Below are some personal notes I've gathered in my ongoing attempt to explain to the world why Apple leads the pack in terms of innovation, design and engineering. With a scant 3-6% market share, they have somehow managed to lead the industry on many levels of innovation and creativity. They implemented Firewire/USB--removed floppy disks and set a new design standard all in one fell swoop (iMac). The PC world stumbled on themselves to duplicate that effort. Unreal. There's a reason the Mac has been around for so long with really very little fundamental change. It's because they nailed it. They just plain nailed it.
QuickTime vs. WMP/AVI
Apple was first to lead the way with a software video rendering technology. Microsoft followed suit, of course, literally stealing code (code comments intact!) to get up and running. QuickTime was recently chosen by ISO to be the choice for Mpeg-4 delivery.
Mouse
Not invented by Apple, but they were the first to take that bold step publicly. The single button legacy still haunts them, but the intial rigorous standards for the "Human Interface Guidelines" as published by Apple still hold strong to this day.
Mac OS vs. Windows
As A GUI, not invented by either company, but without question popularized by Mac OS. Also, Apple did it correctly right out of the gate, whereas Windows took several incarnations to even come close. Ironically, Bill Gates was the Mac OS's biggest fan, looking for software development deals for the platform and urging Apple to consider hardware alignments with IBM. He was right.
Applescript vs. Visual Basic
Both are excellent ways to enhance the interface experience. I don't know which came first or which is more powerful. As a non-programmer, Visual Basic sounds easier to deal with though. A visual studio for Applescript is due out soon, so that may change things.
Game Sprockets vs. DirectX
From what I saw of the few examples showing Apple's proprietary 3D technology (QuickDraw 3D), it was extremely fast even on sucky machines. Unfortunately, it never caught on. Neither did the Game Sprockets in general. Apple's poor support and irreverance for the gaming community killed it. DirectX went on to become a near standard and delivers excellent performance and quality.
Newton
Apple was way ahead on this one, and I mean WAY ahead. So far ahead, it took other companies a couple of years to catch up. Unfortunately, Apple was a little too ahead of even themselves. The handwriting recognition was a joke. Memory prices at the time were outrageous. They were expensive and bulky by comparison. It eventually died, but virtually all Palm Pilot variations are direct ripoffs in design and software.
Digital Camera
Apple was way ahead on this one also. Once again, they were a little too far ahead. Nobody else had a digital camera anywhere near $1000. Apple's was just under that price, but it was not suitable for professional work at that time. Unfortunately, color inkjets were still expensive and of lower quality. It also preceded the internet revolution, so it coudn't find a home in that environment. It eventually died, but was a sign of what was to come in the industry.
FireWire
The audacity and disproportionate power of Apple to develop their own technology and have enough oomph to force it on the PC market indirectly through peripheral technology is amazing.
USB
See FireWire notes. PC manufacturers should be ashamed for being so out of touch.
HyperCard vs. PowerPoint
HyperCard existed in the mid-eighties and included the ability to script actions as well as use simple drag and drop graphics and animations. Almost as easy as PowerPoint and almost as powerful as Director, years before either.
Pippin vs. X Box
Apple was yet again psychic, this time predicting the relationship of computer to game console. And once again they were years ahead of the game and also once again they were just a little too early. Apple made a PowerPC-based game console that sold only in Japan as a test. It flopped. Apple should have known better as someone on their campus (Jobs?) coined the "killer app" phrase. Pippen had no killer app (game). It did include a CD-ROM drive, another early adopter of this format. Microsoft instead waited patiently and delivered a killer game box. Somehow, their "wait and see" approach keeps working. Remember the internet?
TrueType vs. GX OpenType
I'll call this one a wash, but once again point out that Apple was WAY ahead of the game on this issue of more robust fonts. GX allowed ligatures and most of the other subset advantages of OpenType. Unfortunately, it was clumsy to implement (required a GX Extension I believe) and eventually died. Years later, Microsoft and Adobe teamed up and created OpenType, which has excellent promise, but as-of-yet unseen acceptance. If OpenType catches on, it will be the bomb.
iMovie
It doesn't get any easier to make your own movies. Microsoft, and everyone else for that matter, have yet to catch up in creating a simple, easy to use, but professional quality video editing solution. (Edit: XP finally delivered with what looks to be a decent solution, albeit three years later) Apple is one of the only companies that takes the small, simple stuff very seriously. Other companies don't seem to give attention to such things.
iMac
All the in-house research and focus groups determined that the iMac had no hope. A computer with no floppy disk? Are you crazy? A built-in monitor? Are you crazy? Yes, Steve Jobs is crazy. Four million iMacs later it is the best selling computer model in history (including PC machines).
The Cube
Now this thing is just fucking cool as hell. Too bad it was overpriced, unexpandable and had no market. But still
Cinema Display Jut another reminder that Apple is in the hardware business. And wow, what another nice piece of hardware. And the balls to charge $4,000 for it.
Wireless Networking
Yeah, it's called Airport. It's been around a coupl eof years now. Microsoft and others just now catching up. I can't say that Apple invented wireless networking, but they once again brought it to the masses, put it in all their machines, made it easy and affordable and it works great.
iDVD (don't know name of XP software)
And with iDVD2 just around the corner, it gets even more amazing. We're talking drag and drop DVD authoring that rivals some prefessional attempts. Unbelievable.
OS-level CD burning
While not perfect (single session burns only), it's darned convenient, drag and drop, super easy. Surprise, surprise--XP's ads just now claiming the same feature.
iPod
Nothing completely innovative, but a good clean design and interface with iTunes make this a winner. Also, the Firewire connection points out why all other USB solutions are a total joke in comparison.
JUST CONTRIBUTE UR JOKE OR COMPARISON ETC.
