When a web-site has been running since 19961 you would expect it to have enjoyed some evolution, with the odd redesign thrown in along the way. The web-site at apple.com is one such site. Flickr user Kernel Panic maintains a gallery of screen captures of Apple's home page and it represents an interesting journey through the history of the company. It's amazing to me that the basic design of apple.com as it stands today is the same as it was in 1998 — how's that for consistency?
But what would Apple's home page have looked like in the years prior to 1996? Sadly we never got to see an apple.com home page for the launch of the Apple I, Apple II, Lisa, Macintosh or MessagePad… until today! Dave Lawrence of Newton Poetry fame posted a couple of mock-up apple.com home pages for the Lisa and MessagePad machines on his weblog and Matt Pearce answered Lawrence's call for others to add to the meme. Between them, they've come up with a few beautifully crafted and clever images of the home pages that might have been.
This is where it all started. The clever headline alludes to the generation of personal computers that preceded the Apple I, computers like the Altair 8800 which were programmed by toggling switches on the front panel.
Neat touches on this mock-up include the use of the original "Apple Computer Co." logo and address — 770 Welch Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304.
Apple's home page from 1981 shows the 4-year old Apple II, the computer that really catapulted Apple Computer Inc. into the public eye. A hugely successful product for the company, the Apple II sold in huge numbers — by the end of its production Apple had sold up to six million units. The computer became well established in American schools, was extremely popular with the hobbyist and, following the introduction of the popular VisiCalc software, also became a favourite of the business user.
"5MHz processor and 1MB of RAM for blistering speed." Sadly the one thing the Lisa was famous for was it sluggishness. A commercial flop for Apple, unsold stock of Lisa computers were consigned to landfill in 1989 and obscurity was thus guaranteed. However, from tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow… in 1982, Steve Jobs was forced out from the Lisa development group. He immediately joined the Macintosh project and we all know how well that turned out!
"You'll see why 1984 won't be like Nineteen Eighty-Four."
Launched with one of the most cinematic commercials of it's era, the Apple Macintosh was the first commercially successful computer operated with a GUI rather than a command line. Inspired by the groundbreaking research in computer-human interfaces undertaken at Xerox PARC, the Macintosh's OS introduced the WIMP concept to the public.
The Apple Macintosh represented a quantum leap2 in personal computing. Perhaps not for its hardware but certainly for the level of abstraction that its OS provided for the user. Apple published Human Interface Guidelines which were largely responsible for maintaining a consistent UI across applications. The resulting standardisation ensured that Macintosh applications generally had an easier learning curve than their contemporaries.
The Mac evolved to become one of the mainstays of the graphics and design industries.
The Macintosh Portable is one of only a few Apple products that I have never seen in the metal, yet alone used. It was not one of Apple's more successful products. Despite being advanced and forward-thinking in some areas, the portable was let down by the lack of a backlit display (although this did appear in a later version) and an ill-conceived battery/PSU arrangement. The Macintosh Portable was discontinued just two-years after its introduction.
The Apple MessagePad3 is something of an enigma. Acclaimed by some yet criticised by others, the MessagePad was hardly a runaway success during its production lifetime. Yet the device has achieved something of an iconic status since production ended in 1998 and still enjoys a devout following to this day.
I own a MessagePad 2100, the last and most advanced of the range, and I can attest to the enduring qualities of the machine. It is an incredibly useful little device. It boasts great battery life, a delightfully clear, backlit, LCD touch-screen, a range of connectivity and expansion options and a decent suite of integrated applications.
The Newton OS boasts some clever features and an intuitive user interface. The oft-ridiculed handwriting of the earlier models evolved into an uncannily accurate system in the final revisions.
Like many others, I posit that the MessagePad is a device that was ahead of its time. In my opinion, it deserves much more recognition than it is awarded. Interestingly, in 2009, CNET compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to an iPhone, and the Newton came out on top!
Our final imaginary home-page dates from 1994 and advertises the Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera. This is an Apple product that I'd never heard of before. One of a series of three models, the QuickTake 100 was the first to launch and, by comparison with even the most basic of today's digital cameras, it was woefully inadequate for anything but the most undemanding of photographic tasks.
The QuickTake 100 had a maximum resolution of 640 × 480 pixels — of which its internal storage was big enough for just eight images. The camera had no focus or zoom controls and no means to review an image after capture.
The QuickTake digital camera range was discontinued in 1997.
And so we come to the end of our journey. We've seen a handful of apple.com home-pages that never were and taken an interesting (albeit brief) tour through the company's early product history.
If you have the Photoshop skills, there are still a few home-pages that would really enhance this collection:
Last Revision: January 25th, 2010 at 22:27
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