40 years after the Macintosh’s launch, I want a retro version
Apple has more than a dozen new products in its pipeline if you believe tech prognosticator and soothsayer Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. There’s nary a single surprise in there. Even the giant possible 30-inch iMac isn’t a stunning turn; it’s just bigger, more. What I want and no one has mentioned – maybe it’s just that top secret – is the Macintosh Classic 2.
What is the Macintosh Classic 2? It’s a product that lives rent-free in my head and absolutely deserves of 2024 release. Why not this year or two years from now?
2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the original Macintosh launch. It’s the computer Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously described as « the first ‘telephone’ of our industry.”
This is the Apple product that not only turned Apple into an iconic brand but also set the path and tone for all personal computing technology that would follow.
Most of us remember or have at least seen the commercial, the one with the ham-fisted, Orwellian, 1984 imagery that painted other PC manufacturers (mostly IBM) in a totalitarian light. It ended with the words, « You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like « 1984 ». »
Apple was right. When the Macintosh officially launched on January 24, 1984, it did mark a turning point. The tall, beige, all-in-one personal computer looked and worked almost nothing like the IBM PC in use in most offices or even the Apple II E and Commodore 64 and 128 computers that were popular in millions of homes and schools.
