Jan. 1984: How critics reviewed the Mac
Anticipating the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh — unveiled by Apple (AAPL) in a Super Bowl ad on Jan. 22, 1984 — AAPLinvestors has assembled some choice quotes from the first wave of critical reviews.
Below, a sample from their collection, to which we've added a few of our own (from Owen W. Linzmayer's Apple Confidential 2.0).
Our favorite: John Dvorak's blistering critique of that newfangled pointing device called a "mouse."
Byte, Gregg Williams, February 1984
The Macintosh brings us one step closer to the ideal of computer as appliance.
Creative Computing, John Anderson, July 1984
In its current form, the Macintosh is the distilled embodiment of a promise: the software can be intuitively easy to use, while remaining just as powerful as anything else around. It is now time to lay out the “bads”:
• The Macintosh does not have enough RAM.
• Single microfloppy is slow and inadequate.
• There are no internal expansion slots or external expansion buses.
• MacWrite has some severe limitations.
• The system is monochrome only.
• MS-DOS compatibility is ruled out.
• The Macintosh will not multitask.
• You can’t use a Mac away from a desk.
• MacPaint has an easel size limitation.
• Forget about external video.
• Macintosh software development is an involved process.
Bill Gates
Anybody who could write a good application on a 128K Mac deserves a medal.
InfoWorld, Thomas Neudecker, 26 March 1984
We think Apple has at least one thing right — the Macintosh is the one machine with the potential to challenge IBM’s hold on the market
The Seybold Report, Jonathan and Andrew Seybold
Apple also got some important things wrong. Our biggest worry is that Mac may be under-configured… But the dumbest thing Apple did with the whole development effort was to allow two different operating systems for Mac and Lisa.
San Francisco Examiner, John C. Dvorak, 19 Feb. 1984
The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.
David Bunnell, Macworld, from The Macintosh Reader
Borland founder Philippe Kahn was half right in January 1985 when he called the early Macintosh a "piece of s___." It was underpowered, had very little software, no hard drive, no compelling applications like desktop publishing, and was marketed by a company that seemed to be near death. I can't help but be amused by all the pumped-up bravado I hear and read about the people who created the Macintosh. To hold up the Macintosh experience as an example of how to create a great product, launch an industry, or spark a revolution is a cruel joke.
Click here to see APPLinvestor's full collection.
Below the fold: That 1984 Super Bowl commercial with the "Big Brother" theme.
See also:
Alicia-
Just a wild guess: you're a shill working for Microsoft's marketing dept., and not a very competent one, if I may add. I mean, your complaints and comparison with XP Word are preposterous, anybody who has something to do with writing, editing or text design is going to find your criticism ridiculous. Next time, try to find a more competent colleague who could find something worth complaining about (and there are no shortage of options here).
Marco,
Thank god Apple never sold out to become merely the biggest. Instead it's simply the best and one of its older ad campaigns went "The Power to be Your Best".
Apple, keep looking past what we say we need and keep giving us instead what we don't even know we want… yet.
Bart NZ
If I was the tech assigned to giving temp writers like Alicia a a computer to work on, I would give her the slowest, most misconfigured Mac that I could. Heck, I would probably give her a G3 running Mac OS 9.
Timing is everything. The proper product for this time was the Amiga. Unfortunately the marketing wasn't up to snuff.
Anybody notice the similarity of the Macintosh with another Apple product? lol…
"• The Macintosh will not multitask."
Dvorak has always been anti-Mac and anti-progressive. For someone that writes about new technology products, he seems to hate game-changers. He was notoriously off on the iPhone. He reminds me of my sister who said, "I don't know why anyone would want an iPod." A half-dozen years later, she has one. She still watches VHS tapes…
To Alicia: Not going to throw anymore hate around, but as a writer of screenplays, ads, marketing, books, etc. the idea that it pains you to write on a Mac makes me giggle. In fact, I have about eight different writing applications and/or story structure programs on my Mac. I use each according to the project. The one I don't use and have gladly dismissed altogether? Microsoft Word. Bloated and unnecessary in so many ways.
And what a pleasure to use Keynote (the best application on a Mac!) over PowerPoint! Slick, easy and intuitive. Always the Mac way.
Incredible comments "Windows of course improved on that desktop design by …moving it from the right side of the screen to the more intuitive left side of the screen."
Nothing remotely 'intuitive' about this. I currently don't keep a can on my desktop – I keep it in a pop up menu. I keep very few icons on the desktop – there's 'Work' in the top right corner and I'd put my trashcan there if I wanted one. Don't assume that 'what you're used to' is 'intuitive' because it isn't. Being free to completely build and configure a desktop for myself, I can say it's very different to any thing Windows do, and much more similar to things that Mac does.
About Alicia's comments… is "writing" not an application? Maybe just didn't like the Mac GUI and the way the system felt to use. But when it comes down it, any given task is really up to the application. Not the actual computer or operating system. I could run OpenOffice.org on a Mac, Windows, or Linux. Same app. But maybe I prefer the way one OS works to another.
She might be a little harsh to hate Macs over the task of writing, but in the end… to each their own. Use what works best for you. Pretty much any hardware/OS combination can perform any task these days, so it really comes down to personal preference and what ends up making you the most productive.
At the time, the OS and the hardware gave her a bad personal experience. It didn't for other people. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's good to have a number of difference choices that work the way different people work.
Don't hate her just because what works for you didn't work out for her.
Alicia –
As a working screenwriter, I have to respectfully disagree. I've been using Final Draft since its inception, when it was owned by a small company in Santa Monica called MacToolkit. The first script I sold was written on a Mac. Every script sold since has been written on a Mac. Not sure what limitations you're speaking of, but perhaps you were using software you were unhappy with. But like you said, to each his own.
A Mac might be fine for designers,
Wow. the last time I heard this line, it was "Macs are good for graphics…" That was 1992.
I remember writing about the Macintosh for its UK launch in 1984, after having a Lisa to play with for a while earlier on. I thought it was obvious that all computers would be like the Macintosh one day, particularly the mixed text and graphics screen and the direct manipulation and editing of objects. And I wanted one, although the price was out of my league for a while.
I wish I had copies of what i wrote then, so I could prove my visionary conclusions to you all…
Yeah, who would ever want to use a mouse? Just like who would ever want to type on a touchscreen phone?
To be fair to Dvorak, he didn't say it was a bad idea, he said "there is no evidence that people want to use these things". That, at the time, was absolutely true.
These guys, especially Dvorak, all have small minds with big opinions. Dvorak is legendary in his ability to get things wrong.
Has anything changed?
I'd have agreed with Dvorak at the time, regarding the mouse. It seemed like a stupid and unnecessary device, when all applications at the time had easily used pull-down menus with every command necessary for word processing, spreadsheets, scientific programs and even games. The keyboard was much more useful then, and it actually worked very well without a GUI or mouse. Gradually, all applications added mouse functionality, and then all computers were GUI, so there wasn't much choice left. Pull-down menus still exist, with "shortcuts" – keyboard strokes, but so many things cannot easily be accessed by the keyboard anymore that the mouse becomes unavoidable. It wasn't really necessary, and we could have gotten along without it. Artists and many others find tablets useful, and, without the mouse, I think we would have seen laser pointers become the user interface device of choice over time.
I remember the Mac launch in the UK. I have a clear memory of seeing the mouse for the first time and thinkin 'WTF is that? It'll never take off…' – er…oops!
Alicia: That was hilarious! You must be a comedy writer. I believe MS Word works the same on both PCs and Macs.
Alica,
Say what? It's better to use Windows than Mac OS X for writing? That's a new one. If we we're talking about games I'd agree with you, but writing…
I know one (script) writer and she's very happy about her switch to the Mac.
Alicia- no need to specify you are a writer the "like a spoiled child" simile gives it away.
As a writer, I have imagine that at the very least you must have enjoyed the infernal machine's proportional fonts and the desktop graphical user interface not seen much in personal computers before. Windows of course improved on that desktop design by upgrading the trash can into a recycling bin and by moving it from the right side of the screen to the more intuitive left side of the screen. Creatively, the Mac team has been trying to catch up ever since. Given another 25 years they just might win you over. Time will tell.
Ugh, I had to use that awful thing in my job (advertising copywriter). Slow and stubborn, inflexible, and capricious. It responded to commands like a spoiled child. I always felt that somebody who thought counter-intuitively to my style and needs was working against me in that infernal machine. Everything I wanted to do, it had some other, clunky way it forced me to work. That opinion has persisted to this day. I have to use a Mac when I work at agencies on-site, but at home, I can use what works for me as a writer, and that is my little HP Pavilion Sllimline with Windows XP. A whole $600 bucks and it's run like a top for the last three years, and I drive my computers hard. I have written six feature screenplays on it without a hiccup. A Mac might be fine for designers, but for a writer, it's a weight tied to my brain. And that is my experience across 25 years and more with the Mac and Apple products. To each his own.
Although I agree that Dvorak got it totally, totally wrong and must – with hindsight – be totally embarrassed about his comments now, none of you seem to be allowing for the 'time' factor.
He made the comment at a time when he could have ended up being right.
Mind you, it is another good example why it's a bad idea to make absolute predictions.
I have no idea how a pompous a*s like Dvorak ever made it this long in the computer world as a mouth piece. Who listens to this guy.
Wow… Who wants to use a mouse indeed. Although an extreme example, he is hardly alone in predicting (hoping for?) doom for Apple. We could dig up critics saying the iPod would never get mass appeal, that the Zune would give the iPod a real run for its money, that the iPhone would fail miserably, that iPod sales in the 2008 holiday season would be very soft because "everyone already has one" … Apple has not hit a homerun every time, but there are a lot more hits than misses and that seems to really annoy a lot of people out there.
Signing off from my mouseless iPhone … Whoa! That guy was right! Just way ahead of his time.
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices."
I wonder if they already using that experimental pointing device with personal computers these days… 
The Mac changed the course of computing. It's major contribution (ironically): enabling over 3 billion Windows computers to have a graphic interface for the people of the world over the last 25 years.
"Actually, Dvorak had it kind of right. "
Yeah – especially the comment about the mouse. A regular Nostradamus…
Actually, Dvorak had it kind of right. Just when Apple was trying to sell a personal computing experience is just when people were realizing that the PC made a great replacement for their typewriters, calculators and filing cabinets, tasks most efficiently accomplished using a text-based display. By the time GUI became standard, market share had already been lost.
I think a lot of you are taking this way too seriously. I love my Mac, would never go back to one, but hey, I'm not everybody. And if you're only going to use your computer as a typewriter, why not save the money and buy a PC? If you want any other functions, I'd recommend a Mac. But you don't need to make someone feel bad for having another opinion.