setup because grayscale was much better for typesetting than the 24 bit color because in order to get black text the system had to display it in rgb and the low pitch caused fuzzy text.

[melodyof1974]

Thanks Dan for the document. Also, have you ever got your Porsche out of the driveway?


James & Duncan

[lightstriker]

Originally Posted by iCarbon

it amazes me to think thatr people invested in these guys -- based on these documents, they sound worthless...

goes to show why I'm not a venture capitalist!!!!!

Originally Posted by ejulien

The image of the man is actor/director Orson Wells from a Paul Masson commercial. The commercial ends with the claim, "We will sell no wine before its time." You can see the commercial on YouTube.

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

It's funny because it's true.

BTW, for those who aren't old enough to remember, the picture is a caricature of Orson Wells, as he appeared in the Paul Masson wine TV commercials of the time, where he says "we will sell no wine before its time."

Originally Posted by mikeyrad

Gawd, is this a sign of getting old(er) or what? I thought that everyone knew the Orson Welles commercial for Paul Masson wines until I Wikipediaed him. He died in 1985!

Originally Posted by chronster

I recognized the image, I just couldn't remember where. I'm not old enough to remember the commercial, but somehow I recognized that image. Thanks for shedding some light

edit:
I think I remember him from the muppets actually. He was on a VHS my mom recorded off TV and I watched a lot as a very young kid.

Originally Posted by matthawaii

I guess not so interesting as Woz was not on the mac team

Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart

Ah - Orson Welles for Paul Masson and John Houseman for Smith-Barney. Those were the days...

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

Back then, many regarded the Paul Masson commercials as an indication of how low Wells had sunk in his career by that time. I prefer to remember him as Harry Lyme in "The Third Man."

Originally Posted by Maestro64

Actually, apple attempted to put the TFT LCD display used in the first lugable laptop computer in the original Mac with the 9in black & White CRT, what really happen was it made more sense to make the lugable then an actual original mac.

Those times lines was off by a few years, 87/88 was the time they explored the Mac with the LCD.

grant it the cost targets was way off, I think my Mac 128 cost me $3200.

Originally Posted by JohnnyKrz

What is the VLC? I can find nothing about it and I don't remember anything about it.

Originally Posted by Maestro64

Very Low Cost

it never happen that is way, it was a vision

Originally Posted by mstone

Back then the CRTs all had really curved glass screen and people used to refer to the new high quality CRTs as flat screen since there was very little curve to them. This was probably the intended reference not LCD flat screen. I don't think anyone was selling LCD in the 80s. But yeah the costs were really high. I paid around $7,000 for the first Mac II with B/W monitor, there was no color option.

Interesting story on that one. I ordered it before it was available and the computer store, I think ComputerLand, called me and said my computer had arrived. I drove down to the store about ten minutes away. When I arrived the salesman said that each store only received one Mac II and the owner of the store had taken it home for himself so I was SOL basically. I told him to call the owner at home and ask him to return the computer to me since I had already paid for it. Along with a Laserwriter and a scanner, PageMaker 1.0 and Illustrator 1.0 for a total of around $17,000. So he called the owner and surprisingly they returned the computer to me the next day.

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

A couple of historical points of order:

- The Macintosh II did indeed have a color card option.
- The Macintosh Portable was released in 1989, and had a 9.8" LCD display. All that for only $6,500!

Originally Posted by mstone

Actually when it was pre ordered there was no color monitor or card available. After the original release however, within a month or so, it was updated to color.

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

Ah. Well, a color monitor was only for rich people anyway. I had a 19" greyscale monitor on my IIx and thought I was in geek heaven.

Originally Posted by mstone

That was a great setup because grayscale was much better for typesetting than the 24 bit color because in order to get black text the system had to display it in rgb and the low pitch caused fuzzy text.

Did you all see A Letter to Three Wives when it came out in theaters!

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart

Ah - Orson Welles for Paul Masson and John Houseman for Smith-Barney. Those were the days...

Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton and E.F. Hutton says...

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by lightstriker

Did you all see A Letter to Three Wives when it came out in theaters!

I really hope this is funny to those who get it, because you bogarted alot of space with that multiquote!

[aplnub]

Omnigraffle had to be in beta format when that ORG chart was created.

[philipm]

Originally Posted by mstone

Back then the CRTs all had really curved glass screen and people used to refer to the new high quality CRTs as flat screen since there was very little curve to them. This was probably the intended reference not LCD flat screen. I don't think anyone was selling LCD in the 80s. But yeah the costs were really high. I paid around $7,000 for the first Mac II with B/W monitor, there was no color option.

I didn't remember that there was a break before colour was available. Maybe because I was in a distant part of the world at the time that didn't get the latest stuff fast. The other thing about the Mac II was it didn't use the same slot architecture (NuBus vs. whatever the PC slot architecture was called then) as the mass market competition, so graphics cards etc. couldn't be ported over from PCs just by writing a driver as you can today.

[philipm]

Originally Posted by aplnub

Omnigraffle had to be in beta format when that ORG chart was created.

And they didn't have a very good spelling checker: "penney pinching", "Eurpoe". I was also amused to see Apple IIs described as "mainframes". I wonder if anyone with tech knowledge was allowed near the IPO.

I'm inclined to agree with their view that they were well-placed to dominate the existing market players. They were sophisticated enough to understand that they couldn't dump technology on department stores without adequate training. It's interesting to see how quickly they understood the value of international markets and the necessary allowances. The fact that Apple Europe was originally set up by an entrepreneur then re-absorbed may explain how Apple got into the habit of over-charging for the European market.

[JohnnyKrz]

Originally Posted by philipm

I didn't remember that there was a break before colour was available. Maybe because I was in a distant part of the world at the time that didn't get the latest stuff fast. The other thing about the Mac II was it didn't use the same slot architecture (NuBus vs. whatever the PC slot architecture was called then) as the mass market competition, so graphics cards etc. couldn't be ported over from PCs just by writing a driver as you can today.

PCs had ISA. That was one of the first things that really stood out to me as something that 'just worked' on the Mac. With ISA, you would often have IRQ conflicts when installing new hardware and installing/running DOS drivers could be a bitch too.

[johnsawyercjs]

Interesting to see mention in official Apple documents of the "Telephone Interface Board" and a "Voice Recognition System". I may be wrong, but that Telephone Interface Board (and maybe the Voice Recognition System too) may be what was known as the "Charlie board" (I don't know who Charlie was in this), designed and prototyped by John Draper/Captain Crunch, famous phone phreak and friend of Jobs and Wozniak. Draper originally put it to use in his Apple II to dial thousands of phone numbers automatically, and recording what each one did when it answered, in order to create a list of "interesting" phone numbers--it could record whether the number answered with a computer modem tone, a busy signal, a fax tone, voice, etc. I think it was rejected as an Apple product once some of Apple's higher-ups decided having a product with such origins might be bad for PR.

[jcassara]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

In relation to the Tandy TRS 80 machine, the competitor analysis goes so far as to state that the Apple IIA will "definitely outsell the TRS 80 'hands down' regardless of the large number of potential retail locations in the Radio Shack chain."

I love the hubris there. Didn't quite work out that way, though.



Like with the Macintosh, it's a misconception that the Apple II was "widely successful" right out of the gate. You'll see the trend continues:



Hey, don't get me wrong: I love the products and today we're using our Apple Macintoshes to post to these forums (as opposed to our Commodore-Amiga 9000s or Tandy TRS-09XI's), but it really steams me when Apple Revisionism touts the two Steves singlehandedly started the personal computer revolution.

[Dr Millmoss]

Originally Posted by jcassara

Like with the Macintosh, it's a misconception that the Apple II was "widely successful" right out of the gate. You'll see the trend continues:

The Mac wasn't wildly successful from the outset. It had a good year in 1984 but fell behind expectations the following year, which is one of the reasons why Steve recruited Scully to run the company.

Anyhow, there's more than one way to read those charts. Before 1982, if you take out the Atari, which was more a game machine than anything else, and the Commodore 64, which was hardly a serious personal computer, the Apple II was pretty much in sales parity with the other models available then, and the TRS-80 was on its way towards history. It wasn't until the IBM-PC caught on that the lines really start to diverge.

[bigpics]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

The Mac wasn't wildly successful from the outset. It had a good year in 1984 but fell behind expectations the following year, which is one of the reasons why Steve recruited Scully to run the company.

Anyhow, there's more than one way to read those charts. Before 1982, if you take out the Atari, which was more a game machine than anything else, and the Commodore 64, which was hardly a serious personal computer, the Apple II was pretty much in sales parity with the other models available then, and the TRS-80 was on its way towards history. It wasn't until the IBM-PC caught on that the lines really start to diverge.

I was serious about and did serious work (at my job) with my Commodore 64. Paperclip (word processor) was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, and Print Shop put me in the flyer printing biz....

[Dr Millmoss]

Originally Posted by bigpics

I was serious about and did serious work (at my job) with my Commodore 64. Paperclip (word processor) was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, and Print Shop put me in the flyer printing biz....

I did some serious work on mine, but in truth it was not much of a computer. It's main attraction was price. It was cheap!