Steve Jobs on Macintosh: The Computer for the Rest of Us

Yeah, we designed Macintosh really because we wanted one for ourselves and we couldn't get one and Apple turned it into a product to turn the whole world on to what we've got. I think really Mac is a big extension of, you know, who we think we are and where we think we're going and that's why we designed the product. And so we set out to capture the greatness of Lisa in something affordable to individuals rather than corporations. It had to be easy to manufacture, it had to be very reliable because we didn't want our customers to ever have to worry about it failing, and it had to cost roughly one quarter as much as anything I'd ever designed before. Demonstrating a Macintosh is the only way to do it. You've got to show somebody. I can't really describe it to you in words, but if I can get you to sit in front of it and play with it, you won't let go of it.

And I think what you're going to see is that the balance of power is going to shift. The balance of power from companies running people to hopefully people running companies. We were just trying to make something incredibly great, and I think we did. Apple presents a revolutionary idea. Macintosh. Apple invented personal computing, and Macintosh represents a major breakthrough in computer technology. Never before has there been a computer so powerful and yet so easy to use at such an affordable price. But Macintosh is more than just another personal computer.

Based on revolutionary Lisa technology, it sets a new standard. A standard that will set the pace for the entire personal computer industry. Macintosh was developed for people who want to be creative in their work. Motivated. Success-oriented people. In offices, in dormitories, in homes, and in the Fortune 500. Along Main Street, USA, and around the world. I don't know of any computer that is more French than Macintosh. Lisa was the first in Apple's System 32 family of super-micros that use advanced technology to work the way you do. By sight, instinct, and intuition. With Macintosh, we took the essence of Lisa technology.

The same 32-bit microprocessor, integrated software design, pull-down menus, window-to-window display, and more. We took the same 32-bit microprocessor, integrated software design, pull-down menus, windows and mouse, and designed it to meet the needs of everyone who works at a desk. Macintosh is a new kind of desk tool. One that sparks thought, increases productivity, and expands the creative potential of every individual who uses it. We made Macintosh more affordable, to make it easy to own. We made it compact, so it could fit anywhere. We made it lightweight, to go anywhere. Macintosh is as easy to set up as it is to use.

All you have to do is plug Macintosh into a wall outlet, and the keyboard into the main unit. Then plug the mouse into the back of Macintosh, and you're ready to go to work. Because it's so small, Macintosh fits comfortably and quietly onto any desk. Macintosh was designed on the simple premise that a computer is a lot more useful if it's easy to use. Like Lisa, Macintosh uses a mouse, a small rolling device that fits into the palm of your hand. The mouse is attached to a pointer on the screen. As you move the mouse around on your desktop, you move the pointer on the screen. The screen layout resembles a desktop, displaying icons, or little pictures, of objects you'll have no trouble recognizing.

The disk you just inserted, and a trash can. The menu bar is at the top of the screen. By pointing to a heading in the menu bar, and pressing the button on the mouse, you can pull down the menu, like a window shade, and see all the functions at your command. The first heading is a picture of an apple. This menu includes all the desk accessories that you can use. The accessories are electronic versions of the things you might normally keep on your desk. Like a calculator. A clock. Or a notepad.

Other menus let you open and close files, edit your work, change formats, styles, or other options. To tell Macintosh what you want to do, all you have to do is point and click. To examine the Macintosh, click. To examine the documents on your disk, point to the disk, click, and select open from the file menu. The contents of the disk are displayed as icons on the screen. The icon of the handwriting on paper stands for MacWrite, your word processing program. It contains all of your writing tools. This icon stands for MacPaint, your unique illustration program that contains all of your picture-making tools.

This is an existing memo, while this is an existing illustration. Let's touch up the illustration, paste it into the memo, and print the whole thing out. In this case, you need to complete a new shoe design for your company featuring power pivot points on the sole. Select the pencil to finish your drawing. Moving the mouse on your desk moves the pencil on the screen. To include this illustration in a memo, use the mouse to draw a box around it that tells Macintosh this is the area you want to cut and save.

Then move the pointer to the menu bar and find the word edit. Press the mouse button, and you'll see a menu of all the editing commands available. Move the pointer down this menu to the command cut, release the mouse button, and it's done. Now that you've cut the illustration, you put it aside by moving the pointer to file and down to quit, and then release the mouse button. Now you want to find the memo you've been working on, so you select it, Athena Sport. To open it, you point to file, press the button on the mouse, move down to open, release the button, and you're ready to go to work. Here's the memo in which you'd like to include your illustration.

The memo was created with MacWrite, the word processing program for Macintosh. With MacWrite, you not only write and edit electronically, but you can change the type style to emphasize a point. For instance, let's say you want to change the size and the style of the type on the Athena Sport memo heading. First you select the words you want to change by moving the pointer through them. Then point to the style heading, move the pointer to 24 point, and the heading changes to this larger size. To change the type font, move to the font heading, select the font, and it changes. To outline your memo heading, move the pointer to style, and then down to outline, and it's done.

Let's say you want to do a couple of more things to your memo. For instance, make the subject of the memo launching Zapata in a bolder typeface. First select the text, move the pointer to style, then down to bold, and there it is. Now you want to underline a phrase. Select the text, in this case 143 page report, move the pointer to style, then to underline, and it's done. Once you've finished your memo, just select the place for your illustration. To paste in the illustration, move the mouse pointer to the edit menu at the top of the screen. Press the mouse button as you move the pointer to the paste command. Release the mouse button, and you've done it. As you can see, the illustration of the shoe is now part of your memo.

Now it's time to print it out. You tell Macintosh to print the same way you tell it to do everything else. Move the pointer to file, and downward to print. That's all there is to it. Everything you see on the screen will appear exactly the same way on your paper. Macintosh takes the old desk tools and makes them work in ways they never could before. And when it comes to business, the flexibility of Macintosh can help you produce extraordinary results. Create memos that command attention. Produce reports with visual impact. Make lasting impressions with graphics that aid in the analysis of ideas. But no matter how you use Macintosh, it opens the door to creativity.

So you spend more time and less time getting them done. The key to all computers is software. Software that meets your individual needs. The development of Macintosh... Microsoft has been working on Macintosh for over two years now. It's a great machine. It's a step forward in terms of the way it uses graphics and speed. This is a machine that a lot of people are going to be able to afford. That's a very, very useful machine. I was enthused. Microsoft doesn't work with new hardware very often, but we put a team of people on it from the beginning. And we're planning that over half of our retail sales next year will come from Macintosh software. We at Software Publishing Corporation are going to develop our software for the Macintosh.

The software that we're known for is the PFS brand of software. And it's the one that's been very, very popular on the Apple II line. We think the new technology represented by the Mac is going to be a very, very big opportunity for us. So we certainly are very excited about putting our software on Mac. The reason that Lotus is doing this product, and the reason that I'm interested in it personally, is much the same reason that I originally got involved with the Apple II in 1977. It's exciting. It's new. But beyond that, we can really do something in software that's of value to people, to lots and lots of people, that we simply couldn't do before. The technology that's in Macintosh makes it possible, we think, for us to move ahead, move the state of the art ahead in software.

And that's what's exciting, and that's why we're in business. Macintosh is designed to be the heart of a flexible personal productivity system that can expand as your needs change. At the back of Macintosh, you'll find two built-in ports for connecting a printer, a modem, or to Apple Bus, Apple's own local area network, as well as a dedicated port for an external disk drive. The image writer printer from Apple is specially designed for Macintosh. By plugging a modem into your Macintosh, you can communicate by telephone with electronic databases and news services. You can also emulate DEC VT100 and IBM 3278 terminals. You can expand the storage capacity of your Macintosh with an external disk drive, just like the one we built in.

And if you work with lots of numbers, you'll appreciate the optional numeric keypad. And when you're ready to travel, Macintosh can easily go along. The durable carrying case is strong and waterproof. Your Macintosh, keyboard, mouse, manuals, and software all fit neatly inside. Even fully loaded, the carrying case is light enough to go anywhere you go. The story of Macintosh is a story of high technology. From its design to manufacturing, Apple has used the most advanced equipment and engineering principles available to produce Macintosh.

At the Macintosh factory, state-of-the-art computer-aided design, robotics, auto-insertion equipment, and automated guided vehicles drive manufacturing costs down while increasing quality and reliability. The philosophy at Apple is that we have the very best quality equipment and facilities so that we can build the very best quality computers. And that's the whole philosophy here. And that's the reason for this machine. We start right here, and it's impossible for us to put a bad circuit board in a Macintosh computer. As one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the country, the Macintosh factory will produce a new Macintosh every 27 seconds. But most importantly, when you put Macintosh in front of you, you'll know that you have Apple's reputation for quality service and support behind you.

Macintosh is different, a new kind of computer, one that's powerful but approachable, one that establishes a new standard in the industry. Macintosh is part of Apple's purpose for being in business, to create personal computers that help you get the most out of living, a vision best summed up by Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer. I'm glad you had a chance to see Macintosh. I'm really excited about it myself. I love products, Sony Profils, and Walkman, and beautiful Braun appliances, and beautiful Mercedes-Benz automobile designs. Macintosh is the neatest product I've ever seen in my life. And I think that combined with Lisa 2, we've got a 32-bit family of products that is going to be able to not only increase the productivity in offices and colleges around the world, but is going to be able to make a qualitative difference in the way that we communicate with each other.

And what's so exciting about Macintosh is, while Lisa pioneered this amazing technology, this amazing software technology that makes this possible, with Macintosh we've been able to take that software technology and pull it down into a price range that's going to be affordable not just to the corporation, as Lisa is, but to the individual. And we're going to find people buying Macintoshes for their own use or for use in a dormitory or for use in a corner of a corporation that might never have gotten a computer before. And coupled with this radical ease of use, which Lisa technology provides, I think we're going to be able to bring these products to not just hundreds of thousands or a few million people, but tens of millions of people. And that's really what the personal computer revolution is all about.

Find out what Macintosh is all about. Ask your authorized Apple salesperson to give you a hands-on introduction to Macintosh. Discover Macintosh and see the difference firsthand. Macintosh, the computer for the rest of us.