Tomas Chlebek The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on your website published unique photos from the introduction of the Apple IIc computer from 1984. It was only a few months after the introduction of the Macintosh, and Apple presented another computer with very similar parameters, but a different approach to the user experience.
The Apple IIc was a new, more portable version of the company's best-selling product at the time, the Apple II computer. In addition to portability, the IIc also brought Hartmut Esslinger's new "Snow White" design language to unify the company's entire portfolio, much like Dieter Rams did for Braun.
More important than the actual subject of the presentation on April 24, 1984 is its course this time, because, like the earlier presentation of the Macintosh, it indicated the direction of today's iconic Apple product presentations, which gave the people from the management of the computer company the status of rock stars.
The presentation took place in the Moscone Center, the largest conference complex in San Francisco, where Apple has held, for example, WWDC in recent years. Magazine Softtalk he described it as "part revival meeting, part sermon, part round table discussion, part heathen ceremony and part county fair".
In addition to the introduction of new hardware and software, the products were included in the company's marketing strategy and were intended to prove that the Apple II series computers were still very important to the company and received a lot of attention.
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The presentation began with a reproduction of the song "Apple II Forever" recorded specifically for the occasion, which was accompanied by a series of images from the company's then less than ten-year history projected onto three large screens. Today, both the song and the clip seem rather ridiculous, but they show well how Apple approached its audience and users back then.
Newly released photos taken by Gary Fong artistically capture the rest of the presentation, during which engineer Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and then-new Apple CEO John Sculley took turns on stage. At the end of his segment, Sculley turned on the lights in the auditorium and, much to the audience's surprise, motioned for Apple employees seated in the audience to stand up, all holding Apple IIc computers in their hands above their heads, demonstrating their portability. The presentation was followed by a discussion with the press by Wozniak, Jobs and Sculley.
Reporter Examiner, John C. Dvorak, wrote of Jobs's presentation: "The lectern is at the left corner of the huge stage, so naturally Steve enters from the right so he can walk across the stage in his beat-wear." In another example of the company's confidence, John Sculley said, "If we have truth, and I think we have, Silicon Valley will never be the same.”
You can find all the photos at SFChronicle.com.
