Visual history of Apple, 1976-2007

[zridling]

Edwin Tofslie recently put together a wallpaper-sized image of the Apple Form Factor Evolution that is cool. It’s a nice visual history of Apple products. By today's standards, they suck (okay everything sucked back then compared today). But back in '84, we thought that Mac was a lot better than that steaming pile of Radio Shack with the green plastic screen.

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[mouser]

cool.
but you know what's odd is that looking back at the history of apple, i'm reminding how consistently ugly i find their stuff.  maybe it's just me, but aside from a few notable exceptions i really dislike the apple aesthetic.

[zridling]

I tend to laugh at them. I remember that Mac Plus of '86 cost well over $5000. I bought a fully loaded PC with a big HD and lots of memory, a monitor and printer for less than $3500 that same year and haven't looked back. Reminds me of the guy who brags about his $7500 Rolex, and when I tell him my Casio cost $15 and is seven years old, yet does the same thing, he smirks like a certain chimp we all know. Hey, I got $7485 left to spend on rent and food, baby!

[Lashiec]

What it's clear is that before 1997, Apple didn't care too much about aesthetics. And they had Steve Jobs for some time. NeXT probably inspired something onto Jobs when he came back to Apple. That, and giving a job to Jonathan Ive.

[alxwz]

No, I think it was only some time in their "dark ages" of the Mid-90s when they lost their direction.
The cuteness factor of the "compact" Macs since the original Macintosh is not to be overlooked.

Actually, I still have a PowerMac 6500 of 1996/1997 vintage (the form factor that is shown on the poster as "1996 Power Macintosh") and while it sucks completely from a usabilty/extendability POV, I don't think the design was too bad way back then (please try to remember how PCs looked then!). The 90s' era Powerbooks weren't too bad, either.

But 1997/1998 was clearly the beginning of a new era of Apple design, that's true.

[f0dder]

The only items from that list I find reasonably goodlooking are the 1991 Quadras and the 2005 Mac Mini + iPod nanos. Apart from that, I think that Apple dezin is absolutely and 115% wank.

[zridling]

Ah, that NeXt computer was very cool looking.

[f0dder]

Ah, that NeXt computer was very cool looking.

The NeXTcube does look pretty cute, yeah.