Chapter 15 Section 8 The Legend of the Apple II

There is a car that is light, cute, and flexible in handling. It overturned the tradition of car design in terms of shape and function positioning as soon as it came out; it is neither as free and easy as Ferrari and Porsche, nor as rigid as Passat and Santana; It has never pursued the high-end route of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, but has aimed at the most ordinary and most in need of means of transportation for the general public from the very beginning; after more than 70 years of ups and downs, it has passed down 7 generations, and it has sold 1.3 million vehicles worldwide within 4 years of mass production. , So far, the total global sales volume has reached an astonishing more than 20 million vehicles!This car has a nice name - the Beetle.

In the field of personal computers, there is also such an enduring and popular model - Apple's second-generation computer product Apple II. It is believed that many post-70s generations in China have used Apple II in school.Even if you have never used a real Apple II, you must have used various Apple II compatible machines produced in China without authorization, such as the most famous CEC-I Chinese learning machine.The first machine language program and the first game program I wrote by myself in middle school were written on an Apple IIe.If there were no Apple II and Chinese Learning Machine, maybe I would not have been fascinated by programming since middle school, and I would not be a software engineer working with keyboards and screens all day long today, let alone write this book Books about Jobs and Apple.I believe that many people have the same special feelings for Apple II as I do.Just like an old driver who has driven a Beetle for decades, no matter what kind of high-end car, it cannot replace the Beetle in his mind.

The reason why the Apple II fascinates the world is probably due to two reasons. One is the unique design, and the other is the accurate market positioning.The former reason is due to the talented engineer Woz, and the latter reason is inseparable from Jobs' unique vision. The Apple I was already an era ahead of the PCs at the time in terms of design.But after all, Apple I is just a highly integrated motherboard, not a complete computer. As soon as the design and manufacture of the Apple I was completed, Woz turned his energy to the development of the Apple II. With the experience of Apple I, Woz is more skilled in design and manufacture.At this time, Woz is like an omnipotent God. As long as he thinks what kind of functions a personal computer should have, that function will definitely appear on the Apple II in the shortest possible time.

God said, Apple I only had a monochrome display, which is not cool enough, Apple II must support color.So, it didn't take long for Woz to easily handle the Apple II's color output interface.As long as the user connects the computer to the color TV, he can see the high-resolution color picture.For this reason, when the Apple II was officially released in 1977, it also specially used the newly designed rainbow Apple logo to emphasize the color function. God also said that after the Apple I is started, it is not cool enough to load a tape to use the BASIC language. The Apple II needs to have a built-in BASIC language.Therefore, the interpreter of the BASIC language was packaged into the Apple II chip. Apple II became the world's first personal computer that can directly communicate with the computer in BASIC language when it is turned on.Ordinary people really have the possibility of communicating and talking with computers.

God also said that the expansion function of the Apple I is not strong enough to connect too many peripherals, which is not cool enough, and the Apple II needs 8 expansion slots.Thus, the first disagreement occurred between the almighty Woz and the calculating Jobs.Jobs insisted that two expansion slots would be enough, one for the modem and one for the printer, and that more expansion slots would increase the manufacturing cost of the computer.But Woz is adamant about defending his designer's rights.Extended functionality was essential to computer users at the time.Woz even said to Jobs: "If you only need 2 expansion slots, then you can design another computer." God's opinion was respected, and the Apple II finally released had 8 expansion slots and became the Apple II One of the important reasons why it is loved by users.

Soon, around August 1976 (only 4 months after Apple was founded), Woz completed the prototype design of the Apple II and built the first Apple II motherboard.According to Woz himself, the prototype is "ten times cooler than the Apple I." Although reserved and shy, Woz, like other engineers, loves to show off his work. Before the Apple II was finally released, Woz took the prototype and showed it off to colleagues at HP.Every HP engineer who sees an Apple II exclaims: "This is the best product I have ever seen, bar none!" In order to better show off the Apple II, Woz personally wrote a program in BASIC language that is similar to the brick wall game but more interesting.After the program was compiled, he called Jobs over and let him experience the power of the Apple II for himself.

"Hey, look at this." Woz said while typing a few simple BASIC sentences, the bricks and beats in the Brick Breaking game changed color instantly, and the position where the score was displayed also changed. "If all these dynamic functions were implemented in hardware," Woz said, "I would estimate that it would take 10 years. On the Apple II, this game is implemented entirely in software. Think about it, a game written entirely in software , the world will change as a result.” "Wow—" Jobs was surprised from ear to ear.In his mind, the Apple II is just like a swordsman born out of nowhere with perfect practice, walking towards him with fluttering gown and sword aura.

At that time, the Apple II in front of Jobs was still a bare motherboard.How to package this guy who is about to shock the world, so that users will shine when they see it? "Case! Apple II must have a beautiful case!" Jobs said to himself, "When the user opens the computer box, there should be a beautiful computer in front of him, not a bare circuit board." Jobs suddenly had a crazy idea, since computers will eventually be owned by every ordinary person, no matter how cool technology is, will eventually become the most convenient tool in the hands of ordinary people, then, for ordinary people, computers should be As beautiful, convenient and easy to use as household appliances.

"Yes, home appliances!" Jobs was suddenly inspired, "Apple II should have a plastic case like the most fashionable home appliances!" At the time, no computer had a plastic case.Because the previous computers were prepared for scientists, professors, students, and geeks. In the eyes of those people, plastic is just a synonym for toys and unprofessional.But the Apple II's mission was to change the world.How can a computer that is about to change the world use a metal or wood case like its aging predecessors? Jobs was crazy about the idea.He rushed into every department store to examine the designs of various household appliances.In the kitchen section of Macy's, Jobs was drawn to the plastic case of a Cuisinart food processor.

"That's right, that's what the Apple II was looking for, a plastic case that was elegantly shaped, strong, softly colored, and subtly textured for a great feel in the hand." Jobs brought in industrial designer Jerry Manock (Jerry Manock) and asked him to design the case for the Apple II.The design draft that Jerry finally came up with was almost perfect. The case of the Apple II is not only elegant and outstanding in appearance, but also has a very easy-to-open top cover, without removing any screws, the top cover can be removed directly to insert and pull out the expansion card.

In April 1977, the Apple II made its public debut at the West Coast Computer Fair.Although Apple didn't have a big name at the time, the Apple II still attracted the attention of countless people at that exhibition.People walking past Apple's booth couldn't believe that a personal computer could still fit in a plastic case, or that a powerful computer could have such a simple, bold motherboard design.In the weeks following the show, more than 300 orders were placed for the Apple II, which is more than the total sales of the Apple I in the past year. The market positioning Jobs set for the Apple II was a popular personal computer.This is not only reflected in the chassis design.From the very beginning, Jobs was very clear in his mind that for ordinary people, computers are most attractive in two areas: gaming and office work. Jobs was already very familiar with the needs of games at Atari.Now, Apple II not only has full-color high-resolution images, but also a built-in BASIC language interpreter. Among all general-purpose personal computers at that time, Apple II already had unrivaled gaming capabilities. Of course, gaming capabilities alone were not enough to convince families in the US and around the world to buy an Apple II.After all, a selling price of more than $1,000 is not a small sum. At that time, and for many years to follow, text office was the number one requirement for purchasing a personal computer for most American homes and offices.Years before the release of the Apple II, various so-called word processors flooded the market.But those machines are just substitutes for English typewriters, with a single function, unlike real personal computers that can run different applications. Before the advent of the Apple II, most Americans still used English typewriters to process paperwork and used calculators made by Hewlett-Packard or other companies to complete personal financial or business statements.Only by allowing Apple II to have powerful office capabilities, can this more than $1,000 machine really enter the homes of ordinary people. When it first debuted in April 1977, the Apple II's office capabilities were fairly limited.The Apple II at the time only supported slow, error-prone tape drives as external storage devices.In terms of software, apart from the built-in BASIC language interpreter, there were not many mature office software on the market for Apple II users to choose.In both hardware and software, Apple II needs to continue to improve. Throughout 1977, Apple II users clamored for a floppy drive.Both Jobs and Mike Markkula, a shareholder and professional manager who joined Apple in the second half of 1976, believed that early support for floppy drives would be the key to truly turning Apple II into a mass consumer product and achieving a breakthrough in sales.They set their sights on the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held in Las Vegas, Las Vegas in January 1978.But until late 1977, Woz and the other Apple II engineers were too busy adding floppy drive support to the Apple II. Markkula found Woz.He said to Woz: "We have to support floppy drives, and we have to demonstrate it at CES two weeks later. Only in this way can the Apple II really play a role in office applications." "But we only have two weeks," Woz replied. "Users want floppy drives, and we can't keep letting users suffer from snail-slow tape drives," Jobs added. "Then..." the eccentric Woz thought for a while, and finally said, "If the development of the floppy drive function can be completed within two weeks, can I go to Las Vegas to participate in the exhibition?" "Of course." Markkula saw hope in Woz's mischievous eyes. Well, God Woz strikes again.Although it was only two weeks this time, it was nothing to a technical genius like him.This time, Jobs was also eager to help.Helped Woz find the 5-inch floppy drive produced by Shugart and its technical information.Shugart founder Alan Shugart (Alan Shugart) is the inventor of the floppy drive.Jobs, who is extremely sensitive to new technologies, has been paying attention to the company's movements for a long time, and it just came in handy at this time. Woz spent day and night debugging the newly added floppy drive interface chip and underlying control program for the Apple II.Apple employee No. 6, Randy Wigginton, helped write the high-level API.Until the moment when everyone was about to fly to Las Vegas, the floppy drive hadn't worked properly.However, Woz and Randy knew in their hearts that most of the work had already been completed, and when they arrived in Las Vegas, they would have a few hours of debugging time and they would be done. That night, Woz and Randy saw the dreamlike city lights of Las Vegas for the first time, and the two "IT migrant workers" from Silicon Valley were immediately shocked by the glamorous urban life.However, in addition to being shocked, they had to rush to the exhibition site and debug the floppy drive function overnight.Because the next day, Apple needed their Apple II to rock the world. Who knows, this night almost became Woz's disaster night.It was late at night by the time he and Randy finished all the debugging work.Both were too sleepy to keep their eyes open.Woz specially prepared a demonstration floppy disk with pre-prepared programs and data for the next day.Near the end of work, Woz, who has always been cautious, decided to make a backup of this floppy disk in case something goes wrong during the demonstration tomorrow.At that time, he only had two identical 5-inch floppy disks in his hand. One had already stored the demonstration program and data, and the other was blank.Fighting against blinding sleepiness, Woz inserted two floppy disks into the drive one after the other, directing the Apple II to complete the backup operation. After the backup was completed, Woz breathed a sigh of relief and became more sleepy.But at this moment, an ominous premonition suddenly appeared in Woz's heart. Would he "back up" the junk data in the blank floppy disk to a good floppy disk while sleepy and blindfolded?A quick check proved that Woz's hunch was right, and the hard-earned demo floppy had been wiped out by the "backup" operation just now. Woz and Randy feel that tomorrow will not be able to demonstrate normally anyway.They go back to the motel dejected.Early the next morning, Woz regained his god-like self-confidence after waking up.He rushed to the exhibition site and started a frantic and efficient reconstruction work, just in time for the exhibition to re-adjust all the demo programs. At the Las Vegas show, the Apple II with a floppy disk drive was a huge success.If the launch in April 1977 was just a small trial of the Apple II, then the performance in Las Vegas in January 1978 really made the Apple II a much-anticipated star. Sales of the Apple II skyrocketed from 1978 onwards. As the best computer of its time, the Apple II quickly attracted numerous software developers.Thousands of programming masters joined the ranks of writing applications for the Apple II.Among all application software, Office software was the most helpful to the sales of Apple II.Among all office software, VisiCalc spreadsheet software is the most brilliant. People who are familiar with Microsoft Office office suite today must be familiar with spreadsheets.But before the birth of VisiCalc, no one knew what spreadsheet software was, and no one knew how to compile reports or complete statistical calculations on a computer in a WYSIWYG manner. There are two programming masters in Boston, one named Dan Bricklin (Dan Bricklin) and the other named Bob Frankston (Bob Frankston).Bricklin had the idea to create WYSIWYG financial reporting software while in college.Let users look at the intuitive grid on the screen and fill in numbers and formulas to complete calculation tasks. What a revolutionary user experience. In early 1978, Bricklin wrote the prototype of the program, the first true spreadsheet program in computing history.The prototype program was slow, so Bricklin enlisted Frankston to help improve the program and co-registered a company called Software Arts, which specialized in spreadsheet software. In 1979, the first spreadsheet software in history, VisiCalc, was officially released. This version was specially designed for Apple II. VisiCalc became an important reason for people to choose Apple II.Markkula approached Bricklin and Frankston to try to have Apple buy out the rights to the VisiCalc software.However, due to the high price, they did not reach an agreement. With the floppy drive function and excellent office software such as VisiCalc, Apple II suddenly became a tool that can greatly improve office efficiency.From 1978 to 1979, monthly sales of the Apple II climbed rapidly, from a few hundred units a month, to a thousand a month, to 10,000 a month. In 1983, the Apple II became the first computer in computing history to sell more than one million units.It is no exaggeration to say that the Apple II, the floppy drive, and VisiCalc jointly forged this sales legend. Apple II's advanced design, reliable quality and accurate market positioning are important reasons for winning the favor of users.In contrast, the Apple III, which was developed in parallel with the Apple II series of computers, is a counterexample with ambiguous market positioning and endless troubles in design and manufacturing. In 1978, Jobs and Markkula decided to develop the Apple III computer for the high-end business market.The project is headed by Wendell Sander, and the internal code name is Sara, which is the name of Sander's daughter. While Woz and other technical masters were busy with the development of Apple II, Apple III presented a different development model within Apple.Jobs and the marketing department continued to put forward various demands for the Apple III team and exerted influence on the design of the Apple III.In the Apple III project team, engineers did not have much say. The Apple III was designed for high-end business users. To this end, the Apple III had a built-in floppy drive, much more memory and a better display than the Apple II.But the price of Apple III is between 4340 and 7800 US dollars, and the expensive price makes many users discouraged. What's more, the Apple III development team did not have a strong engineer culture like the Apple II team.The design requirements from Jobs and the marketing department changed rapidly, but few people cared about the quality of the product. For example, Jobs insisted that the Apple III run quietly without the sound of a fan.Engineers had to design bulky metal heat sinks for the Apple III.Even so, the Apple III has repeatedly crashed due to overheating after its release.Some users have found that the chip is directly detached from the motherboard because it is too hot.Some users complained that when the machine overheated, the screen was filled with garbage characters.Some users even found that the floppy disk was burnt when it was removed from the drive. In its lifetime, Apple III only sold more than 60,000 units, which is really a disaster compared with the millions of units sold by Apple II. In 1984, the Apple III was officially discontinued. In comparison, the quality of the Apple II is far superior.Even after many years, Woz said proudly: "There is no computer more reliable than the Apple II. It almost never fails. Today, you can easily buy a second-hand Apple II from eBay online, and it will still work. .” Computers that truly solve user problems, are easy to operate, and have reliable quality will surely sell well.This is especially prominent in the Apple II.Let's take a look at the glorious history of the Apple II: In 1977, the Apple II went on sale. In 1979, the enhanced Apple II+ came out. In 1983, the most famous and best-selling Apple IIe in the Apple II series made its grand debut.In this year, the Apple II series became the first personal computer in history to sell more than 1 million units.Also in this year, "Time" magazine selected the person of the year in 1982, and the result was beyond everyone's expectations-the winner was "Computer" (Computer) rather than a specific person. In 1984, the Apple IIc was released. In 1986, the Apple IIGS was released. In 1988, the Apple IIc+ was released. In 1990, in order to run Apple II software on Macintosh, Apple released the Apple IIe emulation card for Macintosh. In December 1993, the Apple IIe was discontinued, which officially announced the end of the Apple II family. What kind of computer is as enduring as the Apple II series?From its launch in 1977 to its curtain call in 1993, even within Apple, one new project after another was born and developed around the Apple II, and quickly disappeared.Whether it is the Apple III or the Lisa, they all withdrew from the stage of history soon after they went on the market due to their respective design, quality or positioning reasons.In contrast, the enduring Apple II family has become Apple's biggest source of profit for many years. The Apple II changed the world, which is exactly what Jobs pursued all his life.But this is only the beginning of Jobs' personal life saga.After the Apple II, there are miracles that changed the world one after another, waiting for Jobs and his partners to create.