Chapter 44 Section 3 When Computers Become Fashion

Macintosh team development expert Andy Herzfeld mentioned such a story in his own "Apple History": Not long after Herzfeld joined the Macintosh team, one day after dinner, he walked back to the office as usual, Going to work for a few more hours.As soon as I entered the office, I heard a group of people discussing enthusiastically in the office.Among them, Jobs' voice is the loudest. "It has to be different," Jobs exclaimed. "It has to be different from every other computer." Hertzfeld found that Jobs was discussing the design of the Macintosh computer with the designer.Jobs stood by the door with a prototype Macintosh beside him.Previously, Jeff Raskin wanted to design the Macintosh into a traditional horizontal shape, but Jobs never liked Raskin's idea. He insisted on leading the Macintosh's exterior design.

"We need a classic design," Jobs told the head of the design department, "something that never goes out of style, maybe, like the Volkswagen Beetle." "No, that's a bad idea," the designer retorted. "The computer should be dynamic, engaging, and exciting, like a Ferrari." "No, no, it's not a Ferrari. That's not the right idea." Jobs became more and more excited as he spoke, apparently fascinated by the car analogy. "This computer should be more like a Porsche." At the time, Jobs actually owned a Porsche 928.Joe's love for cars is well known.In recent years, most people who often drive in Silicon Valley have the opportunity to see Mr. Joe driving his famous unlicensed Mercedes-Benz on the highway.Comparing computer design with cars is a very reliable thing.As long as you count the evolution of the appearance of Apple computers in the past generations, it is not difficult to find that the influence of Porsche is becoming more and more clear.

The original Apple II had an ingenious plastic case.If you take a car as an analogy, the Apple II is in line with the ideas that Volkswagen used to design the Beetle - civilian, dexterous, solid, and friendly.But since the PC war was lost to Microsoft and IBM, it is not enough to make Apple Computer rise again just by highlighting the popularity and affinity.Apple has to find another way. Although Jobs had Porsche in mind when he designed the Macintosh, the Macintosh's exterior didn't quite fit the Porsche metaphor.If Jobs had a Porsche-like computer in mind, then this computer could neither be as popular and simple as a Volkswagen Beetle, nor be as sexy and cool as a Ferrari.The "Porsche" level computer in Jobs' mind should not only highlight performance, taste and value, but also show restraint, restraint, perfection and elegance.By this standard, the first-generation Macintosh looked more like a Porsche model toy than a finished product.

In the era of the colorful and transparent iMac and iBook, Apple Computer picked up the affinity line of Apple II again in order to win back market share.Of course, this time it's a little more high-end than the Volkswagen Beetle style of the year, and the iMac and iBook have at least reached the design level of the Mini Cooper car. If Jobs wants to lead the trend, he will never be satisfied with a Mini Cooper, what he needs is a real Porsche. In January 2001, for the first time, the PowerBook G4 with a titanium alloy appearance clearly printed the shadow of Porsche on an Apple computer. In June 2003, the PowerMac G5 used an all-aluminum silver-gray body to set a strong sci-fi tone for the appearance design of Apple desktops in the next 10 years. In January 2006, the smooth silver-white all-aluminum shell of the MacBook Pro brought the appearance design of the notebook computer to a new height. In October 2008, Apple added another touch to the already perfect all-aluminum shell design. The new generation MacBook Pro has a fully enclosed integrated aluminum alloy shell. There are no seams at the corners!

I have always felt that when Apple Computer arrived at the MacBook Pro, Jobs' dream of building a Porsche among computers was truly realized.Holding the entire laptop in their hands, people experience the thrill of touching a real Porsche.It is neither ostentatious, indulgent, nor bland and kitsch."Atmospheric" is the best adjective for this computer. I thought that the aluminum alloy appearance of the MacBook Pro was the pinnacle of achievement in recent years. Unexpectedly, the helper Jobs and the master Ivy once again made us drop our glasses. On January 15, 2008, Jobs stood on the podium of the Macworld conference. Under the gaze of thousands of fans, he pulled out from a kraft paper envelope the world's thinnest computer with an impeccable aluminum alloy casing—— MacBook Air.

Well, since the MacBook Air was released, I don't think I will be surprised no matter what surreal computer Jobs conjures up on the podium in the future. There is Jobs' strategic positioning of Porsche style, and Ivey's ingenious creative design. As long as there is a golden combination of this pair, it is an exaggeration to say that Apple's industrial design level will always be ahead of all competitors—no, it should be ahead of the world. —Light-years! As for why Apple can make such an excellent computer as the MacBook Air, Jobs gave his own explanation: "No other company can make the MacBook Air, because no other company controls the design and manufacture of the hardware like Apple. , and also controlled the development of the operating system. The close relationship between the operating system and hardware determines that only we can make such a perfect product.”

Some people say that the nearly perfect design of Apple Computer represents Apple's high-end positioning. The term "high-end" may still barely hold true in mainland China, but in Europe and the United States, Apple has long been a plaything in the hands of a large number of young people. Even poor students with little money like to use Apple.But on the other hand, Apple Computer is indeed different from those low-end, cheap, and kitsch computer brands that flood the market with a wide variety. Perhaps, the word "fashion" is more appropriate.In a sense, the greatest achievement of Jobs and Ivey is that they used perfect design to turn Apple Computer into the most dazzling fashion brand in the field of consumer electronics, and let people know for the first time that computers can also be the trendy people. Object.The Apple brand they created is neither as high-end as Louis Vuitton, nor as Baleno's daily discounts to attract grassroots people.Jobs and Ive painstakingly maintain an optimal balance between elements such as perfection, avant-garde, popularity, and popularity.

Jobs said: "Apple's DNA is to provide consumer products for consumers who only vote with simple likes or dislikes. We only want to do this. We know that our work is responsible for the complete user experience. If here If we didn't do well enough, it must be our mistake, the reason is so simple and clear." Computers can also be fashionable.Only when computers become fashionable can Apple truly have the power to change the world. As I said before, when Jobs wanted to name the company "Apple", Woz warned him that it was the same name as the Beatles' record label.In fact, Jobs is really a die-hard Beatles fan, and John Lennon is Jobs' idol.However, Apple and the Beatles' origins go far beyond that.When naming the company "Apple", Jobs would never have expected that the 30-year naming dispute between Apple and the Beatles would have witnessed the birth and glory of a generation of artifact-iPod.

From the Beatles to the iPod, this is a music legend jointly created by Jobs, Rubinstein, Ivey and other Apple heroes. In 1978, just after the Apple II computer became popular, the Beatles' record company took Apple to court. In 1981, Apple paid the Beatles $80,000 and promised that Apple would not enter the music field in the future. In 1986, the lawsuit made waves again.The Beatles' Apple is suing Jobs' Apple again, claiming it violated a 1981 agreement because Apple added music synthesis and recording capabilities to its computers.This lawsuit has directly led to the termination or postponement of multiple music and multimedia projects that Apple is developing.

In 1991, Apple spent $26.5 million to roughly eliminate the Beatles.The court ruled that Jobs' Apple can only provide products and services in the future, but cannot sell physical media containing music content, such as CD discs, while the Beatles' Apple can provide original music content and its physical media. It was thought that the two sides would die down.Unexpectedly, the advent of the Apple iPod music player once again pushed the lawsuit to a climax. The story of the birth of the iPod roughly goes like this.Before the iPod appeared, Sony's CD player (Walkman) was the standard music player equipment for young people.But a CD is about 10 songs. When music fans go out, they have to carry several CDs with them in addition to their Walkman.In the first few years, the business of selling oral discs on domestic campuses was booming, which was caused by Sony Walkman.

Later, computers had multimedia functions, and a music format called MP3 spread like a virus.Coupled with the help of the Internet, it is possible to download and share a large number of songs on computers. In 1999, a small software called Napster quietly became popular. The focus of Napster is not on playback, but on allowing users to spread and share MP3s freely through the Internet.In those days, installing Napster to download music was as fashionable as installing Thunder or VeryCD to download movies today. However, fashion is fashion, Napster can download free music at will, and the record company bosses quit. On December 7, 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) took Napster to court. In July 2001, Napster, which lost the lawsuit, had to shut down the music sharing service, and the first wave of MP3 on the Internet came to an abrupt end. In Europe and the United States, copyright issues have always been an unavoidable knot in Internet music sharing, which is completely different from the domestic MP3 search phenomenon.If no legal and effective music sharing model is found, virtual MP3 files will never replace physical CD records. Jobs hadn't even noticed the market for music playback and sharing.Only after Apple developed iTunes, the music player software on Mac computers, could it be possible for users to import the songs stored in iTunes directly into a small playback device for users to carry with them? Rubinstein, the hardware and engineering guru, came to Jobs and said: "We have to make our own player. I want to make a player that is only the size of a deck of cards, but can hold the entire iTunes library." "Well, it's worth a try." Jobs just said lightly. Rubinstein was confident for a reason.At that time, Toshiba's new 18-inch micro hard drive was enough to hold 1,000 MP3 songs, and it was very lightweight.Rubinstein brought in an engineer named Tony Fadell to lead product development.At first, Fadell was not an Apple employee, but only participated in the project through outsourcing. In April 2001, he officially joined Apple and was responsible for the research and development of music players.Later, when Rubenstein left Apple in 2006, Fadell became his successor. The hardware solution took shape quickly.In order to show Jobs the prototype of the iPod, the cunning Fadell specially prepared three different hardware solutions, one of which he and Rubinstein were optimistic about, and the other two were deliberately selected as foils.Jobs looked at the first plan, snorted and said, "This is too complicated." After reading the second plan, he frowned and said, "This thing can't be sold." Finally, when the third plan made its grand debut , Jobs, who was obviously lowered by the first two foils, muttered: "Well, this is a bit interesting." Jobs approved the hardware design of the iPod, and Ivey's design team became active and began to design the appearance of the iPod. The base iPod model uses light gray and white as the main colors.The most interesting feature of Ive's design for the iPod is the central white control wheel that can be both clicked and rubbed.Other than that, the entire iPod is simple and clean, without any extra bits and pieces. Ive said: "I've always believed that music is much more important than design. In a sense, my main mission is to take design out of the equation. What we want is not another trivial music player, but a Fantastic product." Regarding the main color of the iPod, Ive said: "White, it is a neutral color. But it is a bold neutral color. Apple has been inseparable from this color from the beginning." Of course, the iPod doesn't just stop at the white design.On the later iPod mini and iPod nano, the color design of iMac was further developed by Ivey into a beautiful rainbow color system, which impacts people's visual experience like a group of dancing musical notes. Jobs personally took credit for the design of the iPod, and his instinct for simplicity and perfection was once again on display. For example, for the screen fonts used by the iPod, Jobs personally participated in the selection, and compared dozens of fonts repeatedly before finally deciding on them. Regarding the central control wheel, Jobs believes that the control buttons on the wheel only need to have three keys of "previous song", "next song" and "play/pause" are enough.As a result, Ive and his designers had a hard time convincing Jobs that without a "menu" button, users wouldn't be able to select the song they wanted to hear from a list.Jobs had to give up. The designer said to Jobs: "This player should also have a switch key." Jobs said decisively: "No, we don't need to open the key, it's as simple as that." This time, Jobs won.The iPod that was eventually released did not have a power button.As it turns out, this is an excellent design.In the hands of the user, the iPod player is there. When you don’t use it, it will automatically snooze and enter the power saving mode. When you start using it, it will automatically wake up, like a wizard on call at any time.