Has Apple Really Ever Invented Anything?

[kdarling]

The Tandy Trash80 wasn't in stores for a full six months after the Apple II.

There's a difference between public announcements and going on sale. Both had been in the works for about a year.

The Apple II went on sale in mid June 1977 in the relatively few geek stores of the time, at $1300 for a 4K model without monitor. The TRS-80 went on sale a month and half later in all the Tandy stores for $600.

Price and availability is why the TRS-80 outsold the Apple II by huge margins for years. See previous post for sales numbers.



It took _16_ years for the Apple II/IIe/IIgs/etc to sell the almost six million you mentioned. In the middle of that, the far less expensive Commodore 64 was pumping out two million a year.

The sheer fact is, the Apple II was not a major factor in the home computer revolution for many years. If it had never existed, the revolution would've still come about in the same timeline.

Perhaps it was popular where you lived or something, but it certainly wasn't what first brought the home computer to millions of people.

 

[G51989]

They sold millions of them before IBM knew what had happened, and the world changed.

Hate to break it to you, once the IBM PC came out, it wizzed past every other product on the market. In fact, after it was Paired with Windows/DOS it went onto become the mainstay of the Desktop/Laptop Market.

Last year, More PC's were built and sold than Apple has sold, ever.

 

[G51989]

I would say apple invented the ease of use to computers, phones etc...

Really? If you couldn't figure out a Commodore, or even DOS. You probably shouldn't be using a computer to start with. And with phones? If you can't figure out a flip phone, on on the smart phone side, a blackberry or old Palm/Windows Mobile phone. Maybe you need to well....yeah....those phones were plenty easy to use.

Maybe they haven't really invented the computer or the phone to the extent they claim

No, they didn't invent either. At all.

but I would say they have invented such an amount of features and minor details - and also always turned existing stuff into a new level of quality that you could call it an invention.

100% opinion, and in the 90s? Windows was so far ahead of Mac OS it was embarrassing. Compare WIndows 95, 98, ME, and Windows NT to System 7, Mac OS 8 and 9, and you'll quickly figure out why no one went Mac at that point in time.

I think computers and phones would not have been at the level they are today if it wasn't for Apple and Steve jobs eye for perfectionism.

As far as computers go? I would call Apple Computers ( Macs ) sub par compared to a PC of the same price, and as a whole. They don't offer high performance hardware, nor a super robust operating system, perfection? Maybe for the consumer.

Phones? You do realize, when launched. The first iPhone was far behind RIM, Palm and Windows Mobile. In pretty much every catogory.

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The real question has anyone besides Apple invented anything? Last I heard Microsoft had something like 10K patents.

http://www.latestpatents.com/category/microsoft/

Microsoft had 118 patents granted just yesterday.

You think Microsoft has a lot of Patents? They do....so does Apple.

Who REALLY innovates in the tech world? And has an assload of patents. They were granted 6000 patents just last year. Any guesses? Its IBM.

 

[mober]

I'm sure that you're getting flamed all over the place for posting this on an Apple fan site, but I think that by your statement you expose your ignorance of "this entire patent thing". As you are apparently unaware, patent law allows Apple certain protections of its[...]bla blub[...]

What the heck are you talking about? All/Most those things that got patented in the past should be open public anyways! I mean, broken down to the bare minimum, we are talking here 90 degree angles right? curved edges and what not...

I'm coming from the open source compartment. Haven't used any $MS product since XP was common sense. The only reason why I changed systems is, there is basically no equivalent desktop environment with a unix shell under your ass out there. Linux is still very present in my network though... but not as my main desktop anymore.

So my whole point is... Get over defending apples fantastillion $ and on-growing shareprices... You don't have any advantage of them being richer than anyone else. They can take if someone else uses 'well thought through' technology also... It might even help us to see more amazing products in the future...

I don't get why in hell everybody takes this so personal. It's competition and this is good for us consumers. You can make your own choice at the end a the day, can't you? So what you care? Cause someone's phone looks like your's and you don't want them to get cocky with their rip-off?

If Henry Ford used Apple's mentality, he would have sued all other car makers for having a steering wheel..

 

[kingofnyct]

The Tandy Trash80 wasn't in stores for a full six months after the Apple II. The Commodore PET shipped fewer than 100 demos to stores about three months after the Apple II, and a very few of those may have actually been sold (I offered several stores a premium over list price but was refused), but the first bulk shipment was not until 1978.

I know the Apple II is officially described as "one of the first" and more specifically "one of the first three" (the others being the Tandy TRS80 and the Commodore PET. But I was there. The Apple II was first. Approximately 6 million Apple IIs were sold. I do not know how many of the original Trash80s or PETs were sold, but useless as they were I doubt either sold anywhere near a million.

Apple invented the personal computer.

I was there too. Yes for sure without a doubt they invented the personal computer, anything else at the time was a microcomputer. Tandy and PET was not released until later, and they copied the Apple PC.

There's a difference between public announcements and going on sale. Both had been in the works for about a year.

The Apple II went on sale in mid June 1977 in the relatively few geek stores of the time, at $1300 for a 4K model without monitor. The TRS-80 went on sale a month and half later in all the Tandy stores for $600.

Price and availability is why the TRS-80 outsold the Apple II by huge margins for years. See previous post for sales numbers.

View attachment 353445

It took _16_ years for the Apple II/IIe/IIgs/etc to sell the almost six million you mentioned. In the middle of that, the far less expensive Commodore 64 was pumping out two million a year.

The sheer fact is, the Apple II was not a major factor in the home computer revolution for many years. If it had never existed, the revolution would've still come about in the same timeline.

Perhaps it was popular where you lived or something, but it certainly wasn't what first brought the home computer to millions of people.

Not sure what planet you are living on. Commodore PC was not a personal computer, it was a keyboard that required a TV screen to operate, and released in the 80s not the 70s. It also was strictly a gaming console, with basic command line. Not even close to being the same thing. The Commodore64 was an 8-bit, competing with Atari and was magnitudes less costly. 90% of all of the software on the market, and in all computer stores and mail ordering stores across the country was Apple programs. You could not even buy Commodare or IBM PC XT software in a store like Computerland until years later and the store sections were very tiny, youd be lucky if you could find any products at all. IBM was still running CGA with 3 colors. You are forgetting the other Apple models such as the Apple I and Apple II which was already in production in 1976 and released at the beginning of 1977. The PET was released nearly a year later. Chuck Peddle who created the PET deliberately modeled it after the Apple II and rushed to get a PC created and assembled by the end of 1977, so they could capitalize on the Apple II. In fact Jobs offered Commodore a deal to buy or fund the Apple II originally back in 1976 but they turned him down. Please dont revise history here.

 

[Tech198]

I'd agree with the mouse they invented that..

um... PC = Personal Computer.. We didn't think if it AS one, but weather or u agree, that's what it stood for.

 

[teleromeo]

I'd agree with the mouse they invented that..

Not really ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart

 

[roadbloc]

Not really. They're sorta good at refining things when they want to be.

 

[Tech198]

These days, even Commodore Business Machines never invented anything either.

Even USB-C was done by ACON, and a whole bunch of others...

http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/