Whatever happened to the "20th anniversary" ?

zenarcade · November 5, 2004 12:07PM

In January, Steve was putting a lot of emphasis om this year being the 20th anniversary year for the mac. Since then, it seems like this has been forgotten. Even when the G5 iMac came out, there was no mentioning about it.

Has Apple forgotten all about it, or are we all in for a surprise ?

Zon

pbg4 dude · November 5, 2004 12:21PM

I think Apple wanted to blitz with the G5 products much much earlier in the year than they did. If the iMac G5 was introduced at WWDC I think we would've heard more about the 20th Mac anniversary.

At this point I'm just happy that Apple may start eking out gains in market/mindshare with non-Mac fanatics.

ipodandimac · November 5, 2004 12:36PM

well he was referring to this whole year as the anniversary. he said there would be some great new products out this year, and there have been:

G5s

ipod mini

ipod 4G

U2 ipod

ipod photo

iMac G5

Powerbooks and iBooks

Motion

shall i continue? to say that this year has been disappointing or not as great as anticipated is just ignorant. this has been a great year for apple in every way minus the delay of G5 processors, which if anything jsut heightened anticipation and caused a greater demand. AAPL stock alone is enough evidence that Apple is making a serious comeback in terms of mindshare, marketshare, and innovation.

zenarcade · November 5, 2004 12:41PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

well he was referring to this whole year as the anniversary. he said there would be some great new products out this year, and there have been:

G5s

ipod mini

ipod 4G

U2 ipod

ipod photo

iMac G5

Powerbooks and iBooks

Motion

I agree with you, but this is Apple. This is Steve Jobs.

The iMac G5 is related to the first Mac. Why miss an excellent opportunity for some great PR ?

pbg4 dude · November 5, 2004 12:50PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

well he was referring to this whole year as the anniversary. he said there would be some great new products out this year, and there have been:

G5s

ipod mini

ipod 4G

U2 ipod

ipod photo

iMac G5

Powerbooks and iBooks

Motion

[snip]

But how is this different from last year? They put out new iPods, new PBooks, new PMacs & iBooks last year as well. Didn't Logic 6 come out last year? What about Shake & the other video program they bought up?

See, other than the iMac G5 (31/8/04 intro) & Motion, everything else has just been tech. updates on previously available products. Also, look @ your list again. There are many iPod related lines which while cool, don't count in my mind as a celebration of "20 years of the Macintosh". As in, not really computer related. Besides, this is the 2nd special edition iPod, there was one last year with the signatures of some musician types, so the only real forward movement was the addition of iPod Photo.

So, where is the huge "Happy 20th, Macintosh!" release? This 20th anniversary hasn't been mentioned once since MWSF, IIRC.

curiousuburb · November 5, 2004 12:51PM

It might be cool to see a straight-across comparison chart showing 20 yrs of bang/buck progress.

Original Macintosh vs. "Twentieth Anniversary" iMac G5

List $ ---? --- ---(with currency conversion in 1984 dollars maybe)

RAM/HD

Networking innovations

Performance (Flops v MFlops or Gflops)

Exponential or near exponential progress, depending on how you measure.

ipodandimac · November 5, 2004 1:00PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PBG4 Dude

So, where is the huge "Happy 20th, Macintosh!" release? This 20th anniversary hasn't been mentioned once since MWSF, IIRC.

i agree with your points. what i was trying to say was that there never was supposed to be one huge 20th anniversary release. it was just supposed to be a good year for apple, and it has been. steve is well known for his smoke 'n mirrors hype, and the 20th anniversary year is just another gmmick to attract attention.

david_oc · November 5, 2004 2:03PM

I don't think it's as a big a deal from a PR point as you think. Apple is getting as close to saturation coverage as is possible in the press. Sure a lot of it is for iPod, but there was a lot of talk surrounding the iMac G5 when it was released. Furthermore, any current articles, even about the iPod, tend to reference the iMac.

As for the Bang/Buck idea, it would just draw unhelpful comparisons with wintel boxes. We all know that what we get is infinitely better but bringing up the price issue would be a mistake.

Whether Apple have touted it as an anniversary or not, this has been a great year. Roll on 2005!

pbg4 dude · November 5, 2004 2:30PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

i agree with your points. what i was trying to say was that there never was supposed to be one huge 20th anniversary release. it was just supposed to be a good year for apple, and it has been. steve is well known for his smoke 'n mirrors hype, and the 20th anniversary year is just another gmmick to attract attention.

I understand what you're saying as well. Guess I was hoping for some kind of 'In celebration of 20 years of Macintosh, I give you [cue drumroll] the incredible, amazing, awe inducing ______!' announcement.

But it has been a good year for Apple. Great would've included 3GHz G5s so everything else could be at a higher clock rate. Otherwise, Apple seems to be firing on all cylinders, and the public is taking notice, which is also very important.

I would say Apple's mindshare stock has probably tripled this year.

pbg4 dude · November 5, 2004 2:32PM

Quote:

Originally posted by david_oc

I don't think it's as a big a deal from a PR point as you think. Apple is getting as close to saturation coverage as is possible in the press. Sure a lot of it is for iPod, but there was a lot of talk surrounding the iMac G5 when it was released. Furthermore, any current articles, even about the iPod, tend to reference the iMac.

As for the Bang/Buck idea, it would just draw unhelpful comparisons with wintel boxes. We all know that what we get is infinitely better but bringing up the price issue would be a mistake.

Whether Apple have touted it as an anniversary or not, this has been a great year. Roll on 2005!

Yes, many outlets seem to be talking up all things Apple. I don't remember a time when so many analysts were making investment announcements about AAPL. Consumer Reports has the G5 iMac on December's cover with a title "59,940 reasons to go Mac" (talking about 60,000 Win viruses, vs. 60 Mac viruses).

Hopefully people won't mind trying out a Mac in 2005.

amorph · November 5, 2004 9:25PM

I don't think Steve wants to hype that for one simple reason: He doesn't want to remind people that the Mac is 20 years old. He doesn't want to remind people of the old Performas scraping by in their grade schools. He tried a similar tactic when he introduced the Xserve, and we all remember his reaction to the audience member who dragged Apple's prior history with servers back into the conversation.

The people who need to—or want to—know that the iMac G5, like the original iMac, tips its hat to the original Macintosh. For everyone else, it's the perfect computer to go with their iPod.

It's hard for longtime Mac fans to accept this, I think, but the more completely Apple abandons the Mac legacy and hitches that wagon to something hip and new like the iPod, the better the Mac will do. Think about why most people won't even consider Macs an option: Is it because they don't know about Macs at all, or because they think they know about Macs, based on an isolated encounter with Quark on System 7.5.2, or incompatibility with Windows 95?

Historical amnesia is a good thing in the general case, because it will finally allow the Mac to succeed or fail on its current merits.

crarko · November 6, 2004 8:34AM

Quote:

Originally posted by zenarcade

I agree with you, but this is Apple. This is Steve Jobs.

The iMac G5 is related to the first Mac. Why miss an excellent opportunity for some great PR ?

People seem to have forgotten that Jobs was convalescing from cancer surgery as the iMac G5 was being rolled out. Things like that can put a wee bit of a damper on the PR campaigns.

programmer · November 6, 2004 9:18AM

Quote:

Originally posted by crarko

People seem to have forgotten that Jobs was convalescing from cancer surgery as the iMac G5 was being rolled out. Things like that can put a wee bit of a damper on the PR campaigns.

Yes, the best laid plans...

I actually didn't think Jobs made that big a deal of the whole 20th anniversary thing back in January. It was kind of a "yes it is, but we're not doing anyone thing in recognition of it so you'll just have to take the whole year of great products we have lined up...". Everybody was talking about it so that was a way of grabbing that attention and turning it to what he wanted you to look at / watch for. I'm with Amorph -- this is the wrong business to be looking back and dwelling on the last 20 years.

bitemymac · November 6, 2004 10:09PM

20th anniversary mac?.... are you guys talking about 30" iMac G5 2.7 GHz with HDTV Tuner with wall mounted/aluminum stand?

reg · November 7, 2004 5:35PM

My 20th anniversay mac sits next to my dual 2.0. Since I don't have airport extreme I use it to play cd's. It is still their best looking piece of equipment.

reg

mero · November 8, 2004 12:46AM

Yeah uh.... the G5 wasnt big enough news for you guys? Or the iTMS non-flopping succsess? The G5 should be enough... it shattered the "MHZ Myth." Apple went from being compared to PII 500s to having a toothe and nail debate on weather they had the worlds fastest desktop computer ever made. Thats a big jump from last year

Oh and just with their Powermac line they drove down the cost of the G5 enough to ship it in an iMac....

Not to mention the investors celebrating... i know I am :-P

(with a Powerbook G5!)

www.apple.com/thinkdifferent

cocoa tree · November 8, 2004 5:16AM

Some very interesting and valid points in this thread.

I think they missed a chance to try something new.

Under the label of 20th anniversary Macintosh they could have released the long fabulated headless mac and measure market acceptance. If it doesn't succeed - well then it was only the special 20th anniversary Mac, but if it does succeed then it is the beginning of a new hardware line.

They try out so many new things with the iPod - why not with Mac hardware?

rhumgod · November 8, 2004 10:24AM

Let's not forget the fact that Apple's stock is trading at over 55.00 currently. That is roughly a 275% leap from this time last year. And a 400% increase from April 2003. Not too shabby. Of course, that is largely due to iTMS/iPod sales. I think the iMac G5 is going to be a good seller too. For how long, is anyone's guess. Hopefully the sales curve will be better than the iMac G4.

ltong · November 11, 2004 4:11PM

Steve wasn't in control of Apple when the Twentieth Anniversary Mac was released. Gil Amelio was. The TAM was his, and I would guess so was the hype about Apple's 20th birthday. If not for Gil making such a big deal I doubt Steve (or the rest of us) would have said a word about the Mac's 20th. Besides, 25 is a more traditional milestone. Think of how big a leap from the first Macintosh to the 25 year Mac will be. I'm not dissapointed in Apple's efforts at all.

mero · November 11, 2004 4:50PM

A headless mac was mentioned, we got the opposite of that with the iMac. Bodyless Mac, and guess what

The market for that is huge and its flying off the shelves. So hey, that's a staple Apple move right there

kiwimac · November 28, 2004 5:36PM

I think it would have been cool if they made a 20th aniversiary editon of some products, after all they made a U2 special edition iPod

Whatever happened to the "20th anniversary" ?

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