Much is made of Apple’s “revolutionary” role in technology by innovating new products into the mainstream. From the Apple I to the iPad Apple is credited with its game-changing engineering and design wonders. But is Apple really the über innovator or the company that just gets things right first? Maybe Apple’s more of an ‘outovator’.
The Apple I is seen as innovative as, unlike other hobbyist computers of the time, it was sold fully assembled – that is a fully assembled circuit board; you still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, display, etc. What was forward thinking was its use of a keyboard and standard TV display. The Altair 8800 looked like the controls of the Tardis with toggle switches and flashing lights all over the place.
But the Apple I’s remembered today in comparison not to the many other now forgotten personal computers but the huge vacuum-tube machines that actually required an inside-the-Tardis-like space to reside. If the Apple I had come out of Steve Wozniak’s garage as the successor to one of those giants it really would have been an innovation. Still, we’ll give it 5/10 for moving things forward somewhat.
Similarly the Apple II is seen as the first true personal computer because it was mass produced, but again it wasn’t alone in being so. Its innovation was to look like a thing that someone without a beard would have in their house. It didn’t need to be constructed from a kit and had a novel plastic case with built-in keyboard and neat lid. Again 5/10 for innovation.
The Macintosh’s graphical user interface spelt eventual doom to the flashing green command line. Its mouse brought us the free-ranging cursor and RSI. But, as all Mac historians know, Apple got most of the idea for the Macintosh operating system from a 1979 visit by founder Steve Jobs to Xerox PARC, where he saw the mouse-based WYSIWYG user interface of the Xerox Alto computer. What Apple did that Xerox didn’t was actually produce a commercial computer using it, and so the Mac gets at least a 4/10.
The Mac went on to ‘innovate’ such things as the computer CD-ROM drive, various Ethernet firsts, and was early to drop old technologies, but none of these were its very own.
Another Apple platform that was originally developed to reinvent personal computing, 1993’s Newton scores higher on the innovation front (6/10) despite getting little further than the early adopter phase. It was a touch-based handheld computing device that’s like a prehistoric relative of the iPad, except that it used a stylus rather than a finger for its screen interaction.
Apple’s then CEO John Sculley – the man who effectively fired Steve Jobs in 1985 – coined the phrase Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) in 1992. Despite some neat products from the likes of Palm the PDA never really took off as a major threat to the PC … or indeed even the Filofax.
While we’re not all walking round with PDAs in our top pockets most of us do pick up an Apple iPod as soon as we leave the house. 2001’s iPod and its iTunes software have revolutionised the way we listen to, buy and share music, but neither was an Apple innovation. MP3 players had been around for over five years, starting with Audio Highway’s Listen Up player and followed by successful models from the likes of Rio and Creative. In 1998 Compaq produced the first digital audio player with a hard drive. The iPod’s software was developed from PortaPlayer, previously used in an IBM-branded MP3 player. iTunes was developed from Casady & Greene’s SoundJam MP software. So the iPod scores a lowly 3/10.
In 1996 Nokia built on Apple’s Newton lead by incorporating PDA functionality into a mobile phone and thus spawned the smartphone. Apple’s iPhone didn’t show up for another 11 years – so, like the iPod 3/10.
Apple’s latest “innovation” is the iPad. Yet tablet PCs have been around for nearly a decade, with Microsoft pioneering the form factor in 2001.
Indeed pen-computing devices actually predate the mouse/GUI platform popularised by the Mac. The Stylator and RAND tablet systems were around in the 1950s and early 1960s, for heaven’s sake. The iPad can muster just 2/10 on that lineage.
The iPhone and iPad succeeded where Microsoft’s pen-based tablets failed by throwing away the pen. And the iPhone itself was a by-product of an earlier Apple tablet prototype – so the iPad even came before the iPhone.
Here’s Steve Jobs on the subject: “I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on. I asked our people about it. And six months later they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He then got inertial scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, ‘My god, we can build a phone with this,’ and we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the phone.”
It’s clear that Apple hasn’t been the originator of very much at all, but it always captures something of the spirit of originality that makes it appear to have done so.
Artist Nina Paley has written that “The more original an idea, the more people will say it is stupid”. And from the Mac to the iPad Apple has been derided for its cute but silly new products that apparently “will never catch on”.
It doesn’t matter that Apple isn’t an innovator, as no technology is ever really produced out of thin developmental air. Computing pioneer Michael Williams says that “there is no such thing as ‘first’ in any activity associated with human invention”.
In his book The Nature of Technology W. Brian Arthur describe advances in technology as “combinatorial evolution”. Technology evolves as a result of combinations of existing technologies and methods to create new ‘innovations’.
“Technology creates itself out of itself,” writes Arthur.
“If credit for ‘invention’ must be assigned, it should go to the person or team that first had a clear vision of the principle, saw its potential, fought for its acceptance, and brought it fully into satisfactory use.”
And for those dogged efforts we can give Apple 10/10 just about every time.
Comments
Gary Gemmell said: Credit where credit is due - Apple stuff costs a fortune yet they are bigger than Microsoft now - there is no doubt Steve is a genius - Started in a garage - he returned from the wilderness and made Apple a successI remember the Apple II and it was a wonder back in the early 80s - you could feel the qualityEven though I hate the Apple mac and have always used Unix or Windows you have to be realistic - Apple is an innovator - Microsoft is a regurgitator
Carl said: Im not usually one to defend Apple but didnt they help introduce the 35 inch floppy drive USB and Firewire
Robbin Kaye said: It looks like Apple like most large American Companies generally borrows its ideas from the little guys - but only those whose pockets are not deep enough to challenge them
Chris said: With the exception of the ipod its a no for meall they do is stick an i infront of something somebody already did and say its magiclike the ipadnothing magic about a 800 calculator
McDave said: I think you had the first sentence spot on - innovating new products into the mainstreamIn an educated world any fool can have an idea rush a half-baked prototype to market though the Alto never made it that far and claim innovation In this context innovation is just thinking as opposed to doing doing well or doing well enough to change a marketApples point of difference is they deliver from concept to products that for the most part work True the ideas in part may have originated elsewhere but these days thats an inevitabilityMcD
T Long said: Generaly what people think is far more important than the truth Apple makes a good living out of pretending to innovate and sadly a lot of the press go along with this You just have to look at all the attention that was given to FaceTime on the Iphone 4 Apples supporters would of course argue that Apple take existing ideas and simple make them work better One of the reasons why despite having 3G phones with video calling since 2003 its never caught on is the cost by using wi fi Apple have basicly made video calling free Now it just remains to be seen if people realy do want to make video callsThe question is not one of do we like Apple or not and there are many reasons why people may or may not Nor is it one of does Apple innovate for it most certainly does not but simple does Apple make a possitive and often game changing contribution to the world of technology Whilst it pains me to say it I think they do
marky mark said: i would hardly say making it work the way consumers would want thats why iphone users are the most vocal when they moan that they dont have folders multitasking wallpapers etc theyve become a fashion icon and thats they only reason apple sells its products unless you want a 500 pound ipad which dosnt even have usb ports but because steve jobs tells people there better than laptops some sheep believe them
Simon Jary said: It gets 1010 for taking something and making it work the way consumers would like it too As the article states no one really invents anything in technology
marky mark said: so apples copies everyone at everything it does and gets 1010 for copying sounds fairi assume apple gets 1010 now for having custom homepages and folders in ios4 they must of invented those too