Bruce Jackson's Blog

With the passing of Steve Jobs this week, I paused to reflect on my history with the personal computer which started with an Apple. I spent well over $7000 on my first computer system which is amazing since it was based on the Apple ][ purchased in the late 70s. 

Shortly after my purchase, Apple released the “plus” edition and the retailer allowed me to trade my non-plus Apple ][ for the new “plus” edition for a small restocking fee – and thus started the next three decades of revolving obsolescence:  buying the “state of the art” only to have it become obsolete a few weeks or months later…

The computer didn’t have a monitor but it had a little add-on RF thing that connected to a TV monitor.  When I started the computer, I had to issue some hex commands to configure the system for the monitor (color or black and white, how many colors, etc.)  It ran Microsoft’s early Basic which I used to program a small database tracking application that had to be stored on a cassette tape because there was no disk drive. 

I recall that the computer with the full 48K of memory, the cassette interface, and the RF monitor interface, and a small color TV set cost just over $3000. 

A short time later, Apple released a floppy disk drive (I think it stored 160K of data) and I bought two for another grand so I could start purchasing commercial software.  However, you could barely touch a program for under $500.  Once I purchased VisiCalc, it became immediately obvious that the PC would become a business appliance.  I later replaced my Basic database program with a real database, dBase II.  And games were a must as well and I spent several thousand dollars on software over the next few years.

In addition to the disk drives, I had to have a modem (300 baud) to communicate with CompuServe and the Dow Jones network, and of to send email using MCI Mail.  This first email system was truly electronic mail because the computer would generate the message; but it would be printed at a location close to the recipient and delivered by the postal service.  Back then, regular “snail mail” could take days to reach the destination and this was a harbinger of what we know as email today.

Pretty much the only other reasonable choice in “micros” at the time was the Radio Shack TRS-80 machines, also known as “Trash 80s” by the young Apple acolytes (now known as fanboys).  Unfortunately, Apple missed the first device revolution because Radio Shack released their TRS-80 Model 100 which I believe was the first laptop; and it was a revolutionary game-changer.  At the time, I was flying around the country quite a bit and pilots had discretion as to whether passengers could use the Model 100 in the air.  I spent quite a few trips sitting in the cockpit jump seat showing off the cool features of the first laptop.  In fact, my Model 100 is up in the attic next to my 100% polyester nehru jacket (those babies are coming back – I just know it).

I can almost see the transformation in Steve’s thinking over the past three decades.  He first finds that consumers want more than a cool processor when he releases a floppy drive to distribute commercial software for the Apple ][.  He later sees that small useful devices can make lives easier and better when the Model 100 releases.  And I have to think that he watched as the Microsoft of the 80s and 90s focused on developers who wrote compelling solutions for the MS stack and came to dominate their markets.  I believe the App Store, IPhone, and IPad are all the result of those experiences.

Steve Jobs was a man who learned and improved from his experiences; and it’s a shame those experiences had to cease so soon.