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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

From a Little Apple a Mighty Industry Grows

Wired:

The Apple II is the computer that made Apple a driving force in a new industry. The company's original computer bore little resemblance to what we would now call a PC, but that all changed with the appearance of its successor, the Apple II.

Featuring an integrated keyboard, built-in BASIC programming languages, expandable memory, a monitor capable of color graphics, a sound card and expansion slots, the Apple II resembles today's modern desktops in the way a '38 Plymouth resembles a Cadillac Escalade. Cruder, perhaps, with fewer bells and whistles, but a smoothly functioning machine nevertheless.

When Apple dominated the education market, it was largely the Apple II that filled classrooms around the United States, indeed around the world. Some of these machines remain in use today.

The Apple II remains one of the most successful personal computers ever built ... around 6 million of these puppies rolled off the assembly ine.

That's true only if you include the 1.25 million IIGS systems that were sold. Meanwhile, Commodore sold over 17 million units of the Commodore 64, which, incidentally, is the best-selling computer of all time. Also, the C64 had true sound hardware, unlike the Apple II (and contrary the article quoted above). Anyway. You can't deny that Apple got there first with the the Apple II, which obviously influenced the PC industry as we know it today.

Yeah, I was a Commodore guy. Not being rich and all.

Labels: Apple

[ Posted at 5:27 PM | Permalink ]